The NorthStar Narrative
The NorthStar Narrative
Fostering Friendships Across Borders
Zoe and Rachel, club coordinators at NorthStar Academy, share their experiences of building community within an online educational environment. They emphasize the importance of connection, leadership, and fostering a sense of belonging through diverse clubs, illustrating how these initiatives create meaningful relationships among students.
• Discussion on their personal experiences at NorthStar
• Importance of online community and global connections
• Overview of club coordinators' responsibilities
• Types of clubs and their impact on student life
• Insights into leadership and teamwork in coordination roles
• The significance of fostering a sense of belonging
• Encouragement for students to reach out and join communities
Hi, this is Stephanie Schaefer and you're listening to the North Star Narrative, a podcast from North Star Academy. I want to thank you for joining us. I hope you're encouraged, challenged and motivated by what you learned today. Enjoy the story. Hey everybody, welcome to this week's episode. I'm so excited to continue to get to speak with our North Star students, so we have another episode with two of our incredible students that are going to be talking about their experience this year as club coordinators. So both Zoe Barbier and Rachel Gordy are club coordinators for North Star this year and they have agreed to come on and tell about their experience at North Star. They've both been here for quite a few years and one of them is even ready to graduate really soon, rachel and so we're excited just to hear about their experience and what God is doing across our community from their perspective. So thanks, ladies, so much for joining me today. Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's good to be here. It's so fun day.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having us. Yeah, it's good to be here. It's so fun. Yeah, because it's Rachel's second time, so she is not new to the podcast, but we welcome Zoe for the first time coming on and sharing a little bit with us today. All right, ladies, so just so everyone can get to know you a little bit more, tell us how long you've been at Northstar, what year you're in now and maybe one of your favorite things about Northstar community, what year you're in now and maybe one of your favorite things about Northstar community. Especially for those that don't understand, how can you possibly have a community online? Who wants to go first?
Speaker 2:I can go. So I'm Rachel. I've been at Northstar, for this is my fifth year. Yeah, so this is my fifth year at North Star. I am a senior, so I'll be graduating in June. I'm really excited. That's one of the things I love about North Star community actually is we have a in-person graduation where we all meet up. So I'm really excited to do that. And then I also love how there's always someone at Northstar who's happy to help you with something or talk through something with you or support you. You know you can message somebody anytime or get them on a live call, and it's really cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really love that too and I can't wait to see you. It'll be here, before you know it, in June, our next graduation. It's always a highlight for our staff and students and parents, so super excited with you, rachel. All right, zoe, tell us a little bit about you. You're not quite a senior yet, but you're heading that way yes, uh, so hey everyone, I'm zoe.
Speaker 3:I am 17 years old, I've been this is my third year at north star uh, I'm a junior, so I'm graduating 2026 and, yeah, one of my favorite things about north star community is, well, first of all, the teachers and how they are just always wanting help and willing to help and like go to the furthest lengths they can go to help, whether that's by message, by calls, whatever it is each student needs. And then also the students I think are highlights, because it really makes marstar be the place that it is just so many incredible people who you can shoot a message to and just get start talking, and all of them are incredibly nice, fun to talk to. And, yeah, it's just, the atmosphere at Northstar is one that I didn't expect to find at an online school, but I am really happy that I did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so fun, and one of my favorite things about the community is that usually, whenever you're on a call with multiple people, you've got multiple countries represented, and we do today as well. So Rachel and I are in the States, but Zoe, tell us where you are.
Speaker 3:Yes, I'm in Argentina, I was born and raised here and, yeah, still doing her today.
Speaker 1:So, so fun. One out of three is outside of the US, and so I know y'all have gotten to meet lots of students in all kinds of countries. What's one of your favorite things about that? About being a global community?
