Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Armstrong.
Michael, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Oceanside Adventist Elementary began more than twenty years ago with a vision to provide quality, Christian education to families in the local community. Using the small-school model that is common to Adventist schools around the world, this one-room school has grown to include nine classrooms, kindergarten through 8th grade.
Over time, OAE has maintained its family atmosphere, the defining quality instilled at inception. Parents volunteer at the school regularly and often join in support of one another. Our success as a school community is due, in large part, to the positive experiences that families have when they enroll. Nearly all of our new families have enrolled because a neighbor, friend, or family member shared their experiences. We all want our friends and family to join us when we find something truly extraordinary.
One of the strengths of an Oceanside Adventist Elementary education is our diversity. Students mix together as family on our campus regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religious affiliation, or academic ability. It is this mix of flavors, combined with stellar teaching practices that result in superior students with leadership skills and the ability to tackle challenges that the future has yet to reveal.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The success of Oceanside Adventist Elementary has not been obvious or without effort. Just as a student long remembers a difficult task overcome, so has the start of each new year brought joy to those who labored to put the program together. Each beginning has been unique, but all have been made challenging by the difficulty of offering a world class education at a price that all can afford.
Our mission has always been to make an Adventist education attainable for everyone in the community. This creates a tremendously rich atmosphere in which students thrive. They come together, wealthy and poor, without stigma, to collaborate across all grade levels, and they are better for it.
Oceanside Adventist Elementary – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
There is no comparison for what we do; no other school that I could point to and say, “We do it like them!” From macro to micro, we are making a difference in the lives of the families and students that become involved with OAE. One person might point out our 5th and 6th grade outdoor school trip or our 7th and 8th grade educational tour of Washington DC. Another might suggest that we are strong because of our robotics program, our bring-your-own-device policy, or our K-4 STEAM program.
While these things are a part of what makes an OAE education great, it’s the little things that make an even bigger difference. We are connecting students to senior mentors in the community, building relationships that benefit the seniors even more than the kids. We are awakening creativity and helping kids to find their talents. We are teaching critical thinking, communication, creativity, and collaboration. Our students are learning to dig deep and overcome, to believe in themselves, and to be kind to each other.
Our alumni include doctors, lawyers, teachers, and nurses, and we are so proud of each of them. I recently spoke with the father of an alumna. His daughter just finished a busy summer leading out in vacation bible school, studying for and acing her MCATs, and squeezing in a full year of physics. She is back in school now in her second year at Stanford where she continues a full-ride scholarship based on her SAT scores. This man gives Oceanside Adventist Elementary credit for starting his daughter off right. “She received a well-rounded education, including the arts, music, and leadership,” he said, “She learned to think for herself and to work hard for what she wants.”
What really sets us apart, though, is that we offer a world class education to an extremely diverse population of students at an absurdly low tuition rate. Our tuition is low because we crave that diversity in student population and we believe it is one of our major strengths. Subsidized by our local church and by many donors who believe in what we are accomplishing, OAE offers tuition prices that are lower than anyone and yet we provide more.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
To me, success is not defined by career path or by financial accomplishment. It’s not a stack of accommodations, diplomas, or awards. No, success is better defined by wholehearted living, by creating a future through the choices I make, by positively impacting the people around me, by growing through failure, and by living the life my Creator has planned for me. This is what I want for our students as well. Our children need to be prepared for jobs that haven’t been invented yet. They need grit, a growth mindset, the ability to think for themselves, and an understanding that living wholehearted, happy lives is of more value than wealth.
Success in students is easily identified by the interested gleam in their eyes, thoughtful questions, a growing curiosity in many topics, and developing social skills that reach beyond age groups.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1943 California Street
Oceanside, CA 92054 - Website: myoae.com
- Phone: (760) 722-6894
- Email: principal@myoae.com
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