Finding Purpose, Faith, and Friendship at Valor Christian High School

In this episode of "The Cross and The Classroom," host Toby Coffman shares a special conversation with Asa Thurstone, Valor's 2025 valedictorian, now several months into his first year at Wheaton College. The episode offers a reflective look at his journey through Valor, including his commitment to tennis, his leadership as team chaplain, and his impactful experiences on medical mission trips to Mexico.

Asa discusses how his early Spanish immersion education made him the youngest student at Valor to achieve the highest stamp certification for Spanish, and how those skills have continued to open doors for him. The conversation explores the challenges of balancing academics, extracurriculars, and friendships, while emphasizing the role faith played in Asa’s decision-making—particularly in choosing Wheaton for its meaningful Christian community over more nationally ranked schools.

Sharing hard-earned wisdom and practical advice, Asa encourages current and future students to resist self-consciousness, stay committed to their values, and make the most of the unique opportunities the Valor community offers.

Thank you for listening. To learn more about Valor Christian High School please check out our website. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook!

Transcript

0:01

Well, Asa, thanks for joining us today. It means a lot to get to talk to you before you head off to college. And I think a lot of what we want to do today is just tell people your story and kind of your background and what you did at Valor and how you think Valor prepared you for the future and where that future is and where you'll be. So you're about, what, five or six weeks away from moving to college at this point? Pretty scary. And you're going to Wheaton College in Illinois. Okay. That makes a lot of people here happy. Good connection with Wheaton. So how I'd like to begin is just to have you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, what you did at Valor, how you used your time here in the classroom, outside of the classroom, with discovery, with any other areas of involvement while you were here. Yeah, absolutely. Here at Valor, I was involved in a lot of things. I played tennis all four years, three of which were. I was on the varsity team here at Ballard my senior year. I also had the opportunity and the privilege to be the tennis team chaplain. So that was a wonderful experience. Otherwise, I was a member of the pre Health Science club all four years. And I went on the Mexico medical trip three times. I almost went to fourth, but three was. That was a lot of experience there. Yeah, Valor was wonderful for me. I'm very grateful for it. And before Valor, Starting at age 3, I went to the International School of Denver, where I was in Spanish language immersion education from K1. So 3 years old up through 6th grade. That was wonderful. I have a lot of happy memories from that time. And then for seventh and eighth grades, I went to Cherry Hills Christian Middle School right across the street and have some good friends still from. From that time. Cool. Was Valor always your intended destination or was this something that came about maybe later in the process? It was actually something that came up pretty serendipitously. Like Tatum, my older sister, who's two years older than I am, decided to shadow at Valor, just without having any knowledge of the school, just testing it out. Oh, there's a Christian school in Highlands Ranch, which was far for us then. So she just tried it out and she loved it. Which is kind of funny because there was actually a fight that broke out that day. But she said that doesn't happen very often. Yeah, no, it doesn't. But it was. She said, gosh, like, even in this, Valor is so amazing. And. And so she decided to go there, which was weird for us. Cause we lived in Denver still. And so My dad said, all right, either we move houses or we move schools. And so we decided to move houses and. Cause I was originally geared up to go to George Washington High School in Denver. That was my school option. But. So Valor was something that came up pretty abruptly by luck, by chance. Yeah. Cool. So Tatum makes the decision, you transfer to Cherry Hills, and the rest is history. The rest is history. Very cool. So there. There are some threads even in that story that I think would be worth pursuing. One would. Let's. Let's talk a little bit about your proficiency with language and getting immersed in Spanish from a young age. And I know you were very successful with Spanish here. You have Mexico Medical as part of your discovery experience background while you were at Valor as well. So, yeah, just talk to me a little bit about how that's influenced and shaped you to grow up in a bilingual context in that way. Sure, absolutely. I'd say that one of my biggest blessings, the biggest gifts that my parents gave me was through language education, because it's allowed me to have all. All sorts of opportunities that are pretty uncommon and really cool. Like in fifth grade, I went for two weeks by myself. Well, with my grade at the International school to Spain, where we stayed with host families for two weeks. And that was. I have very happy memories from there, being able to speak Spanish with the locals and so forth. And then at Valor on Mexico, Manacle, I got to be a clinic translator for patients