The end of my last year at Hawaii Baptist Academy nears. I have spent the last 10 years of my life as a student on its campuses in Nuuanu. My time spent there has made the school a part of who I am. It is and forever will be the place of my most defining moments. I grew up at Hawaii Baptist Academy. It nurtured me into the young man I am today.

This is the same story that most seniors in Hawaii and across the world would say of their high school. And though each senior shares this universal narrative, I genuinely believe that mine is singular. This, of course, is not because every individual has a unique story. I agree to that. I say that mine is singular because of this school, Hawaii Baptist Academy, which raised me, which watched me grow, which taught me my most important values. I say it because it is an institution that is fiercely individual, different from any school in Hawaii. And with this individualism comes a student body that has developed differently from any other body in Hawaii. Its students are a different breed of young men and women; they are imbued with the values that its founders established 60 years ago.

Hawaii Baptist Academy began as a small missionary school in 1949, founded by Hugh and Mary McCormick. And though the school has grown significantly, almost exponentially into a tri-campus institution, it persists in the message its founders originally communicated. It has changed in size and appearance but is, essentially, still the same. It continues, each year, to reaffirm its Christian roots. Therein, I believe, lies the special nature of Hawaii Baptist Academy.

This school combines excellent academic curricula with an administration and faculty that view their students with, among other things, compassion and love most of all. Hawaii Baptist Academy is a school where every student, despite his performance in academics or athletics, leadership or artistic talent, is loved and cared for. Each student is viewed as having an intrinsic, infinite and irreplaceable value. And it has always been this way, I believe, and will always be this way. I know as I walk onto campus that every teacher and administrator cares deeply for me and for every student who walks beside me. It is in this environment that I have grown up, one in which the heart of Jesus' teachings, love, is demonstrated daily. I am ever grateful to my parents for having enrolled me there.

But this love that I feel is not alone among the strengths of Hawaii Baptist Academy. Its strength is also in its challenging academics in which students are pressed to succeed. Offering many Advanced Placement classes and a wide variety of other courses provides an excellent precursor to the liberal arts education that every Hawaii Baptist graduate will receive, noting its 100 percent college-bound rate. The absolute willingness of every teacher to tutor any student complements the opportunities Hawaii Baptist offers. Indeed, I have received help at lunch and after school on many occasions from teachers who desire so much for me to succeed.

My story is among many, though. I am sure students ranging from the first graduating class till today have stories much like mine. Ours is singular among the billions of people who ever were, are now or will someday be students. Hawaii Baptist Academy has given us something special, something genuinely unique. It has given us a place not only of learning, but of somewhere we know we are always loved, always believed in and ever hoped for.