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Jonah Berg, Grade 12What the Academy Means to MeIda Crown Jewish Academy is not simply a high school; rather, 2828 W. Pratt has become my home away from home over the past three years of my life. The past three years, some of the most crucial years, are ones that I would not have wanted to spend anywhere else besides Ida Crown. When spending as long as nine hours a day, it must be somewhere you love to be or else the days, the minutes, the seconds, will seem endless. Now, however, after completing my third year at Ida Crown and entering the gates of my senior year, I stop and think back how the years have literally flown by in the blink of an eye. It is too difficult to pinpoint just one specific transformation, one life changing, defining moment at Ida Crown because the list is endless. However, the bonds and friendships created because of extracurricular activities such as being on the ICJA Aces basketball team are priceless. The integration of Torah values, such as derech eretz and v’ahavta l’rayacha kamocha, fused with the game of basketball has given me an opportunity to take all those important ideals I have learned in the classroom and apply them to my life in the form of kiddush Hashem. The Academy is a unique place which gives students the tools and resources to live a Jewish life while still associating one’s self with the secular world around. To perspective freshman, I tell you nothing less than how privileged you are to spend the next four years of your lives in such an amazing place. A school of both in-depth, high quality Judaic learning and intellectually challenging secular studies, as well as a new warmhearted, welcoming place, you can now so proudly call home. There is no doubt you, too, will have an incredible Ida Crown experience throughout your years at ICJA, as well as a remarkable transformation from a young teen to adulthood. |
