Schools

2011 Delaware County Christian School Valedictorian Speech

Nathaniel Schmucker shares his valedictory address to the class of 2011 on June 3 at the Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills.

(DCCS) 2011 graduates celebrated a turning point in their lives last Friday. Valedictorian Nathaniel Schmucker of Wayne shared,  the 87-member 2011 class, with a story of theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer to encourage and inspire his classmates to equip themselves in their next academic and spirtual step in their lives by "finding the Christians." Salutatorian Sarah Kaptur of West Chester also spoke at the graduation. Diplomas were awarded by Dr. Stephen P. Dill, head of school, high school Principal Andy Alford, and Mr. David Nichols, president of the DC Board of Trustees.

Relive DCCS's Graduation With Schmucker's Commencement Speech

Thank you. I would like to take this time as the Class of 2011 leaves high school and prepares to enter a new stage of life, to present to them and to you the parting image of the great Christian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Why do I wish to review history before stepping into the future?

I have learned that Bonhoeffer’s life bears certain similarities to ours. I hope that his story might provide for you a vivid example that can both clarify our life together in 2011, and help us to consider our spiritual and academic future.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer grew up in Germany at the same time that the Nazi Party rose to power. One of the aspects of Nazism that most worried Bonhoeffer was its thirst for authoritarianism–particularly, its thirst for control of the church. Thanks to political manipulation and eloquent promises that the church would remain “Christian,” few Christians worried as the Nazis increased persecution of the Jews and even proposed completely replacing the Bible with Mein Kampf. But Bonhoeffer and a small group of believers recognized the deathly blows that Hitler was making at Christianity.

In response, they took radical steps to protect the faith. The Class of 2011 at Delaware County Christian School shares a similar academic and spiritual upbringing as Bonhoeffer and, like him, faces a mounting crisis in the Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a man of rare intellectual capabilities, who earned his doctorate in theology at the age of 21, and whose doctoral thesis was praised by Karl Barth as a “theological miracle”.

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While at the moment, we as a class, cannot make the same boasts, we can proudly say that because of the administration and teachers at DC, we have received an excellent academic education. I think back on three years of Dr. McFarland’s history classes, where nightly homework consisted of reading 10 to 20 pages from the textbook and typing a one-page response. And I think of Mrs. Ahlborn’s calculus class, in which she fought the lethargy of senior year, taught lessons through the final week of school, and gave us a test on the last day of classes. Both of these gifted and rigorous teachers stand as a testament to the way in which DC prepares its students for a bright academic future.

I am grateful not only for my teachers’ academic instruction, but also for the enthusiasm for learning which they have given us. Perhaps no memory shines clearer than eighth-grade civics class with Mr. Steinfield. Towards the end of the year, we learned the School House Rock version of the Preamble to the Constitution. Mr. Steinfield organized a competition between our three civics classes to see who could sing most enthusiastically. It culminated in a final head-to-head showdown on the DeMoss Center stage. The winning class (which happened to be mine) received a trophy and became the envy of the middle school. I would venture to say that no eighth graders have ever been as enthusiastic about the Constitution as those here at DC.

And for the most part, that enthusiasm has continued throughout high school. So in this respect, we at DC share with Dietrich Bonhoeffer a strong academic training and an enthusiasm for education.

DC has also given its students a strong foundation in Christian doctrine. Like Bonhoeffer, who debated with famous theologians like von Harnack and Barth, my classmates and I benefit from a stellar Bible department. Perhaps we remember no teacher as well as the former head of the department, Dr. David Smith. His Romans class was a detailed study of Christian doctrine, and in Christian Theology, he taught us to think critically about the place of Christianity in the contemporary world. Although he left DC before we could take Apologetics, Dr. Smith has left behind a Bible department well equipped to continue his legacy of insightful teaching. For this, we are all thankful.

I have learned from these classes that Biblical Christianity is under many of the same attacks in the world today that it experienced in Bonhoeffer’s day. Whereas Bonhoeffer lived in a country whose government was publically set on eradicating the truth of the Bible, we live in a post-modern society, in which many subtly reject the Biblical account of history. These two attacks share equal potential to shake the foundations of Christianity.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s response to his culture’s moral apathy inspires me. He began with lectures critiquing the Nazis and progressed to the creation of a separate German church that publically denounced the Reich. His actions culminated in his joining the underground resistance and participating in a plot to kill Hitler. During this, Bonhoeffer was captured and taken to a concentration camp, where he was later killed. While I know that Bonhoeffer’s situation was unique and that in America, I will likely not suffer the same trials, I also recognize that my future will include a defense of the faith against the ideas of our culture. It is my prayer that I will have the same courage as Bonhoeffer.

