At our September 21, 2026, groundbreaking ceremony for the "Room to Grow, Space to Thrive" capital campaign, Fourth Grade teacher Lisa Cunningham shared a story that captured both the heart of Mars Hill Academy and the need for expansion. Her remarks remind us that this campaign is about far more than bricks and mortar. It is about creating the space to continue the work Mars Hill has been called to do: cultivating wisdom, forming souls, and teaching students to seek truth, beauty, and goodness.
By Lisa Cunningham
Fourth Grade Teacher
Let me start with a riddle!
What do these three things have in common?
- Seventh-grade Latin class reciting Latin chants
- Seniors’ astronomy class listening to a video clip about the stars
- Kindergarten class working on a messy paint project with a student calling out, “I’ve got paint on my pants”
I’ll give you some time to think about that riddle.
Many moons ago Mr. Cunningham and I chose to have our own children classically educated with a Christian worldview.
We found and have happily been part of this Mars Hill community now for over 22 years. We’ve graduated our six children from here, and this year I get to give my grandson, Charlie, a daily hug at the preschool lunch table.
Families, like mine and like yours, want to be at Mars Hill Academy.
Why?
Is it because our students…
- have a Bible class?
- learn Latin?
- sing songs and chants in the grammar school?
- take a Logic class?
- take a rhetoric class and write a paper over 10 pages, give an oral presentation, and then field hard questions?
Yes - These things do make Mars Hill special and unique, but there’s more…. so much more.
We want these students to understand what it means to be a human being.
Who am I?
Who is God?
How am I suppose to relate to Him?
We are seeking to transform souls (not just minds). We are trying to impart wisdom, not just knowledge.
We want our graduates to be able to think clearly, listen carefully, speak with precision, and to reason persuasively while recognizing that supreme authority comes from God and His Word.
These are the reasons I’m here, and these are the reasons why our parents chose Mars Hill for their children.
There’s just one problem - we’ve run out of room!
Which sends us back to the riddle.
What did the seventh-grade Latin, senior astronomy, and Kindergarten art classes all have in common?
I actually lived this “riddle” 10 years ago when I taught seventh grade Latin.
These classes met in the lunchroom...
AT THE EXACT SAME TIME.
As I can testify, we were out of space over a decade ago, and we’ve been using every square inch of this building for years in order to give students this unique classical, Christian education.
And now our building expansion with nine new classrooms — that we are breaking ground for today — gives us an opportunity to teach more students, and it gives us an opportunity to fully embrace goodness and beauty while we teach truth (with each class in its own classroom!).
To God be the glory.