MOULTRIE – Nestor Colls-Senaha, the new head of the Colquitt Christian Academy, said that he’s very impressed with the students at the private school and he wants to stick with what the school knows and does best.
“I’ve never been in a Classical Christian Education setting like this, so when I first got here, I was drawn because of the spirit of the people. It’s really nice. It’s sweet,” he said.
Colls-Senaha got here in June, when school was already out, but he got to meet some of the students after the awards ceremony at the graduation.
“I was just very impressed with their character. They’re very respectful. They have a servant’s heart. … They’re polite. I mean, I walk and they’ll open the door for me … and they do that for everyone,” Colls-Senaha said, adding that he has heard praise from the community about how respectful the CCA students were.
The child of an Air Force veteran, Colls-Senaha is a veteran of the United States Army himself, and he retired as a lieutenant colonel after 23 years of service. He and his wife, Vicki, who was born and raised in Crosland, moved to Moultrie from Savannah. He said that they wanted their children to have the opportunity to live closer to family.
He was a part-time, adjunct professor for Webster, Capella and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Universities and eventually became South University’s program director for the business department in Savannah.
What inspired Colls-Senaha to be an educator, he said, was that God put a handful of teachers in his path that encouraged him, believed in him, invested time in him and continually told him that if he set his mind to something, the sky was the limit.
He said that he never imagined that he would teach below the college level but when he first got here, he was hired at C.A. Gray Junior High to be an engineering technology teacher for the eighth grade.
He said he knew that there were differences in teaching younger students versus adults but teaching at the junior high allowed him to see and better understand the differences.
“I think it’s universal. You treat everyone with respect, encourage them and make them feel welcome. It doesn’t matter whether they’re kindergarten all the way to high school level, they respond the same way,” he said.
Colls-Senaha said that he had always come from smaller schools and was ignorant because when he came to Moultrie, he was thinking, “It’s a smaller town, smaller schools.” He said when he first got to the junior high, there were about 1,600 eighth and ninth-graders and he had no idea that there would be that many students.
“But again, treat them with respect and encourage them. … And they try to meet your expectations. I told them, ‘You know what? You need to set your own expectations and, once you do that, you’ll always exceed them.’ The majority of my students always did,” he said.
Colls-Senaha said that what he likes about CCA is that it’s still a small school and the teachers are able to work with students and, if students aren’t on the level that they are supposed to be, the teachers are able to help them get to that level. On the other hand, he said, for students who were at their level, the curriculum was rigorous enough to take them to the next level.
“I like still having a smaller student population where the teachers can take that much more time. … With the Classical Christian Education, I like it because, sometimes, we mold the child to the curriculum and with this, we can mold the curriculum to the child,” he said.
He said it goes back to whoever they are, the curriculum can be adjusted to assure that they get to the level they need to be on or even higher.
He also said that he believed that teachers needed to bring a lot of energy to the classroom because, “If a teacher can’t get excited about a subject, why should a student?”
“I believe teachers impart more by way of example than precept and students are very perceptive in recognizing when a teacher does not practice what (s)he preaches,” Colls-Senaha said.
He said that there were several values that the school teaches, by words and by actions, like, “who we are in Christ, what does scripture say about the subject, respect for other people and their views, the value of clear and effective communication both written and oral format, a positive atmosphere, the value of critical scholarship, the importance of organization, preparation and homework, to name a few.”
“Also, we are blessed at CCA because I truly believe God hand-selected each of the teachers that reflect the same philosophy and values. They are faithful, knowledgeable, passionate, loving, selfless and enjoy what they do every day,” he said.
Colls-Senaha said that the academy’s aim, along with his, was to graduate young men and women who think clearly and listen carefully with discernment and understanding; who reason persuasively and articulate precisely; who are capable of evaluating their entire range of experience in the light of scripture and “who do so with eagerness in joyful submission to God.”
“Our prayer is that every parent, student, teacher, staff, administrator, community member or person who steps through our doors will know they are loved, they have value, they are special and if they keep their eyes on Jesus Christ, literally the sky’s the limit,” he said.
His long-term goal, he said, was that the sixth grade class, which was the largest at 15 students, would all receive scholarships to colleges when they graduated. His motivation is that the four seniors, who graduated last year from CCA, all received scholarships.
This year, CCA celebrates its tenth anniversary and, in that short period of time, he said, it has become a Georgia Accrediting Commission accredited school. Right now, the school is in the process of receiving their Association of Classical Christian Education accreditation.
Colls-Senaha said that he has heard from many people in the community that CCA is one of Moultrie’s best kept secrets.
“And I’m willing to let the secret out because CCA is a really good school,” he said.
He referenced the Bible verse Matthew 5:14-16, which is about putting a lamp on a stand instead of under a basket so that it gives light to everyone in a house and correlating that to people being a light to others with their good works.
“I want CCA to be a light so people of Colquitt County can see our good works and give all the glory to God,” he said.