My name is Barry Kelvin Ma and I’m an international student from Shanghai, China. I’ve been a student at Life Prep Academy for two years and now I’m going to share with you some things that international students should know before they come to Life Prep.
As we all know, Life Prep Academy is a Christian school. In fact, we do have a lot of kids who are not Christ followers, but it doesn’t mean we don’t teach students about the Lord or Bible. We have Bible study every Monday morning and all school chapel service on Wednesday. The Church has youth group on Wednesday nights also we have church services every Sunday morning. It’s a great church and it was founded by Pastor Rob, the father of the Life Prep Academy’s President Robert Rotola.
They are both great spiritual leaders and mentors. For Wednesday night we have school youth group (called R3fuge). We also have a youth pastor name Jesse Fillenworth and he is also a missionary down in Honduras for many years. I’m glad that I also have been there with Pastor Jesse. It is a country that is extremely poor. It was a really good experience to see the other side of the world and God’s creation.
“Life Prep Academy is a Christian school”
Do not be surprised that Life Prep Academy has a dorm although it is a high school. Some people may think it is as good as a college dorm. Having been in the dorm 2 years I can tell you the dorm RAs are nice people; I had a lot fun with them. Each house had an RA to make sure everyone is doing okay on a daily basis.
I know we have a lot of teens there without their parents, and some kids fall in love even on the first day they met. It is okay and don’t worry, that is also why we have RAs here to make sure we won’t have extra “kids” here as well.
Also, I feel really safe every night. We do have curfew every day; we have 10 p.m. curfew on school day and curfew 11 p.m. on the weekends. It is okay to stay late every night, but you have to make sure that you won’t fall in sleep during the school day. If you fall asleep in class, you will have to visit the Dean’s office.
“We have four houses plus one main house for our dormitory”
We have four houses plus one main house for our dormitory. Each house is named after elements, such as earth, water, air, and fire; boys live in earth or air and girls lives in water or fire. Everyone who lives in each house will have a house shirt. The main house is the only area that boys and girls should be together and the main house also services lunch and dinner.
When we are talking about the house, you have to know that the school is running a dorm with about 70 people here; so, all the RAs can’t please everyone. You can’t choose your own room or your roommate. One of the dorm policies is that “all the kids who do not speak English as their mother tongue must speak English in public. If you fail to follow this rule you will be charged $1 for each offense”. The money will never return to you! So, guys just follow the rules. I know it is hard, even for me, I have been charged about two dollars in the past. So just keep that in mind and you will get used to it.
A lot people have asked me about the food in the main house. This is something you must know; everyone has a different taste. We all come from different places around the world. Even for me, a kid from the other side of the world, I didn’t get use to the dorm food at the beginning. So, I simply cooked my own food by using the house kitchen (yes, we do have a kitchen at each house) but you have to ask your house RA for permission. If the RA says “no,” you should not touch any of the kitchen tools. However, when they say “yes,” you still need to careful with the smoke. It may cause the fire alarm to go off. This is very important; if the fireman does show up but they didn’t see any fire, you will have to pay for it. Also, because the dorm is surrounded by a lot of good restaurants, if you are really not interested in the dorm food, you can also try some good American food within walking distance of the dorms.
“We all come from different places around the world”
We have two buses for school every school day (Monday through Thursday) at 7:15 a.m. and it leaves at 7:25 a.m. They will never be late unless there is some really bad weather. So, if you wish or pray for no school, God won’t answer you and you better catch it on time.
The dorm is closed during the Christmas time and the summer time. Many students choose to go home during this time. If that is not an option for you maybe you can go to a host family and enjoy the holiday time with them. If you want to know the school schedule you should check out the school calendar.
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