Agape International
Academy
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Continuing to Grow: Grades 1-12 for August 2024
We are so grateful for the group of fifth through twelfth grade students who joined us last year as we grew as leaders in discipline in our body, soul, and mind. We are glad to announce that we will be opening grades one to four also for the 2024-2025 school year. The process for Student Application consists of multiple steps designed to ensure that the students can be faithfully served according to the school's mission of partnering with parents to build loving leaders who are disciplined in their soul, their mind, and their bodies.
Agape International Academy
Agape International Academy
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Headmaster/ General Manager
Dr. Christopher Pearson
I am so grateful for the opportunities that I have been given for the personal mentoring of young men and women as they grow through challenging and formative years. Having studied youth ministry during my undergraduate studies, I have a deep desire to serve the spiritual needs from which stem all future points for growth and development. My personal education philosophy is to help young people learn how to address the most important need of their individual lives in learning to foster a genuine and personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Out of this relationship, I am excited to help students recognize the beauty of addressing real local community problems to love our neighbors in a way that glorifies God. After filling head administrative roles for many years, I am excited to focus my attention on the development of Agape International Academy as it serves to personally and purposefully build loving leaders who are disciplined in body, soul, and mind.
See Full List of Graduation Requirements Here
1) Academics - Students learn how to learn the arts (skills) and the sciences (knowledge bases) as they develop into young men and women who can teach and apply subject content themselves.
2) Spirituality - Students learn the core value of humbly developing Christlikeness (Philippians 2:5-8) in the pursuit of loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind and loving their neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40).
3) Physical Development - Students learn both the science of nutrition and anatomy as well as the art of careful physical discipline as they prepare themselves to use their bodies for dedicated service as loving leaders.
At a Glance
High School Course Offerings
Year 2023-2024
As Agape International Academy gets started in the fall of 2023, the course offerings will be focused on providing what is needed for students between the grades of nine and eleven. Mr. Pearson and Mr. Parker have both taught at the high school level and are dedicated to developing courses that teach students how to learn the various subjects categorically.
01
Physical Education
Physical Education is broken into two periods of the day. The first period of P.E. is 20 minutes in the day and will rotate a focus on health and aerobic exercise. The second period of P.E. is 40 minutes in the day and will focus on dexterity (sport skills) and muscle development. Our program is designed through a partnership with Canadian Education Specialist, Bethany Stewart to build discipline in body through growth in endurance, strength, flexibility, dexterity, and health.
02
Geography & Anthropology
This course is designed to help the students to develop an appreciation for variation in culture and to develop an understanding of how we view the perspective of the whole of human history. Languages, customs, and many false religions developed through cultural activity of mankind from various geographical and ethnic backgrounds. Students will be challenged to engage with the customs of various cultures as they explore the design of the human race.
03
Technology
Mr. Mendonsa, a previous computer instructor at TCC, will be providing a compelling introduction to computer programming. Students will learn the logic of programming while developing a curiosity for programming's many applications.
04
Chemistry
With the purpose of forming a capstone in the students' elementary knowledge, understanding, and practical manipulation of matter and how it changes, the Chemistry course will be designed to encourage students to explore the current theories of the atom, molecular structure, and molecular relationships. Guided through stages of scientific inquiry, students will be expected to demonstrate capability in the scientific process as they rhetorically solve riddles of material composition and explore practical applications of the exciting world of Chemistry. BJU Press will form the foundation for textbooks, and Mr. Pearson will guide students through simple labs that demonstrate matter and the changes that it undergoes.
05
English Composition
To develop consistency throughout the rhetorical stage of learning, students' composition class is woven into the fabric of all courses. Students' compositions for all courses will be guided and graded by one composition instructor who will develop the students' skill in composing the specifically-crafted composition projects with careful scholarly tone, reliable research practices, and accurate grammatical constructions. The composition instructor will use a period of time every week to instruct the class in expectations and will meet individually with students quarterly to address students' personal weaknesses and encourage personal points of growth and strength.
06
Mathematics
Capable and practiced in instructing high school mathematics, Mr. Mendonsa, Mr. Pearson, and Mr. Parker are prepared to offer classes as is most appropriate for our student body from upper elementary math to calculus. While Agape International Academy will utilize the Singapore Math Curriculum for grades 1-8, our curriculum is to utilize Saxon math for secondary school maths (Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, Trigonometry, Precalculus, Calculus). Course availability is dependent on the variety of need in our student body.
07
Foreign Language
Mr. Parker, fluent in both Spanish and Portuguese, will be offering a dynamic Spanish course designed to introduce students to begin acquiring the Spanish language. Mr. Pearson will be offering an HSK standard Mandarin Chinese course designed to help students to develop fluency and acquisition at an introductory level to the Chinese language. Our second language courses are designed to encourage students to acquire the languages by developing identity with the new language by spending time in communities of native speakers.
