We welcome guest to watch our defending State Champion Mock Trial team in action as they prepare for the Virginia state competition in Williamsburg in mid-March. They have been hard at work preparing to prosecute and defend a case of murder where the defendant is entering an insanity plea! 

The Mock Trial case for this year involves a defendant who is being tried for the murder of Barbara Johnson and the attempted murder of her grandson, Jordan Cline.  The defendant, Lee Rellik, has raised insanity as a defense to these charges.  In Virginia, the determination of whether or not a defendant was insane at the time of the commission of the charged offenses is a determination to be made by the jury (or a judge, if the defendant waives a jury trial).  If the defendant was insane at the time of the offenses, then the defendant would be found “not guilty by reason of insanity.”  On the other hand, if the defendant was sane at the time of the offenses, the jury could find the defendant guilty of murder and attempted murder.  The law in the area of insanity is complex, which provides a quite challenging backdrop for our students this year.

 Mock Trial helps students acquire a working knowledge of our judicial system, develop analytical abilities and communication skills, and gain an appreciation of various obligations and responsibilities attorneys and judges have in our society.  Mock Trial is performance-based education, and the program furthers an understanding of both the content and processes of our legal system; increases basic skills, analytical ability, and self-confidence; and promotes cooperation among students of various cultures and interests.

For the past week the kindergarten classes have been studying a science unit on pumpkins. As a culminating activity they opened up a pumpkin and looked at the different parts of it. They learned which parts we cook and use to eat. They examined the different parts and found the white seeds that eventually grow into a pumpkin plant.

They then sampled different foods that are made from pumpkins.

The next day they went to a pumpkin patch where they saw the growth cycle in action and were able to pick out some matured pumpkins to take home. The students saw the tiny green pumpkins that would grow into the mature orange pumpkins that they were picking. They also noticed that some of the pumpkins were rotting and knew that the exposed seeds would grow into a pumpkin plant again.

Our K students will never see a pumpkin or pumpkin pie the same way again.

The day began with visits from His Grace, Sir Thomas and Her Grace, Lady Kimberly from the Foundation for the Preservation of Medieval Arts and History.  Dressed in authentic costumes, they taught the students about knights throughout the Middle Ages and showed them many costumes including casual wear and armor. They talked about weapons and the differences in swords from the Early Middle Ages to the High Middle Ages. Lady Kimberly shared about the dress for women and their roles during the Middle Ages.

Following these presentations, the students enjoyed a Medieval Feast which included a huge assortment of foods-soup, chicken, fruit, bread, cheeses, olives, meat pies–all consumed without utensils using bread for plates. It was messy but delicious!

Then the students went outside for games and activities. They had jousting, archery, a courser horse race, sword fighting, and castle warfare, where the students had to come up with various ways in which to besiege a castle as well as strategies for defending a castle that was under siege. It was great fun!

Interview by AFA Journalism Teacher Sheryl Blunt

Q: Tell us what you are doing since graduating from Ad Fontes?

A: I went to James Madison University for my BSN in Nursing. I started working at Fairfax Hospital in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). I am still there almost three years later, and I love it!

Q: How do you feel AFA helped prepare you for what you are doing now?

A: AFA taught me how to apply a biblical worldview to all subjects and situations. This tool served me through college and continues to be a gift as I face various ethical challenges at work.

At Ad Fontes I learned about absolute truth through Plato. In his writings about the cave I was introduced to the idea of ultimate truth and reality. Those conversations helped prepare my mind for what I would face at college. There has to be truth, and we can stand on it if we stand on God’s word. That’s the truth I stand on at work, and it started in high school. I never knew how much [reading Plato’s Republic] would influence me— that it would be so significant.

Q: How do you think Ad Fontes differs most from other Christian schools?