Speaker 2:I think it's really cool that I'm learning to relate to things that go on in the news and that kind of thing. It's not just something that's far away and doesn't affect me. I'm like, oh, something's happening in this country. I know so-and-so who lives there and you know, I'm getting I don't know. I just it's so much easier to care about the things that are going on. When you know people who live there. It feels real.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's huge, rachel. I'm so excited for you and many students that get to experience. Yeah, just different view in the world through different people's eyes and getting to see things. And then when we do hear about something, you're like you know, because unfortunately we hear about things like earthquakes, you know different storms or things happening, wars, things happening in other countries, and I know, rachel, zoe, like we're like oh, who's in that country? We know so-and-so how do we check on them? Yeah, have you had an experience like that, zoe, with even people in the us? Or what's your? What's your favorite thing about being a global community?
Speaker 3:oh yeah, like rachel mentioned, I think it makes everything that's going on outside, where I'm at, a lot more real, because I I know someone from there, so it kind of makes it a more like vivid experience in a sense, where I can really know what's going on better.
Speaker 3:But also I really love I was when I first came to north. Third, like when I first started here I thought that it was just mainly like people in the us so I wouldn't really relate to just having a lot of international students. But I've come to find out that couldn't be further from the truth and there's so many international students here and what I love about that is that sometimes there are certain things that, like people in the US can't necessarily relate to about being at different countries, and especially if they are like not um countries, like maybe that are struggling in some ways. So I really love just having people to talk to about that sort of stuff and who really understand what I'm going through and, yeah, kind of like more of the difficulties that can happen because from living in another country yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, the experiences we get to learn from each other, and I love it because sometimes we can get so comfortable or used to being like in our little area or corner of the world that we don't think about and we don't pray for or care for. You know people in other parts of the countries and so at North Star you really have to try hard not to find out about other places in the world right Like Hyde to not meet students from other places around the world. So I love it in the courses. You know teachers pulling out things, learning about different parts of the world. So one of the main reasons we're here is to talk about clubs. So I want to hear your perspective as a club coordinator. What is it like being a club coordinator? Why are you doing it, what is behind the scenes, and then also tell us about our clubs, what type of clubs, who's involved in clubs and just the overall community that is built through clubs. So y'all can just take turns sharing your experience and talking about some of those areas.
Speaker 3:So basically, as club coordinators, what we do is manage the starting process of clubs, so how to begin a club, how to open it and then work with the leaders to check in on them, help them in whatever they need help with and, yeah, help make clubs work as best as possible. We have several clubs as best as possible. We have several clubs. We have currently nine open clubs and they vary from like. There are different types of clubs for different people with different interests. So we have a creative writing club, a visual arts club, a book club, a sports and fitness club, a music club, chess club, missions club and then Bible club and the culinary arts club. So those are the clubs that we have open right now and I really, as a club coordinator, I really love watching how people kind of get to share their passions through club, because it sometimes can be hard in an online school to find people who with the same interests and you who like doing the same thing, the same activities. So through clubs, it's really amazing how people can relate and talk to one another and share their passion and help each other out. I've loved just watching the community that forms between clubs. It can really be a really tight one where just everyone cares for each other and is helping each other out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I wanted to be a club coordinator because I really wanted to help students find places where they felt like they belonged at NSA. So sometimes it can be I like speak to my personal experience a little intimidating at first when you first join. There's so many things to do that you don't really know where to begin. Intimidating at first when you first joined just so many things to do that you don't really know where to begin. So I wanted to help create places through clubs where people can interact with people that are have similar interests so they could, yeah, find places where they could feel like they belong with people that just like similar things with them. So, yeah, I really love watching clubs grow over this past semester. Rachel, anything to add to that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think something that stood out to me about what you said, zoe, was how everyone can find a community that shares their interests. And I think that's my favorite thing about clubs at Northstar is, you know, sometimes you have something that you're interested in and you think, like I'm the only one, nobody else cares about this. But then you know, I've seen some posts in the book club or the visual arts club or whatever the club is, and someone's like, oh my goodness, yes, I love this book or I love this type of art, and it's just so fun watching people get to meet others who share their interests and then they get to, you know, not feel alone in their interests, and they get to learn from each other and grow, and it's just so fun. I feel like I never imagined that North Star would have so many clubs and that the clubs would be so active I guess would be the word, because I mean they're having competitions and live calls and it's just, it's really cool.