three times. And I got a lot better at my Spanish. I learned more of their slang and stuff, and. And medical terminology. Medical terminology in Spanish, which is pretty. Pretty specific. But I had all sorts of opportunities to grow in those areas. Yeah. Being sensitive to other cultures and so forth. So are there any plans to follow up on that in college and pursue language and things like that? Yeah. So my career goal has always been to become a doctor. And Wheaton just opened up a new class maybe about a year ago, which is medical Spanish. So I'm hoping to test out of Spanish and then move to advanced oral Spanish and then go to medical Spanish to get even more in the. In the roots of. Yeah. Medical Spanish. Being able to use it more. That's very serendipitous timing. Yeah, that's great. You're the valedictorian this year, which is. Congratulations again. It's an enormous accomplishment. Thank you. You did. If I'm remembering correctly, and you can help me if I'm wrong. 12 APS. Yeah, that sounds right. And another dozen honors or dual credit level courses. You were the youngest student to Ever get the highest stamp certification for Spanish language at Valor. You do tennis. You're interested in medicine and missions. That's right. How did you. How did you find time? How did you. How did you balance all of. All of these different things with being a teenager who has friends and has dinner with family and, you know, things like that, too? Sure. Balancing time for me was a challenge, but it was awesome, too, because I got to learn time management through Valor, because Valor is very rigorous. You really need to take everything you do seriously, and that's what I did. I remember spending an inordinate amount of time on homework some nights, but I remember always carving out time on the weekends to become better friends with the people close to me, to play tennis with my dad. He's been my PE Coach all my life, so. Yeah, I don't know. That's a good question. Because, frankly, looking back on my high school experience, I'd say that in some. In many ways, I didn't do a good job of balancing my time, but. Yeah. Yeah, but it all. All came together. It all came together. Was. Was valedictorian with that your first day of freshman year, would you have said, this is a goal that I have, or is that something that develop time? Yeah. No. I was actually counseled by a lot of people going into Valor not to take all honors classes my freshman year, but I didn't listen to them, and I did it anyway, kind of because I wanted to keep up with some of my other friends who were just really smart. I have very smart friends here at Valor, but. So I wanted to keep up with them, and then it wasn't a goal of mine until probably senior year when I was made aware of my class rank, but. Okay. Yeah, no, it just. It just came to me, I guess. That's great. Yeah. Kind of. Probably an easier way to step into a goal like that, rather than August 20th of your freshman year staking that claim. Yeah. Um, so, yeah, I'd love to hear kind of about the. The people and the classes here at Valor that had a deep impact on you. So teachers, coaches, friends, and then specific coursework that really made an impact on you, too? Ye. Sure. So, first of all, whenever I'm called upon to give kind of an account of Valor to people who aren't familiar with Valor, I always say that the teachers here are just fantastic. And seriously, mentors, friends, intellectuals, role models, you know, so the teachers here are wonderful. And I was very fortunate to be able to. Well, I don't want to say take advantage of the teachers here, but like, you know, use the teachers for mentors and friends and so forth because it's, it's very nice here. And I also got the chance to attend a lot of Bible studies here, so I got to grow closer with a lot of friends through their Bible studies. And I'd say that one class in particular that stood out to me was AP chemistry with Mr. Z. Just because he is really funny. He's a great teacher here. Yeah. And I would recommend that people take AP Chemistry because it also forced me to learn some things on my own. Is one of the few AP classes where it's actually a full year of college level coursework in a year of high school. So there, there's a lot of material that we can't get to in class. And so it really stretched me. Okay. Yeah, that's very cool. Um, we've got, you know, 200 plus, almost 300 freshmen coming into the building here in about six weeks. What would be the. What would be the advice that you would give them as they start their valor journey? My. My oldest son is one of them, so I'm going to make him listen to this part. