SOLANO CHRISTIAN ACADEMY OWL NEWS
"Where the Son shines every day!"
October 2016
STAR WARS-THEMED FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL EVENT WAS OUT OF THIS WORLD!
This year, the theme was "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Student."
Costumed Jedi Knights, Imperial Stormtroopers and trusty droid R2D2 greeted students and SCA families. A brief skit featuring faculty/staff members Mrs. Reed, Mrs. Henry and Mr. Wade followed in the auditorium then each class had a photo op with the guests from a galaxy far far away including Darth Vader.
PARENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE NEEDS YOU!
The 2016-2017 PAC is gearing up for a successful year of planning events that will be fun, raise funds and help fulfill parent's volunteer hours in the process. Some of the possible events they may tackle are the Crab Feed, School Christmas Play, a spring dance and more.The first event on tap is the annual Fall Carnival on Friday, September 30th.
Several parents who stepped up to take leadership roles with the PAC recently discussed why they did so.
Rochelle Black: My daughter is now in 6th grade and has been at SCA since Preschool. One thing I love about SCA is the diversity of the student body and staff—that my daughter has teachers that look like her. I volunteered to take the minutes at our PAC meetings. I hope that the events we plan are successful, well-organized and that we get a lot of participation.
Cindy Potts: I have two kids at SCA. We thought SCA had a better teacher-student ratio than other schools and that played into our decision to have our children attend here. We have always wanted to participate, unfortunately our schedules conflicted, but now we can. We are thankful that our children have developed excellent social skills and a deeper faith. My son even corrects my husband and I sometimes when it comes to the word of God. Quick story: one day he asked “Mom, what’s home?” I said it’s wonderful, a sanctuary and built it up to be the best place. He said “No, the best place is Heaven.” It kind of brought me back down to what’s most important. These are blessings I did not expect to receive. SCA has exceeded our expectations and we want to give back.
Tracey Fuller: We have two children and have been an SCA parent for three years. I stepped up to be on the PAC because I want to set an example of leadership for my children and to be involved in making a difference for the school. I want to help take some of the burden of fundraising and event planning from the teachers and I am able to do that now. I hope we come together as a family and create great experiences for our kids this year.
Lisa Hillary: I have a son at SCA and this is his second year there. My goal this year moving forward with the PAC is hoping to improve communication with all the parents and spark have more parental involvement, which I think is critical. Since we have all made the decision to pay for our children’s education, I think it’s important to do whatever it takes as a family to be a part of that process. My goal is to participate as much as I can to be a part of the community.
Tenisha Williams: My son is in his second year at SCA. I believe we should help. I will back up the person taking the notes at PAC meetings. My son can be slick if he is allowed to be, so I wanted him to be in a school that would not allow him to be slick. I think the Preschool program is very good. My son learned more in Preschool at SCA than some other children I know that were in kindergarten in public schools. SCA really does help and so I want to lend a hand wherever I am needed.
SCA PARENT DWAYNE JOHNSON SHARES HIS GIFTS
Dwayne Johnson is a bit of a Renaissance man—a person with interests and expertise in several different areas. He is a 44-year old retired veteran from the United States Air Force, a professional photographer and a 3rd degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. He is also an SCA parent willing to share his gifts to benefit the student body and school.
Photography
Johnson liked to draw and paint when he was younger and after graduating from high school, he attended two semesters of college before joining the Air Force. He was a commercial arts major and one of the first classes he took was photography.
“This was before digital really took off, so it was regular developing-black-and-white-film in-the-darkroom photography. I just fell in love with it--the smell of the chemicals, the whole process,” Johnson said. “It was a new way for me to explore my artistic side.”
Johnson later met friends in Hawaii who were serious about photography, particularly fashion photography with models, and he learned about lighting which rekindled his fascination with capturing images with his camera. He gravitated towards portraiture.
Johnson is adept with old school film photography as well as modern digital techniques and sees the value of each.
“In the modern day, everyone wants what they want right now and as cheap as they can get it, and digital works well for that. Film was expensive, getting it processed was expensive and you only had so many exposures to a roll. Now you can just snap, snap, snap away and give customers 500 pictures and they’re happy,” Johnson said. “With film, however, you have between 12 and 64 chances to make it nice, to get it right. It forces you to really think about the shot you want to capture. With film you have to assess the lighting and the composition of the shot. The artistic side of me prefers film.”
SCA benefits from Mr. Johnson’s expertise in photography as he will not only be taking the fall and spring school pictures, but will create the 2016-2017 school yearbook as well.
Tae Kwon Do
Dwayne Johnson’s parents split up when he was 13 years old and he, his younger brother, older sister and mother moved from Pennsylvania to a rough neighborhood in Newport News, Virginia. Johnson would stay out of trouble by taking long rides on his 10-speed bicycle. One route took him past a Tae Known Do school and one day he stopped in.
“I was watching a class and the secretary, a nice woman named Wendy, asked me my name and why I was there so I told her. I said I couldn’t afford to take a class, but asked if it was okay if I watched. She said “sure” and sat there with me,” Johnson said.
Afterwards she told Johnson that there was a week-long introductory class that only cost $10. Johnson scraped up the money and took the class. When it ended, he took a $30 per month class for three months that he paid for by a job he secured cleaning up a deli (even though he was only 14).
After that ended, he stopped going because the next classes would cost more. Wendy called and said that maybe there was something they could work out.
Johnson’s instructor, Master Sang M. Bae, offered him unlimited classes if he would clean the school on weekends.
“So of course that’s what I did and I never paid any tuition after that,” Johnson said.
After a year he was a green belt and was teaching all the introductory classes at about 15 years old.
After joining the U.S. Air Force, Johnson eventually taught Tae Kwon Do in Japan, Korea, Washington State and Hawaii.
Johnson has a significant amount of experience in Olympic style competition and has won many championships on the state, military and international levels. A few of his accomplishments include:
• CISM TKD Tm (Military Olympics)
• Armed Forces Champion
• 2 Time U.S Air Force Champion
• Osan Air Base Open Champion
• 3-time Virginia State Champion
He has also trained several students that have also gone on to win state and international championships.
Starting in October, Johnson will begin instructing Solano Christian Academy the ancient martial art of Tae Kwon Do.
“Obviously I expect them to learn how to defend themselves if something were to happen, but my greater goal is to make them better people, whatever their need,” Johnson said. “If I can give Johnny, who likes to start fights on the playground, a positive outlet to express his energy, then that’s my goal for Johnny. If Karen is super-shy and afraid to speak in front of people and I can give her that ability, then that’s my goal for Karen. If Billy struggles with math and doesn’t have confidence and I can help build that up, then that’s my goal for Billy.”
The name
Sharing a name with a popular Hollywood actor has not hurt SCA’s Dwayne Johnson.
“UPS guy’s eyes light up when they see my name on a package they are delivering. Once I was at a department store and the clerk didn’t even look at me, just stared at the counter. Then I asked for a military discount and showed her my ID and when she saw my name, she was gasping for air,” Johnson said. “Then she looked up and didn’t see The Rock, but a shorter, darker person. But she engaged me more after that.”
About Us
Email: sca.admin@solanochristianacademy.org
Website: http://www.solanochristianacademy.org/
Location: 2200 Fairfield Avenue, Fairfield, CA, United States
Phone: (707) 425-7715
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SolanoChristianAcademy/?fref=ts