Speaker 1:That's so cool as I hear you talk. Both of you you really are networkers and networking is so fun and an incredible skill to carry on with you because you're putting people together with the same interests and they're getting to know one another and then learning from one another and making lifelong friendships. And you know who knows how that's going to carry on between people that are in clubs for the rest of their lives when they get you know who knows how that's going to carry on between people that are in clubs for the rest of their lives when they get you know out in the world in college, encouraging one another and then introducing people, do you see yourselves as networkers?
Speaker 2:I haven't really thought about it like that before, but I definitely have noticed that the role of a club coordinator is a lot of connecting people and helping people figure out how to do what they want to do, you know, with starting a club or whatever. Um, so yeah, I haven't really thought about that before, but I think you're right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it. It's so much fun getting to know people. Like the podcast to me has been really cool in a type of networking, getting to hear people's stories, what they're interested in, what they're doing, and then I might find, oh did you know this other person? Let me hook you up with them and have a conversation and just see what comes of that, how y'all can partner together, and just see what you know comes of that, how y'all can partner together. So I love that y'all are both seeing the fruit of that and the fun in that and just enjoying it and providing so many really cool avenues for people to flourish and get to know people and then, you know, pursue their passions. So people that aren't involved in North Star, that might be listening or haven't done online school, where do you meet? What does it look like? Like? Give us a visual.
Speaker 3:So clubs are in teams, so all clubs are separate. These are all high school clubs that we talked about. There are a few elementary and middle school clubs that are in the general, like teams for middle school and elementary school, but all high school clubs have their own team, so with separate channels. So, for example, thinking about the visual arts club, they have their general channel and they have different channels for different interests, like different types of arts, like painting, drawing, mixed media, photography, like I'm thinking how there was a student, a couple students were really interested in legos, so in lego. So they asked, can we have a lego channel? And they made a lego channel.
Speaker 2:So yeah, basically, different channels for different types of interest and yeah, rachel, anything you want to add to that yeah, and then there's also clubs that function a little bit differently, like the chess club or the bible club, where, um, the chess club has, like, they use a website where you can play chess online, and so they use the club to coordinate how they're gonna use the website to play chess, and all of this is monitored by a staff member, um, but the club allows them to get together so that they can play chess with people that they know, and for a while they had a tournament running where they were.
Speaker 2:You know they would play chess and then come back to the club and be like, oh good game, guys, and that kind of thing, and so that's really fun, um, and then, like, the bible club has a channel for apologetics discussions, which I think is really cool, because, you, it can be hard to discuss those things in an environment that feels safe, but the Bible Club is working really hard to have that environment so things can be discussed without getting crazy and heated. So, yeah, just, different clubs have different ways that they're set up, but the purpose of all of them is to bring people together and allow them to discuss things and learn from each other. Clubs also have about once a month sometimes more, sometimes less a live call, so you get together. I mean, none of this is required if you're in a club, but if you would like to join a live call, they also have those, which is really fun to you know play games together and discuss things face to face.
Speaker 1:So I love it. And to have all these clubs at Northstar it takes a lot of work and we need leaders like you and Zoe Rachel. And so what have you learned about leading people? Leadership skills that are needed. Where have you seen some growth in your own lives?
Speaker 2:I think one thing for me is it's a different role. I was a club leader in the past, as was Zoe, and leading the club. You're wanting to, you're leading people, but it's not the same as a club coordinator. We're overseeing a group of people and we're trying to encourage them to do the things that they need to do to get a club ready or keep up with the club or whatever. But you also don't want to be a dictator, because I mean, it is their club and they get to do it the way they want to do it. So I think that has been something that I've been learning is like the balance between trying to encourage people to move forward and grow themselves, while also you know really well, and trying to help others grow without making them think you hate them or that kind of thing. So I don't know, it's just been different, zoe. What would you? Would you agree with that?
