HLA Blog
Explore the latest news and updates from Hillcrest below.
Exciting things are happening here, and we’d love for you to join the movement by becoming a supporter of Hillcrest Academy, too!
Latin Comes to Life For Hillcrest Students Who Turned Sidewalks into Classrooms
Latin stretched in bright colors and fresh air in Mrs. Garvin's middle school Latin class, who traded desks for cement slabs where sidewalk chalk brought Latin declensions to life through movement and creativity.
Pre-K Students Discover the Wonder of God’s Creation With A Little Bug And A Big Lesson
It started with a bug. During Pre-K this morning, one curious student spotted a small insect and Mrs. Heidi Narvesen caught it. What could have been a momentary distraction became a 30-minute adventure in discovery, observation, paying attention, and wonder.
Scripture Comes to Life As Dr. Michael Zeigler Brings Mark 5 to Hillcrest Students
Dr. Michael Zeigler visited Mr. Preston’s Book of Mark class, transforming familiar biblical accounts into a compelling live drama that invited students to experience Mark's urgency and the emotion of his Gospel through Jesus' extraordinary authority.
Wonder Takes Root at Prairie Wetlands Where Students Discover God's Creation
Students learn by touching, measuring, classifying, sketching, creating poetry and sharing insights in what they’re experiencing.
Artificial Salvation or Eternal Life? Hillcrest Students Discover the Difference
MIT professor Sherry Turkle observed, "In a complicated world, robots seem a simple salvation." AI makes promises to solve problems, but Mr. Jahr shared how Jesus changes lives.
How Scripture Shapes Learning at Hillcrest
Students recited John 1, a passage they have been working to memorize and understand. But this is more than a memory exercise. These words are becoming part of the framework through which they are learning to understand the world
Fourth Graders Discover God’s Design on the Prairie
On this particular day, the prairie became their textbook, insects became their lesson, and curiosity led them toward worship. Sometimes seeing more of God’s creation simply begins by looking a little closer, and realizing that God made us for this.
When the Purpose Changes, Everything Changes
Week after week, Hillcrest gathers around something larger than the school itself. Teachers and students stand together under the same Word. Christ is proclaimed. Faith is strengthened. Community is formed. Students are prepared not merely to succeed, but to serve.
Lower School Launches Into Classrooms With Focused In-Service
Teachers are not simply running classrooms, delivering lessons, or keeping hallways orderly. They are helping young people learn to attend, obey, respect, take responsibility, receive correction, extend grace, repair relationships, and recognize what is true, good, and beautiful.
Why Apologetics Is the Everyday Posture At Hillcrest
High school is not too early to start this work. If anything, it may be the last window before students face these questions without a teacher, a mentor, or a community walking alongside them. At Hillcrest, apologetics is not just a class, but a posture threaded through science labs, history seminars, literature circles, and Bible classes alike, giving students something they will need for the rest of their lives: the ability to say, with Evelyn's same confidence, exactly why they believe what they believe.
How the Fish Hatchery Sparked Curiosity, Calling, and Creation Wonder
Psalm 19 says that “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” At the hatchery, students saw that same declaration in flowing water, in schools of fish, and in the intricate systems that sustain life beneath the surface. What began as a school trip became something more: a reminder that education is at its best when it awakens wonder, invites exploration, and helps students discover how God may be calling them to use their gifts in His world.
Sent Forward With Purpose: The Heart Behind the Hillcrest 5th Grade Send-Off
The 5th Grade Send-Off was not simply the end of elementary school. It was a reminder that childhood should be filled with meaningful markers that help young people step confidently into the next season of life, knowing they are loved, equipped, and sent forward with purpose.
When It Clicks: How Hillcrest Teachers Rediscovered the Students in Front of Them
A teacher paused mid-note, looked up, and you could almost see the connection being made. Across the room, others leaned in, not out of obligation, but because something had just clicked. The kind of clarity that doesn’t just inform your thinking, but reshapes it. Last week at Hillcrest, that kind of moment didn’t happen once. It happened again and again as Dr. Kathy Koch led upper school faculty through a training that moved beyond theory and into transformation.
Seventh Graders Rise, Reason, and Reveal Who They’re Becoming Through Mock Trial
This is what it looks like when learning becomes formation. Students are seen not just for where they are, but for who they are becoming. They are given space to try, to fail, to rise, and to discover that the abilities God has placed within them are not theoretical; they are usable, meaningful, and needed. In rooms like this, with voices raised and minds engaged, students begin to understand that they can enter complex situations, think clearly, speak truthfully, and act with purpose. And that realization changes them.
Before Fractions, There Was Formation: Inside Mrs. Moline’s Classroom
In Mrs. Moline’s classroom, learning is never just about the lesson. It is about forming the kind of student who trusts the environment, understands their place in it, connects with others, sees meaning in their work, and develops the skill to carry it forward.
From Laughter to Truth: How Hillcrest Seniors Carried the Gospel to the Mountains
Cold mountain air rushed through the field alive with movement. Feet were striking the ground in rhythm, voices rising in unfamiliar songs, laughter breaking through every barrier that language could have built as young people from Tirana joined Hillcrest seniors in the mountains for a retreat. Circles tightened, hands locked, and under a bright Albanian sky, a group of students who had never met hours earlier moved like lifelong friends. No hesitation. No distance. Just loud, unfiltered, and contagious laughter. This is where the Hillcrest students will lead a weekend getaway focused on identity, reality, and the good news of the Gospel.
Seniors Land Across the Ocean and Face-to-Face with the Hardest Questions of Faith on Day 2 In Tirana
It would be easy to measure this trip by what it costs. A week away from the final stretch of senior year. The financial weight of international travel. The disruption of routine. In a culture that values efficiency above almost everything, this kind of decision can feel impractical. But day two makes something unmistakably clear: this is not a break from education. This is its fulfillment.
Sent Out to the Nations: Why Hillcrest Students Go to Tirana, Albania
Backpacks shuffled, laughter echoed, and then Mr. Peterson’s voice cut clean through the noise:
“Pick up a Bible. We have one for each of you to bring with you to share with a person you meet in Albania.”
And just like that… everything shifted.
This isn’t just a trip. It’s a sending.