So as I conclude, I wish to give this address: Class of 2011, we will soon leave for college and, like Bonhoeffer, will all have to make a response to the attacks on the church. I see that this is a fight we cannot make alone. Just as my Sunday school teacher, Mrs. Boice, so often urges me, so now I urge you, as you step onto the battlefield of the college campus: “Find the Christians." “Find the Christians” and find a church to attend each Sunday. In so doing, you and I will not only build upon the spiritual foundation which we have received at DC, but will also find brothers and sisters in Christ to encourage us as we stand to defend Christianity in the midst of a hostile world. Our resistance against an increasingly post-modern culture cannot be made alone.

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As Paul writes in Ephesians 4, the leaders of the church exist “for building up the body of Christ…so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine.” “Find the Christians.” Thank you.

Delaware County Christian School's Graduating 2011 Class:

Christopher David Barlow, Phoenixville; Darren Marcel Brooks, Sharon Hill; Emily
Charlotte Burns, Wilmington; Jett Alexander Canavarro, West Chester; Sarah Page
Castle, Newtown Square; Jessie Brooke Cauffman, Kennett Square; Jordan Nicholas Chavous, Garnet Valley; Nien-Ting (Rebecca) Chi, Downingtown; Jiwon (Jinny) Chung, Sharon Hill; Christopher Kenneth Collins, West Chester; Nicholas Christopher Connelly, West Chester; Meghan Elizabeth Daly, Havertown; Donald-William Alexander Dawes, Broomall; Rebecca Nicole DeLoach, Philadelphia; Cameron Elizabeth Dickson, Newtown Square; Michael Anthony DiGangi III, West Chester; Azhar Jelani Dorsey, Philadelphia; Briana René Durant, Sharon Hill; Rachel Tess Eddy, Newtown Square; Roytasia Téree Stacy Edwards, Yeadon; Jesse Roos Eldredge, West Chester; Hannah Grace Ellsworth, West Chester; Emily Louise Evans, Media; Tyler Greshem FitzPatrick, Glenolden; Samantha Michelle Fowler, Yeadon; Kaitlyn Julia Frangipane, Plymouth Meeting; Brianna Monét Galat, Aldan; Meng Gao, West Chester; Mary Jeanette Gillin, Aldan; Blake William Goebel, Glen Mills; Nicholas Winfield Griffin, Lansdowne; Samuel Stuart Gruehn, Glen Mills; Ethiopia Abate Haileyesus, Broomall; Kyle Robert Harper, Newtown Square; Charis Hunt Haugen, West Chester; Victoria Russ Haugen, West Chester; Robert David Hegman, Prospect Park; Taylor James Holt, West Chester; Emily Christine Homan, Upper Darby; Hyung Dong (Josh) Hong, Wallingford; Yerim Hong, Malvern; Mu Chen (Jessica) Hsieh, Penn Valley; Karrah Michelle Hughes, Drexel Hill; Bethany Marie Ingraham, Audubon; SeongHye (Jamie) Jeong, Blue Bell; Sarah Elizabeth Kaptur, West Chester; Colleen Margaret Kelly, Aldan; Da-Hye Kim, Swarthmore; James Karl Kurtz, Jeffersonville; Won Seok (William) Lee, Newtown Square; Hannah Jordan LoRusso, Berwyn; John Colin Lynam, Glen Mills; John David Markland, West Chester; Nichole Noel Mazzulo, Unionville; Jonathan Alexander McAleer, West Chester; Mark Lewis McLaughlin, Malvern; Ryan Stewart Miller, Newtown Square; Ethan James Mitchell, Havertown; Indira Nusu Mitchell, Philadelphia; Carolyn Elizabeth Neal, Glen Mills; Caleb John Olshefsky, Lansdowne; Daniel Jose Palomino, Newtown Square; Bit Yi (Debbie) Park, Swarthmore; Megan Ashley Pendell, West Chester; Yang Peng, Broomall; Daniel Byron Pennington Phillips, Secane; Taylor Santana Poteat, Lansdowne; Nathan Andrew Reed, Berwyn; Kelsey Elizabeth Rhodes, Chadds Ford; Rose Elizabeth Rice, Springfield; Joshua Philip Ryken, Broomall; Jordan Michael Sbraccia, Havertown; Nathaniel Danhart Schmucker, Wayne; Adam Manuel Schwartz, Drexel Hill; Choong Hyun Seo, West Chester; Eun Ji (Emma) Sim, Berwyn; Abigail Mary Simmons, Media; Abel Dominic Teano, Media; William Randolph Tice III, Newtown Square; Caroline Anne Tyler, Prospect Park; Brandon Walter Weidemann, West Chester; Paul Jacob White, Jr., Gulph Mills; Eric Alan Wildermuth, Media; Camille Copeland Williams, Media; Kalen Micah Wilson, Wayne; Chia Lin (Caroline) Wu, Broomall; Renda Xuan, Rosemont.


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