Del Groen
Email Address: dgroen@dayspringeagles.org
Direct Phone Line: 970-584-2585
Since children are the present treasure and future leaders of our nation, and on a larger scale, the present treasure and future leaders of the kingdom of God, I find that involvement in the Christian education of our youth is both rewarding and a monumental responsibility. With that level of responsibility, it is impossible to be satisfied with mediocrity. We must be excellent as a school.
To help you grasp my passion for Christian education, it may be useful to take a glance back in time. In 1953 my career in Christian education started as a first grade student in a brand new brick school building of a Christian school that my father had attended in his youth. I had the opportunity to continue my Christian education at a regional Christian high school in a neighboring town. The academic standards and expectations were high, and the integration of Biblical truth and Biblical truth were exemplary.
As one of fourteen children, I am forever grateful to the sacrifice that my parents made to ensure that we all had an education that was Christ-centered. To be able to provide a Christian education for us, they invested in things that are enduring and steered away from things that depreciated. They were very conscientious in distinguishing between needs and wants as well as between self-gratification and service to others.
College began with a four-year stint in a high-standards Christian college. Cultivating a relationship with Christ and a Biblical worldview were core objectives, and it showed through the coursework.
Is a Christian education relevant? In my service with the U.S. Marine Corps, including a tour of duty in Vietnam, there were serious challenges and hardships. It was the Christian integration (not the academic excellence and facts) of my education that provided direction and comfort, which kept me from the immorality that was rampant in that setting and kept my faith intact in a harsh environment.
Graduate school consisted of two graduate degrees. I earned a Master's Degree, and then another degree between a Master's Degree and a Doctor's Degree called an Education Specialist (Ed.S.) in administration. I found my graduate work at a secular university much less challenging than the prior sixteen years of Christian education.
As the Executive Director of Dayspring, I seek to evaluate my decisions and the direction of DCA
- through the lens of scripture, and
- through the Bible-based DCA vision: Christ-centered Education and
- through the DCA mission: Equipping the heart, soul, mind, and body of each student from a Biblical perspective in partnership with the Christian home. This mission statement reflects our view of parents. The Bible teaches that the parents (not the government) are responsible for the education of their children. So we view ourselves as parent representatives in the educational process.
I keep DCA's vision and mission posted just above my computer, so that I am always reminded to screen what we do through the Bible and these focal documents.
Parents, thank you for allowing me the privilege of being your partner in the Christ-centered education of your children.