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Well, it's funny because I was invited to speak at the commencement ceremony for Cherry Hills Christian School. So I got to give some rising freshmen, a lot of whom are valor rising freshmen, some pieces of advice. And I focused on resisting self consciousness, staying sober, and getting involved in as much as possible. And so I'd say that one big issue for me my freshman year was caring way too much about what people thought of me. And I really see that as, like, so much time wasted. Now, in hindsight, I wasted so much time on that. And then secondly, I'm very grateful for having stayed sober from not only drugs and alcohol, but a lot of other influences that aren't that still equally creep up into your mind. And like I said in my graduation speech, those things that creep in your mind and have you give something less than to God, you know, and then. Yeah, I like. Cause alcohol is stark. Right. You're either drinking or you're not drinking. But there are other influences that are subtler and wilier and can creep in. In a way and in some cases, just as harmful. Yeah. And the third thing was, was getting. Involved in as much as possible. Yeah, yeah. It's super important here. Valor is extraordinary. Has so many great opportunities here. Discovery trips, classes. You get to decide the rigor of your coursework, athletics. The opportunities here are so amazing. And so I'd really counsel rising freshmen At Valor to take advantage of it. That's. That's phenomenal advice. And I think the. My. My son got to attend my senior Bible class last year for a session. Yeah. And I had set it up with him. Hey guys, just give him some advice on how to, how to thrive in high school. And one of the recurrent themes amongst these kids who are a couple months away from graduation in your class was choose your friends. Well, that, and I think everything that you're talking about, the self consciousness, if you've got the right group of people that you're around, they help you to be freed from self consciousness, they help you to stay sober, they help you to be involved in the right things. And so you've mentioned your friends multiple times and, and, and how did you find your friend group and, and kind of link arms with these people and do high school together? Sure. I'd say that I really found my friends. Unfortunately, like the really lasting group. We call ourselves the Snooze Club because we have French at snooze. Sometimes it's not because you're lazy and. Yeah, okay. But we really got to know each other senior year. So that's where I was saying that's so much time wasted of being self conscious about who you're hanging out with. Just go out and be with the people who build you up, whom you can build up, who teach you new things and so forth. So, yeah, those were my friends coming out of Valor. I love that, Asa. And I think there's even like a note of grace there too, that it's never too late. You can, you can find like your amazing friends your senior year. And I had sort of a similar story. I came to Christ right before my senior year of high school. And it was sort of the same where all of a sudden I started hanging out with a different crew of people. And they really helped shape the person that I would be in college in the years beyond that. And so even that, I think there's encouragement that, that there is. It's. It's never too late to really kind of plug in and, and find your people. Um, so you gave a really great commencement speech. Thank you. You can't say that, but I can say that. Okay. It was excellent. Um, and the. One of the themes that came up. And I'm going to kind of transition to talking a little bit about going forward for you with college. But you quoted a bunch of Wheaton professors. Active and inactive, I think. Right. Some a little bit older and. Yeah. And I'd love you to talk a little bit about some of the themes of your graduation speech here and also how you found so many Wheaton sources apropos to those themes. Yeah, sure. So I had about a week to decide on the mission, on the purpose, on what I wanted to focus on for that speech. And I landed on the first fruits, which in the Old Testament are prescribed as, like, the first and best portion of the harvests of everything they have. So in the Old Testament, they have laws about giving this many spices and so forth to God. And that's. I thought, wow, well, that's a great theme because we need to give our first 10% wherever we're planted. So the major theme of my speech was the first fruits. And I focused in the speech about how all paths are wonderful and equal and equally valid opportunities to give God our first fruits. So. So I talked about my classmates pursuing ministry and military service, college athletics, going into the workforce immediately, and also just continued study. Yeah. I remember thinking during your speech that I think a lot of us are tempted to give last fruits to God. Yes. Last fruits. It's like the remainder of, I've kind of taken care of me and everything that I want, and God can have what's left. How does this, like, first fruits idea reorient the way a lot of us think about generosity and giving to the Lord? That's a great question. I think it's important. And I quoted, or I paraphrased my pastor, who gave a quote one time, the biggest disparity and the biggest injustice and the whole universe is what God is due and what we actually give him. And in the Bible, in Isaiah, it talks about how even our best works are just filthy rags. So the least we can do is the best we can give. So I. When I began to think of, gosh, God, you're so worthy of all this stuff, the least I can do is giving you my first, first best fruits. That really changed my view on things. That's great. Yeah. And then all the Wheaton quotes. Yes, all the Wheaton quotes. Yeah. So I. I quoted. Let's see here. I quoted professor emeritus of English, Leland Reichen, who is President Reichen's father. And they gave wonderful quotes about vocational theology, just kind of how you can bloom where you're planted. And in fact, there's a famous quote. I wanted to throw it in there. It's famously attributed to Martin Luther, but he