Stacie Zorichak graduated from The Master’s University as a teacher education major in 2002 and went on to earn her teaching credential from TMU. Since 2004 she has worked at Legacy Christian Academy in Valencia, California, first as a teacher and now as the head of school over Legacy’s elementary school. She also serves as an adjunct professor in TMU’s School of Education.
We recently asked her a few questions about her time at TMU and what the Lord is doing in her life now.
Legacy is a unique school because it’s a mission-minded school. Probably 60-70% of the families are unchurched, so it makes for an incredible missional opportunity to be able to be open about our faith.
We’ve seen whole families come to Christ after they started going to church because their kids wanted to. The students see the example that their teachers are setting; they see their teachers’ love for the Word and for church, and so the students want to get plugged in and involved too. And soon the whole family starts going. So it’s been a really neat opportunity to see Christ at work in the hearts and lives of these families.
Part of my job is getting to partner with the parents of believing families, reinforcing what they’re teaching at home when their students are at school. With unbelieving parents, I get to be that example of Christ in their lives, consistently loving them and building relationships with them. And then for the believing families, I get to reflect Christ and partner with them in shepherding the hearts of their children.
There are so many! One of my first experiences was with Dr. (William) Varner in Old Testament Survey. That really gave me a passion for the history and land of Israel, which led me to attend a life-changing semester in IBEX. I loved all of my Bible and education professors. I also took extra classes in English with Dr. Grant Horner, like his Milton course. I didn’t even need it as an education major, but it was just so good. I was trying to absorb all that I could while I was at TMU.
When I was in high school, I was looking at all of these different schools and their credentialing programs, from Stanford to Pepperdine. I remember going into the education department at Master’s, and I was like, “This is the best education department. They do the most hands-on work, and they love the Lord, and they love the students.” You could just see that on display, even during the view weekends.
Someone questioned why I would choose this tiny Christian school over a bigger institution. And I said, “But my students aren’t going to care where I graduated from; they’re going to care that I’m the best teacher that they can have.” And all of my professors were pivotal in shaping me into who I am today as a teacher. They modeled a desire to educate the child as a whole person, with an emphasis on academic excellence within a Christian worldview. This equips students to be the best they can be in their future fields of study, whatever God may call them to.
He is teaching me dependency on Him. I think that when you are in a place of leadership, and people are looking to you to make a lot of decisions, you need to depend on His wisdom and not your own strength. You have to be able to die to yourself so that you can be filled with His Spirit so you can love people and see things from His perspective and not my human one. It’s continually His strength being made perfect in my weakness — because He has all of the answers, and I don’t.
