Portrait of a Graduate

Our school seeks to cultivate students who embody the qualities of Daniel in the Hebrew Scriptures:

Faithful Christians
Understands, embraces, and shares the gospel, the good news that God has provided the means of rescuing and redeeming his people and his creation. Submitted to Christ as Lord and Savior; confident that he or she is justified by grace through faith in Christ; grounded in their identity in Christ; reveres and reads God’s Word; understands and applies a Christian worldview; worships at and serves in a local church; on mission as ambassador of the gospel; seeks God in prayer; pursues wholehearted love of God and excellence as an act of worship to God. 2 Timothy 2:15

Competent Learners
Well-informed, literate and equipped with basic areas of knowledge; understands learning and is practiced in intellectual skills, habits, and methods of seeking understanding; has acquired a disposition of wonder and inquiry; alive to truth, goodness and beauty; competent in basic life skills and comportment. Daniel 1:3-4

Virtuous Servants
Committed to the lifelong growth and cultivation of habits, practices and virtues that honor the Lord and imitate Christ. Pursues love of neighbor and love of enemies. Seeks to apply Augustine’s idea of ordered loves. Identifies and cultivates the particular gifts God has given and exercises those gifts in the family, church, and world, contributing to the wise care and governance of God’s creation (the cultural mandate given in Genesis 1) and the building of his kingdom. 2 Peter 1:5-7

Wise and Mature Leaders
Accepts Scripture as their authority for faith, practice, truth and wisdom. Reads, studies, meditates on, applies, considers, and is able to articulate to others the implications of the Scriptures. Understands that the state of unbelief is one of foolishness, where the truth is suppressed in unrighteousness, and that the unbelieving world will always be seeking to indoctrinate to the ways, beliefs, and morality. In light of the state of the unbelieving world, has developed a strong ecclesiology (theology of the Church), committed to be part of a doctrinally sound church so as to remember who they are in Christ, to be regularly fed the truth of God’s Word, to worship with and be encouraged by the fellowship of the saints, and to serve and exercise their gifts within Christ’s body. Fervent in prayer, attentive to the Holy Spirit. Prioritizes serving family and local church before career, including the priority of teaching the next generation how to follow Christ. Displays courage, integrity, and endurance for service and leadership over a lifetime. Colossians 1:28

Resolved not to conform to the pattern of this world
Understands that this world in its current state is not a neutral place, and that the pattern of following Christ will be in contrast and in conflict with the pattern of those who do not. (Understands the differences between Jerusalem and Babylon; the City of God and the City of Man.) Discerns, identifies, and resists means of pressuring believers to conform to the pattern of this world, and is willing to pay the cost of doing so, even to the point of death, in good company with believers across the centuries. Seeks to create communities and cultures that reflect the pattern of Christ’s followers.. Romans 12:1-2

William Wilberforce and DanielWilliam Wilberforce, the British leader, is our school’s namesake because he embodied so many of the characteristics above. He was a type of Daniel in his day. Both Daniel and Wilberforce resolved to honor God where he had placed them, and God used them for great good and, through them, made peoples and kings acknowledge and glorify the Most High. Our students will be called to serve as leaders in their family, church, school, workplace, and some, we hope, will serve in leadership in the public square in a way that similarly, prophetically, resists assimilation and points people to the knowledge and glory of the one true God. Daniel 4:34-35