didn't actually say it. I read the Dairy Maid. Yes. Yeah, the dairy maid. Or when she sweeps floors, she's worshipping God. The same as a pious monk praying. But she doesn't have to be singing Christian hymns. It's just that God loves clean floors. And the same is true for a Christian shoemaker. He doesn't have to etch in little crosses on each pair of shoe shoes. And what he does is he just pours his heart and soul into every pair of shoe shoes. Because God is interested in good craftsmanship. So that kind of mentality of, well, you know, all vocations are equally wonderful opportunities to bring God this first fruits. Yeah. I always just think too, like, how generous that is of God. Because if the only acts we did that counted were pious prayers. Right. Like very little of my life would actually be giving direct glory to God. But if you can give glory to God through the way you study for a test or write an essay or something, it just expands enormously your capacity to give God glory and honor through what you do. Exactly. Things is like just as you said, things as mundane things as seemingly insignificant as studying for a test. It's wonderful for giving God your first portion. Yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah. So, Asa, I think it's clear now to our audience that you're going to Wheaton next year. But one of the most interesting things I think about your decision and one of the things that makes you really unique is that you had the opportunity to go to other places that I think by certainly worldly standards or US News and World Report absolutely are more elite or selective than Wheaton. So kind of walk me through your. Your process there of choosing Wheaton over other alternatives. My family has a big philosophy of not of making your own list of schools. Throw all the rankings out the window. Because what matters most is where you are going to flourish and bloom, where you're planted. And some schools allow different people to do that more than at other places. So Wheaton was a place where I knew for myself that I could really flourish and really take advantage of. I mean, with the small environment, weekly lunches with professors, and that close mentorship. And I've already been offered maybe in one of, when I'm an upperclassman, being a TA and all that, and see those kinds of opportunities, Wheaton affords me that. At other places I wouldn't have those opportunities. But as for my college decision, I based it on a few things. And I'd say number one was its sincere Christianity, because there are many schools that are Christian in name only, Christian on a piece of college marketing material, Christian on Instagram, or we call it lower C Christianity. Yeah, yeah, Lower C Christianity. And Wheaton was a place where we went again, this is serendipitously, we went, like invited on a whim to go to a Friday at Wheaton when I was a freshman, my sister was a junior, and we went to a Friday at Wheaton. We went to a chapel service and we see this whole student body worshiping God all together at one of their chapels. And we were blown away. We're like, this is capital C, Christian. And we see Christianity permeate everything at Wheaton. That was very attractive for us. And then I'd say secondly, that I wanted to choose a school whose mission is to educate undergraduate students. And Wheaton has wonderful graduate programs, but many schools that are very popular, like on U.S. news and World Report, make name for the names for themselves in the sphere of graduate and postgraduate education. They have tons of Nobel laureates and so forth, but none of that carries across into the sphere of undergraduate education. So for me, having these giants in their fields stoop down to educate kind of a lowly undergraduate student was very important to me, having those opportunities. Man, what a. What a thoughtful process to walk through your senior year as well. And you were telling me before the interview that you're going out there and there's a two week program even before you begin, of getting to know your classmates. That's right. Just being immersed in each other in the Word and loving and worshiping Christ together. And so I think you've. I think you've prepared well for what's next. Thank you. So, asa, we're. We're running low on time, but just want to thank you again for being here and give you the opportunity to offer any. Any last words or thoughts that you would have. Sure. So I would say, and I've given. Having graduated, I can like really give people advice, knowing things about the ins and outs of Valor. And I've given people the advice again, take school seriously at Valor, because it affords its students such tremendous opportunities that aren't found in other schools. In fact, here we talked about earlier, we're sitting in the basement of a high school in this really nice studio. Um, and so this is just an example of what Valor has to offer. So taking school very seriously is. Is very important. But, yeah, I guess I don't have much else to say. This is wonderful. That's fantastic. And yeah, I think just from the entire school, we just are super proud of you and excited to see where the Lord takes you, how you continue to respond and discern his calling on your life. And thank you for the impact that you've had here and the impact that we trust by God's grace, you'll have as you go forth from this place. Thank you very much. You're welcome.