Twelve ACS high school students attended a leadership conference November 18-20 in Washington, DC that focused on human suffering around the world and how to respond to that suffering through the lens of God’s Word. The annual conference was sponsored by the Association of Christian Schools International and drew over 400 students from Christian high schools in the Northeast.
The students participated in large and small group sessions that explored how humans are stripped of their inherent value and dignity through typical responses to issues such as poverty, human trafficking, physician assisted suicide, abortion, and other problems that plague our society.
Upper School Principal Meg McHale, who attended the conference with the students, said the speakers challenged the students to use the inspiration they felt from the conference to transform how they looked at and valued others within their world and to take action. McHale said that in the final session the students worked together to begin planning a response to one of the issues that each school group chose to address and that the ACS group chose to focus on the issue of human trafficking.
The conference activities also included worship, a presentation by comedian Keith Coast, and an afternoon guided tour of the Capitol Building, led by American Christian Tours, that incorporated interesting and inspiring facts about the role of Christian principles in the founding of our nation. The students who attended the trip were: Elizabeth Alford, Rudy Dalinger, Rebekah Darragh, Emily Elgersma, Solomon Griffith, Paige Hoover, Ashleigh Martin, Joshua Mizrahi, Lola Oguntuase, Sydney Pearson Imohimi Unuigbe, and Caraline Winkel.