Celebration of Fresno Christian Schools

Fresno Christian Schools celebrates over 30 years of educational and spiritual service to the youth of the San Joaquin Valley. Since its opening in 1977, the school has been sponsored by several evangelical churches in the area. FC is currently open to kindergarten through high school students and has a wide variety of electives, honors classes and Advanced Placement (AP) courses.

The idea for a Christ centered school containing high educational and moral standards was conceived in 1970 by a board of pastors and educational leaders. After thoughtful consideration, the mission statement was completed and Fresno Christian was born. Seven churches of denominational differences decided to unite together to support a school system where students could pursue their talents while actively expressing their faith.

Today, Fresno Christian is home to approximately seven hundred students, many of whom are from surrounding areas such as Madera, Kingsburg, Selma and Sanger. A large percentage of students present at FC have attended since kindergarten, thus earning the title of “lifer.” However, FC continues to bring in new students yearly from various places and backgrounds.

Students are given the opportunity to interact in an abundance of different sports, clubs and electives such as Jazz Band, drama, Cycling Club and many others. FC?s very own online newspaper, The Feather, has won several national awards, including five Online Pacemakers from the National Scholastic Press association (NSPA) and multiple Crown honors from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) five years in a row.

Various sports teams throughout the last few years have also carried their team to victory, such as the JH Baseball Team who won the Fresno Unified Baseball Championships in 2008 and the Varsity girl’s basketball team who won the Valley Championship in 2010.

The music department attends numerous banquets, performances and competitions throughout the year and has been acknowledged with many honors for their performance. FC offers a wide range of musical based courses that focus on different genera’s and skill sets. These groups include Celebration Choir, Women’s Ensemble, Men’s Ensemble, marching band, jazz band, Worship Team and Color Guard.

Twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the whole student body gathers at the Student Ministries Center (SMC) for chapel. Worship team often leads the crowd in a session of praise and reflection. However, on some special occasions FC welcomes guest speakers, teachers or even students who have a message to speak.

In order to raise school spirit and highlight the hard work of certain sports teams, FC often has rallies. At these rallies each individual player of the particular sport being honored is presented amongst a showering of applause. Rallies also often consist of contests between the classes and an abundance of entertaining games.

However, FC is not all fun and games. An array of academically challenging Honors and AP classes are available to students as well. These classes include Honors math and English, AP calculus, AP English, AP European history and many more.

One of the main differences between FC and public schools rests in the genuine nature of the teachers. Elementary, junior high and high school teachers at FC openly share their faith with their students and conduct prayer in the classroom setting. These closer, more genuine student-teacher relationships enable teachers to better prepare their students for life outside of the FC campus.

Since its opening, FC has continued to enable students with necessary educational, social and spiritual skills. The school offers a wide variety of opportunities for students of all ages and an environment consistent with a Christian World View. Although FC has implemented many new ideas and added to its criteria over the last few years the mission statement stays the same, ” . . . to equip young people for life and service for Jesus Christ through biblical foundations, Christ-like character development, and academic preparation in partnership with the home and local church.”

For more videos, read the Feb. 21 article, Feather press conference: #SJW2014 (VIDEO).

Follow The Feather via Twitter and Instagram: @thefeather and @thefeatheronlilne. This writer can be reached via Twitter: @skylerklee and via Email: [email protected]