Puget Sound Adventist Academy, founded in 1996, is distinguished by three factors:
Name and Constituency: The name “Puget Sound Adventist Academy” reminds the school who is served—the greater Puget Sound area from Seattle to Gold Bar, from Renton to Arlington—and what the school is about—providing an Adventist Christian education for students in grades 9–12. Each of the 18 constituent churches have equal board vote regardless of subsidy amount, student representation or church size.
Focus on Service: Campus ministries combine three overlapping elements: knowing Jesus, respect for fellow students and community service. Students participate in quarterly service days with World Vision, Habitat for Humanity, Seattle Operation Emergency Center, and Union Gospel Mission in addition to park and highway clean-up and serving at local food banks. Biennial mission trips for juniors and seniors, with 95 percent participation, include trips to Africa, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Honduras, India, Mexico and Mississippi.
Diversity: Ethnic groups represented at PSAA include African American, Argentinean, Canadian, Caucasian, Cuban, Filipino, Hispanic, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Swiss. Twenty-four percent of the student body is non-Adventist.
Beyond these factors, though, is something more important: David Parks and Andrew Mitchell, students, suggest that because "it's small," "united like a family," and "super easy to fit into," PSAA is ideal for learning. Plus, parents—who are frequently involved in the family atmosphere of the school—appreciate how the school’s college prep program keeps the cost of Adventist education within reach.
The values of academic, service, diversity and family result in PSAA students learning every day how to grow in love for God, for learning and for service to the community in a “Journey of Excellence.” For more about PSAA, please visit www.psaa.org.
PSAA students Terrance Ruan, Armando Zarabia, Michael Gibbons, Stazy Manueke, Alex Hutton, Amelia Napitupulu, Jeremy Mumu, Kayla Page, Ashlee Richardson and Chan Joo Park show their enthusiasm for work on a Habitat for Humanity home building project. (Jessica Stone)
Music performance, academics, and service all contribute to PSAA's family atmosphere. Colleen Radke directs the choir. (Leif Andersen)