08
Choir
Mr. Pearson will develop a choral class that will help students to learn about vocal control, pronunciation, and blending. The course is designed to encourage students to use choral or ensemble singing to encourage hearts and to worship the Lord.
09
Additional Offerings
Individual student mentoring will help students to pursue and acquire the other requirements for graduation. On top of required certifications and work/internship/volunteer hours, students will be guided through options for labor/study abroad options. Students are required to be involved in two Labor or Study Abroad Programs approved by the school. These could take the form of student exchange programs or service trips.The students are personally responsible to ensure that they meet all graduation requirements, but the mentors are glad to partner with the students to consider opportunities and assess adherence to the expectation.
10
Dual Enrollment Options
Mr. Parker has developed several opportunities for students to be involved in dual enrollment options through NOVA community college and Liberty University. Interested parents can contact us about possible opportunities.
11
A-La-Carté Options
Homeschool families may consider the option of enrolling their children in one or multiple courses at a prorated amount. Having been homeschooled from K-12, Mr. Pearson recognizes the challenges that some homeschooling families may face in high school and AIA desires to make options available to serve these needs. Feel free to contact us about possible interest!
Our Story
From 2014 to December of 2021, our team and their families lived and educated in Lijiang, Yunnan, China. Here we learned how to serve local communities as loving leaders with a global perspective on God's will while also providing a new pattern of school that focused less on the commonly pursued standardized tests and focused more on the development of young men and women into adults who would have the intelligence, skills, and quality of character to serve their communities. After laboring abroad for this time, we made our way back to the U.S. where we found a great need in American education for more schools that emphasize the heart of education. Although college entrance goals are an important part of maturity development, they often fail to address the core necessity of excellent education which is to make sure that students learn how to learn while developing personal relationships and being held personally responsible for a standard of success. We desire to provide an education that focuses on the individual development of loving leadership from a global perspective. This is the education that we want for our children and Agape International Academy opened in the fall of 2023 with the intention of providing a simply excellent education.
Meet The Team
Mr. Parker has dedicated his life to education and mentoring young people. From being a foster parent, host parent for international students, coaching wrestling, teaching, administrating, and being a dad, he has extensive experience in working with students and children. He earned his Master of Education from Shenandoah University and has worked as a teacher in public, private, and international settings as well as administration in International and private schools. His philosophy in education includes preparing students for life and not just tests. This includes teaching students to think critically, problem solve, and master a wide variety of skills other than just school subjects. As a follower of Christ he hopes to train and prepare students to put their hope and faith in Jesus Christ and “to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Director of Business/ Assistant Headmaster
Jeremy Parker
Computers and Mathematics Instructor
Don Mendonsa
Don Mendonsa was a Professor of Information Technology and Computer Science at Tidewater Community College until he retired there in 2020. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Physics from the US Naval Academy and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Old Dominion University. He has taught computer courses at both the high school and college level for over 30 years. He also has taught Arithmetic and Upper Level Math from grades 1 through 12 in a home school environment to both his own children and others. In his spare time he enjoys working on math-related problems that pertain to computational efficiencies in computing.
Don is married to his wife of over 40 years and has 5 adult children, three of whom are married. He currently has 5 grandchildren. He and his wife live in Chesapeake, Virginia where they have lived for the past 28 years. He enjoys working with children and teenagers and he actively seeks to serve the Lord who saved him, by ministering to people of all ages and all walks of life.
Affordable
Personal
Biblical
Students who enroll for the 2024-2025 school year will pay a tuition of $6,999.00 plus minor fees every year until graduation.
We are dedicated to a personal approach to education. Small classes and close relationships are a part of who we are.
Designed by individuals who are dedicated to faithful service to the Lord Jesus Christ, the program at Agape is intentionally and thoroughly founded on a Biblical foundation.
Mrs. Pearson has been a faithful educator for over thirty years and has poured her heart and expertise into public, private, homeschooled, and ESL students in a variety of settings. Having taught all levels and most subjects, she says that English and the Humanities are her favorites. She loves teaching children to read and teaching them to love reading! Her résumé and legacy can be summed up in her four children, all of whom she homeschooled from Kindergarten-12th grade. The eldest three graduated with academic honors from their undergraduate studies, the first as Salutatorian. Her two sons have continued their education and are now finishing up their doctoral studies and her youngest is still in college on the President’s List. The most important prayer of her heart has been answered in all four children walking with and serving Christ.
Throughout her 20 years as a Pastor’s wife, she has worked for many years with teenagers and young adults and her heart is for them to know Christ personally, have confidence and success academically, and be useful in accomplishing God’s glory on this earth. Mrs. Pearson is extremely excited to join the AIA staff and have an opportunity to see more young men and women educated and discipled, to be lights that so shine before men that they may see their good works and glorify their Father which is in heaven. (Matt. 5:16)
Office Manager/ Female Mentor/ Instructor
Catharine Pearson
Extra Curricular Opportunities
Wrestling Club
Outdoor
Program
Lego Robotics
Soccer Club
Chess Club