A: At this school every subject is taught through Scripture. Also, you have to be able to provide support for every argument you make. AFA wants you to present what you think based on the facts you have gathered. There’s an academic view that uses knowledge to promote oneself, but at Ad Fontes, it’s about having knowledge in order to promote God. AFA was developing me as a person to understand what life was about. It wasn’t just preparing me to be a success in the world’s eyes. It was preparing me to be ready and able to give an answer for what I would encounter as a believer.

Q: To what extent do you believe AFA helped shape your career choice?

A: I know that my love for the sciences grew while I was at AFA, which influenced my decision to go into nursing.

Q: What teachers or courses do you remember being particularly influential?

A: The teachers at Ad Fontes want to hear you defend your views. They want us to speak with confidence about our faith. I learned how to be comfortable with my faith and how to articulate it. Mr. [Kurt] Wellington really encouraged me in my love for science. He and Mrs. [Linda] Mathwin, my senior thesis advisor, really impacted me. She’s awesome! She helped me articulate and build sound arguments to defend both the scientific and biblical facts I presented in my thesis regarding the over-diagnosis of ADHD and the detrimental effects this has for children.

She always asked me, ‘Do you have something to back that up?’ or, ‘Where’s the proof that drug is effective?’ I went to a college library to do research and I’d ask myself, ‘What is this high school?’… As a college freshman my teachers were impressed by how I used sources and backed up what I thought. Also, having to look at ethical issues in my thesis was critical. I am now able to use that every day in my healthcare profession.

Q: How does your faith mesh with the scientific worldview that dominates the practice of medicine?

A: This idea of biblically-sound truth and science can be likened to God and the Holy Spirit. Some see an omniscient God as pure knowledge and reason, and the Holy Spirit as spiritually [distinct], but the two are combined. Faith and science can combine, but you have to be a believer and a studier to experience the beauty of the two uniting.

In high school a lot of it is doing what you’re told—it’s building the groundwork. I think Ad Fontes does a lot of the groundwork. It gave me that idea of science as something that is God’s, and is used by God. You combine this with your love for God. Then you learn to live it out.

Q: You recently returned from a short-term mission trip to Uganda. What are some of the eye-opening experiences you had?

A: We met an awesome pastor who had started a church in a remote town called Kabara in southern Uganda. We came alongside this pastor and were able to serve him and meet his medical needs. The people there understood that God had sent a team to serve them in this way. I could just see the Gospel in action. Jesus could have done it himself—like he fed the 5,000—but the truth is, He works through the lowly. It was so Gospel! So not about us! It was about God! We went to serve, but these works were already cut out and prepared for us.

We interacted with a man who had two wives. At one point we had to tell his second wife that she needed AIDS testing since her baby was HIV positive. That night both families gave their lives to Christ. Praise God!

Q: Were you anxious at the prospect of attending a secular college after having been homeschooled and then attending AFA?

A: It’s such a gift to know you’re going into college with such a basis for what you already believe. In some ways you feel like you’re in a little Christian bubble for a while, but they don’t just dump you into the ‘real world’ afterwards. They gave us all these tools to use—spiritually and academically—so all of us were very prepared.

Q: What advice do you have for students considering mission work?

A: Pray Pray Pray. God is always speaking. Make sure you’re listening to where He is calling you. It may be to your next-door neighbor. Missions is not just a trip, it’s a state of heart, and having a heart that is ready to serve wherever God is calling.

“I started writing The Alliance when I was 15,” Ward explained in early 2009, months before graduating from James Madison University with a degree in International Affairs. “Soon, it involved two other students and our Algebra teacher.”

In 2004, after Ward and fellow student Chrystine Kern had written a few pages of what would eventually be published as the first book in the Faeltheon Trilogy, she took the story to her tenth-grade math teacher, Michelle Yardumian, herself an accomplished writer who had coached several other Ad Fontes Academy students on their writing. Yardumian immediately recognized the standout quality of the storytelling and encouraged the students to continue writing.

