🗞️Staff Stories🗞️

Hello My Name’s Onyi. No. No. No. Scratch that out and start again. Separate Hello and My with a period, put Name in lowercase, and avoid contractions in formal writing. Hello. My name is Onyi. That looks better.

Standing aboard the Navigator, I see land off in the distance. I sailed with the Navigator for the past three years, and it has been a voyage full of ups and downs. Beside me stands our captain. He also has sailed with the Nav for the past three years. Looking through my binoculars, I can see the new recruits standing at the port. Seeing them standing there nervous and shuffling their feet reminds me of the first time I met the crew aboard the Navigator.

If you had told me 6 years ago I would be doing online school, I probably would have looked at you and laughed. The idea was so surreal in my head that I would have recommended you go to some sort of psychiatrist. Yet here I am, in my third year here at NSA, planning on graduating next year!

I never knew I was going to join NorthStar Academy, and in fact, I never knew online school was an option. I never knew that this event in life would lead me to one of the sweetest communities I have ever seen. In the grand year of 2020, when all earth shut down, I was presented with the opportunity of learning in this new format.

Africa is a vast, diverse continent where some of the most fascinating countries, regions, individuals, and creatures live. Among the latter am I, who has lived in East Africa for most of his life, primarily in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mrs. April Meyer is the Navigator’s amazing teacher advisor. For most years of the Navigator’s existence, she has been guiding staff after staff towards being the best student newspaper possible.

When COVID-19 struck, questions about the security of my dad’s job arose as his company began letting employees go.  When he was offered a job in Mississippi near our family, we decided it would be best to move.  In the thick of the pandemic, we left our Florida home to join them.  At the time, I was homeschooled.  I never dreamed that I would discover NorthStar in the years after the move.

Going through life requires a lot of tools for you to be successful.  You need to have perseverance when times get tough and patience when life slows down.  I believe that NorthStar Academy and more specifically the NorthStar Navigator has helped me build up this “Life Toolbox” by helping me acquire or sharpen four major tools: teamwork, patience, perseverance, and time management.

On August 29, 2022, I started my first classes at NorthStar. Since then, I have learned more than I could have ever imagined.

My first year at the Navigator was the 2023-2024 school year. While I have come to really enjoy being here on staff, I was, at first, very hesitant to join.

NorthStar Academy’s student council elections are now open, and the time to vote is just around the corner. Who will be the next student council president? vice president? Well, only time will tell, but for now let's introduce some of the students that are running, and what position they are running for.

When I started at NSA, the last thing I expected was for it to give me the opportunity to pursue professional ballet. Originally, I started attending NorthStar because my family did not like our public schools. We chose NorthStar because of its flexibility, Christian worldview, and academic rigor.

I’m sure we can all agree that life after COVID-19 is drastically different from life before it. For me, one of the main things that changed was my school. I attended a private English-speaking school in India until the end of eighth grade, but the school had trouble functioning when it went online. My family began travelling more, and I was about to start high school. It seemed like time for a change. By that point it was an easy choice for me and my siblings: we needed to switch schools.

Just like a captain steers and guides their ship, so also does the editor-in-chief lead the Navigator. Since 2019, the Navigator has had four different editors-in-chief. Whether they served for one or three years,  each has left their mark in distinct ways and brought change to the Nav for the better.

The Navigator staff brings you memes about life at NSA and here at the Navigator. (Mrs. Meyer has not created a meme as she does not really understand them, even though people try to explain them to her, but that doesn’t help.) We thought it would be fun to do something new and have memes in this publication. Enjoy!

In an English assignment I completed recently, my teacher asked me to write about a plot twist in my life. Immediately, I knew just what to say.

While some would assume that being a part of a school newspaper only involves writing, the reality is very different.  From editors working on perfecting the articles of others to the publication team managing the website, the Navigator has multiple unique positions that have not been shown to the public eye.

Here at the Navigator, staff members can hold many student positions in addition to being a writer.  One set of these positions is the publication team consisting of the editor-in-chief, the assistant editor-in-chief, and the PR representative.  These positions are not really known to anyone outside the Navigator, so this article is here to change that.  Come aboard today and learn about each of the publication team’s positions.

I never knew I was going to join NorthStar Academy. In fact, I never knew online school was an option. I never knew that this event in life would lead me to one of the sweetest communities I have ever seen. In the grand year of 2020, when all earth shut down, I was presented with the opportunity of learning this new format. Four years later, I remain in NorthStar Academy and do not plan on leaving anytime soon. However, the question remains: why is this such a good school?

Over the summer, the Navigator dealt with some copyright issues over an image. The Navigator took special precautions to make sure this never happened again. Jared L. and I were given responsibility for this job, but what does that mean?

Growing up is hard. With youth comes unconditional nurture, but no knowledge. With adolescence comes knowledge, but a sudden distaste for the safety we once craved. Exhilarated by the vast expanse of opportunity that lies before us, we oftentimes rush off without looking back. We get so enthralled in the excitement of the future, we can forget to thank the people who helped us along the way.

When I was growing up, the idea of homeschooling or online school was foreign to me. I attended a public elementary school. Every day I would wake up and go to school from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon. I did this from kindergarten to well into my first year of middle school. However, along with the rest of the world, my life changed in 2020.

If you had told me two years ago I would be attending an online school, of my own accord, I would have laughed in your face. However, I wouldn’t be where I am today without the absolute blessing that NorthStar Academy has been in my life. Albeit unexpected, I am able to look back and say that this was truly one of the best decisions I could have made for myself. 

“Yes!” I screamed, leaping away from the computer to hug my parents. It was April 2023, and I had received a Teams message informing me of my first-place win in the Creative Writing Club’s fiction contest. My dark fantasy short story, “The Quiz,” was to be published in the NorthStar Navigator, the school’s online newspaper.

Mrs. Meyer, the teacher advisor for The Navigator, is the guiding force behind NorthStar’s student newspaper. While she works behind the scenes, she is instrumental in coordinating, directing, uplifting, and leading the staff. So, The Navigator staff would like to take a moment to thank her for everything she has done this year.

Hello everyone.  My name is Alexander.  My family chose to enroll me in NorthStar Academy for three reasons.  The first reason why I joined NSA was that my parents wanted me to go to an accredited high school, which helps with getting into college.  The second reason I joined NSA was that my mom and dad wanted me to go to a Christian school like NSA.  The last reason I joined NSA was that my parents liked the curriculum that NSA uses.

For me, NorthStar has been an essential part of my schooling experience. I live overseas and travel a lot. Sometimes I need to be flexible when I do school. NorthStar enables me to work anywhere at any time in basically any place I need. As a result, I can be very efficient in how I do my work, while also being flexible so that I can prioritize other things in my life that are important.

Years ago, I never would have thought I would ever find myself joining a school newspaper. Yet, that is exactly what I decided to do when I joined the Navigator. I have learned much more in my time with the Navigator than I ever imagined I would, and I am so grateful for that.

Here at the Navigator, we work to create enjoyable publications full of a wide variety of articles, from the informative to the humorous. But, we are still students, so we have other classes we must work on as well. Let us get a glimpse of the school lives of the Navigator staff by investigating their favorite high school courses, which are as diverse as toppings on a pizza.