Unlike graduating classes of several hundred students, many members of Frederick Christian Academy’s class of 2024 have been together their entire lives.
Marcello Villalta transferred from public school to FCA when he was in seventh grade. When he graduated on Friday, he said he immediately noticed a difference in the relationships between his peers.
“Even if we are a small group, there is something new every day,” Villalta said.
Villalta, who plans to pursue a career in law enforcement, was one of 13 students who graduated from FCA during a graduation convocation on Friday. Of these students, six were part of the academy’s umbrella homeschooling program.
The meeting took place at People’s Baptist Church in Frederick, where the academy has been housed since 1978, according to the FCA website.
A video tribute showed photos of each member of the class of 2024 at different stages of their lives. Thrn, the graduates entered the chapel. All the young women wore white dresses and the young men wore red ones.
Michael Ancruem, the valedictorian of FCA’s class of 2024, and Hannah Ramirez, the salutatorian, each address their classmates and the audience.
Ancruem, who said he was diagnosed with autism at a young age, reflected on how his educational journey taught him to embrace his differences.
“At first it felt like an insurmountable obstacle – a barrier separating me from my dreams. I struggled in ways others couldn’t understand,” Ancruem said. “But through it all, I continued to hold on to the belief that with perseverance and faith, anything is possible.”
Ancruem said drawing comics helps him communicate when words fail him. He plans to study radiology at Hagerstown Community College in the fall. He graduated from high school with a cumulative GPA of 4.02.
In her speech, Ramirez thanked God, her parents and the FCA staff for helping her and her classmates make it to graduation.
“In the Class of 2024, we fought hard and finished strong. But let us not forget that as we close this chapter of our lives, we also begin the next chapter,” Ramirez said. “As followers of Christ, we are His vessels, and God has many plans for each of us.”
Ramirez, who graduated high school with a cumulative GPA of 4.0, plans to attend Frederick Community College in the fall with a major in speech pathology.
The commencement speaker for the class of 2024 was Dean Kershner, an FCA alumnus and field director at Gospelink, a Virginia-based organization with churches, orphanages and other ministries in countries around the world.
Kershner said he built his speech around the same Bible passage he read at his graduation 39 years ago.
In his speech, Kershner challenged the graduates to hold strongly to the values instilled in them by their parents and by the academy as they enter adulthood.
“Twenty years from now, you will be a success not based on how much land you own or what kind of car you drive. You will be a success based on how many other people you sacrifice,” Kershner said.
“The problem with that is that this isn’t measured here – you won’t see that on the Dow Jones Industrial printout,” he continued. “But it was taken up into heaven.”