“The idea to write together came out of a conversation I had with Chrystine [Kern],” Ward said. “We both enjoyed writing and had been told we had similar writing styles. So we started talking about it and soon began really expanding the story. And we’ve worked to put moral lessons and a spiritual message into the book.”

As a way to help keep focused on the project, Ward and Kern approached fellow Sophomore Rachel DiDomenico with a proposition – to collaborate on writing the story by authoring sections independently of one another. Yardumian would supervise the effort.

“So the idea was that we would each write a section, then pass the notebook to the next person,” Ward said. “Everything that we write gets edited by the others, so it gets edited by all four authors. This makes the process really unique. It is a true team effort.”

Yardumian helped with the writing, but soon took the role in organizing and leading the team. “A lot of publishers don’t trust things to flow properly with books written by multiple authors,” Ward said. “Michelle [Yardumian] took the lead in working with the publisher and she was the organizer in getting all our story themes laid out.”

The work continued as the team developed a storyline that would span three books. Five years later, the notebook has given way to writing and collaborating electronically. Ward, DiDomenico and Kern attended separate colleges in different states. Yardumian has since moved to New Mexico.

Originally slated to be a trilogy, the final book was divided (at the publisher’s request) into two volumes for four books in the series. Tate Publishing began selling The Alliance in 2007 at major booksellers and online. The second book, Run Before the Wind, is scheduled for publication in Summer 2009.

“The most exciting thing for us is that all the feedback we’ve gotten so far has been great,” Ward said. “There has not been a single return of the book. The testimonials that we get clearly show that readers have been able to take something away from the experience.”

When Ward enrolled at James Madison as a Freshman, she had no idea how important her personal writing experience and exposure to classical Christian education would be. “I definitely think the classical Christian education was invaluable,” she said. “I had to write ten page papers for every class at Ad Fontes. As a result, the papers in college were so much easier. There’s just not as much expected from students.”

Ward recounted a time during her Freshman year that her roommate came to her in a panic one night because she had a ten page paper due, and had no idea how to proceed. “Even though she was dual-enrolled in English, she never had to write anything longer than four pages,” Ward recalled. “I had to go through the process that night and teach her how to write effectively at that length.”

The challenge of making oral presentation is also something Ward appreciates about having received a classical Christian education. “Many of my college friends have never had to do an oral presentation,” she said. “I was comfortable saying what I thought and believed. I was in an Honors seminar my Freshman year that had a very clear, liberal agenda. I was challenged a lot, but never had a place where I was nervous about what I was saying. I knew what I thought and had a reason for it.”

Ward said she is grateful to have gone through the process of exploring and affirming her beliefs before heading off to college. “I didn’t have to be nervous or scared on a more personal level that those beliefs could be wrong.”

Having already established herself as a writer of engaging fiction, Ward is eager to set the writing aside to focus on her “real-life calling” – international affairs. She is finishing up a three year internship with a defense contractor in Northern Virginia and has already gained exposure to issues in public policy and the Middle East following a six month opportunity to study abroad in Egypt. She is an Arabic language minor.

“I’m thinking a lot lately about graduate school – maybe doing it part time while I’m working,” Ward said. “That won’t happen immediately; perhaps in the next few years. I would really like to go abroad for grad school to improve my language skills and gain more experience in public affairs. I have a heart for the Middle East. I enjoy the culture and it’s the area I would most like to focus on in a public and a spiritual manner.”

While attending James Madison, Ward has been actively involved at Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Harrisonburg, VA.

Following the April visit from the accreditation team, Ad Fontes received numerous commendations and no discrepancies in meeting ACCS accreditation requirements. During the site visit, the committee queried school leadership, reviewed policies and curriculum, interviewed teachers and students and visited every classroom for observations.

The committee was particularly impressed with the eloquence of our students and the effectiveness of our teachers in fulfilling the AFA mission in the classroom.

We give thanks to God and our entire school community for this oustanding achievement.