EDMOND—Eight online students and two local students from Imperial Academy’s seventh senior class began their final year of high school on August 12. The start to the academic year brought with it a time of reflection and anticipation.

Students said they were motivated by the motto principal Wayne Turgeon gave for the new school year. In his orientation lecture on August 11, Mr. Turgeon presented students, teachers, parents and guests with the motto “Honor and Glory.”

Edmond senior Jessica Brandon said her Imperial teachers have rallied behind the motto. “[L]ectures were about the key of David; they focused on royalty, glory and honor,” she said.

Mr. Turgeon admonished students to put proper emphasis on their material education, quoting Luke’s Gospel: “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.”

Following this instruction, online senior David Warner from Florida and local Edmond senior Gianni Welsh said they were motivated to be more responsible with the education they are receiving and to serve with that knowledge.

Indiana senior Aebra Hayes said, “The Honor and Glory motto really emphasizes how this [education] is a precious gift.”

New student Alina Flory, attending online from Ohio, admitted that there was more homework at Imperial than at her previous public school, but she doesn’t mind it as much now. “I know that is God’s education, God’s school, God’s teachers,” she said. “I can tell how much the teachers really care for the students, and how well they are understanding the material in the classes.”

Seniors Evan Fraser, from Washington State, and Brianna Smythe, from Oregon, said they were admonished to keep the Imperial standard high.

Online senior Kassandra Verbout said that the classes and lectures are already echoing one another. “In his orientation, Mr. Turgeon said that in the World Tomorrow we’ll be called upon as teachers and leaders,” she said. “Two days later, Mr. Granger, our Bible instructor, talked to us in detail about that exact subject. He said, ‘You students are here to learn how to be teachers in the World Tomorrow.’”

Verbout, who has been an online student since Imperial’s first year online in fall 2009, said that online students began by watching pre-recorded videos and had little teacher-student interaction. “Now, we’re able to talk directly to the teacher whenever we have a question or need help, rather than sending e-mails like before,” she said. “I am so thankful they did start when they did, because now I’m able to appreciate the improvement a great deal more.”

“[W]ith public school, the benefit of having a teacher there in person is outweighed by the hindrance of all the other kids,” Flory said, referring to the lack of control in the classrooms and negative influence from peers.

Having 10 seniors makes this Imperial’s largest graduating class. Smythe said she appreciates the large online class “because we all know the technical issues and things that come up with being online. Everyone isreally supportive of each other.”

Several seniors said that because of Imperial, they feel closer to other young people in the Church. Brianna Weeks, who attended in Edmond for three years before moving to Arkansas where she attends class online, said being at Imperial makes her more excited for the holy days and for other occasions where she can see her friends in person.

Students said Imperial also benefited their Philadelphia Youth Camp experience. Warner said attending Imperial helped him at camp to be able to relate to other teens, especially his fellow online students. Fraser said it has helped him become more outgoing and a better conversationalist.

“[Imperial] has made me feel more comfortable at camp,” Smythe said. “It has also been a way for me to start conversations when I hear another teen is interested in joining. It’s awesome to go there and to know a lot of the staff and campers because they were my teachers and classmates, and then you meet their friends or siblings. It has really expanded the family aspect of camp for me.”

Smythe also highlighted the difference between Imperial curriculum and that of her previous school, Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon. “[Imperial] has taught me so much. In public school, I thought that I was learning, but I really wasn’t,” she said. “I’m actually learning things and using them again and again, not just moving on from them.”

“IA has affected me in my safety also,” Smythe continued. She still plays basketball at Reynolds High School, but if there wasn’t the option to take Imperial classes online, she would be attending classes there full time. This was the school where, on June 8, a student shot and killed a fellow 14-year-old student, injured a teacher and committed suicide. “[T]hat made realize, even more so, the planning God must do to keep His children safe,” she said.

“[The shooting] made me appreciate education more,” she added. “I’m learning things in class that I can have conversations with my parents about like prophecy and The Seven Laws of Success.” She says the process has strengthened her bond with her family.

Smythe said she wants to build on the educational foundation she has established at Imperial and hopefully be able to use it at Herbert W. Armstrong College.

Many students spend their extracurricular time working to save money for their college tuition. Weeks said she began working in the evenings at a fast food restaurant to save up the $4,000 entrance fee for hwac, using what spare time she has left to focus on her college application, which includes an 1,800-to-2,500-word autobiography.

Smythe said Imperial has proved to be a life-changing education, preparing her to use the Bible as her textbook for life. “This is what I want,” she said.

Speaking of the influence IA has had on her and her fellow classmates, Smythe said, “Our mindset has changed from going to school because we have to, to now going to school because we see the purpose of it and because we want to.

“We’ve heard so much about how we’re here to be kings and priests. We are here to be teachers in the World Tomorrow and so now, as seniors especially; we’re looking at our education as something we can use when we become teachers. We’re seeing [Imperial] and our education as a tool to fulfill our roles.”

Sidebar: Memories from Imperial

Imperial Academy’s seniors share some of their favorite stories.

Brianna Weeks: “One of the first ones that comes to mind is Mr. [John] Rambo rocking out to the second movement of Beethoven’s 7th symphony. He would play that song quite often in math class last year, and it was really fun to hear him get all excited as the music progressed slowly to the climax. [W]e would listen to the Beethoven song every so often when he wanted to motivate us because we all liked that song.”

Kassandra Verbout: “Whenever people have bad connection, their video skips and glitches quite a bit. It’s always amusing when someone ends up sneezing or yawning and the connection decides to cut out. It’s pretty embarrassing when you’re the person, but cheap entertainment for everyone else.”

Jessica Brandon: “I love doing Shakespeare in English. The accents can be incredibly hilarious. When we were reading Hamlet, sometimes [English department head Mark] Jenkins would assign the parts to the locals, and then we would read the lines and act them out at the same time. That made for some really funny moments. [W]e would really get into it. When Hamlet sword-fights Laertes at the end of the play, Alexa (Laertes) and I (Hamlet) acted out the parts using our mechanical pencils as swords while reading the lines. Then one time, Mr. Jenkins had the locals act out the parts while the onliners read the lines. Sometimes we would do something really dramatic that went along with the lines that were going to be spoken, but then we’d just have to do it again because the onliner had taken longer than we expected to read the line. We had several deaths that sort of stuttered.

Brianna Smythe: “One of my favorite memories of IA was my freshman year in biology with Mrs. [Colleen] Winn. Kassie came over to do our dissections together. My dog ate my fetal pig so we shared Kass’s, and we named him and played with his arms and stuff. It was hilarious and fun.”

Aebra Hayes: “One of my favorite memories from IA was when I had English class with my older sister, Julia. We used the same camera so we sat next to each other. It was fun, especially acting out scenes from King Lear with her.”

David Warner: “One of my favorite IA memories is being in Mr. Brandon Nice’s class having to read Shakespeare in different accents.”

Evan Fraser: “One of my favorite memories of IA would be passing the two math classes I had to take last year.”

Alina Flory: “I showed my English class my 22-pound cat named Snickers. They all loved him, and then we talked about cats for a while.”