Speaker 3:yes, definitely. I think one of the main things that, once we started working with clubs with Rachel during, like June, we were planning for them, we talked about how to manage this balance between when talking with club leaders, to make sure they're doing the things that they need to, but also not being too overbearing in the sense that just so that clubs didn't feel like being a club leader didn't feel like a responsibility that was took too much work, but something that they wanted to. So that's a balance that's been a little hard sometimes to manage because, again, you don't want to seem like rude or that you're just telling them do this thing, you have to do this thing, you have to do this thing. No, so I think I have to work on that. I've had to work on that a lot and also, I'd say that having the mindset of servant leadership, so leading in the way that Jesus led, so not being, like Rachel said, a dictator that's just telling people what to do and not caring for them, but truly making sure that you're encouraging them and helping them whatever you need to and making yourself available and, yeah, also to make that possible.
Speaker 3:I feel like I've had. Something we've had to keep in mind is to try and make ourselves seem like, remind school leaders that we are also just students, like we're not some mighty people who doesn't relate to what they're going through. We're just students who know what it's like to have the burden of school and that you can fall behind. So kind of make yourself seem like people who relate to them and who they can go to if they are struggling with something.
Speaker 1:I love that Such incredible insight from both of you about leadership and what you're learning, caring and communicating and yeah, I'm just like you, relational so I love that so much and there's so much more for us to learn as leaders, right, no matter what role we're in, how old we are. So I'm excited for how you're going to be able to carry what you're learning into the future and all God has for you. So thank you so much for just pressing in. I know leadership can be exciting and fun, but it can also be tough and lots of hard work. So I just thank you both so so much for what you're putting in, what you're doing and how you just persevere each day. One last question what has it been like just working with each other? Have you been able to build a relationship and leadership? What's it been like to like co-lead, Because sometimes there's hard stuff with that, but there's great things building friendships and just learning from one another.
Speaker 2:I actually almost mentioned that when we were talking about, like, what we've learned in our roles. I feel like Zoe has helped me learn and hopefully I've helped her learn as well, because it's so nice to have you know when you're thinking, am I being too harsh here? You can say, hey, zoe, can you read this for me? What do you think? And so it's really nice to have each other to you know, know, sound ideas off of and tweak wording so that you know, especially in an online school, we want to make sure the message sounds the way we want it to sound. It doesn't sound mean or anything like that. Um, I also think that you know we have different things we're good at, and so that makes us a better team to have each other. Yeah, and Zoe and I have become such good friends. I'm so thankful that we got to meet through this, because it's been such a blessing to get to know her. I would not want to do this role by myself at all.
Speaker 1:That's so good. I've been able to say that through leadership about many people too. That's exciting, Zoe. What about you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the same thing. It's been amazing having Rachel to work with. I originally thought I was going to be doing this job by myself, which I was a little sad about because I didn't want to be the only one. I kind of was looking forward to that aspect of connecting with people through student council. So I was really excited when I found out that I was going to be working with Rachel and, yeah, she has also helped me learn a lot about a lot about how communication and boundaries and how to talk to people best.
Speaker 3:It's yeah, she mentioned it's great having someone to go with. Do you think this sounds to me? Do you think this is fine? Uh, what do you think about this? Just having another opinion is always great and I have enjoyed working with her so much. And it's also great because sometimes, where I'm a little more busy some week or she's a little more busy another week, so we can kind of delegate a bit of work, be like, hey, can you take care of this for now, I can do a little thing later. So it's great having someone else to turn to. And, yeah, we've become really good friends and I have really enjoyed getting to know her because, yeah, I really love going to her point of view. So, yeah, it's been awesome getting to work with her.
Speaker 1:That's so good. I have a huge smile on my face just hearing about the other relationships that you've been able to build with each other and then among so many other students a passion, a hobby, something you're pursuing, and you don't see that. Or if you just have questions about clubs, please, please, zoe and Rachel, I know, would love to hear from you and talk with you. So if you're a parent, encourage your student to do that. If you're a student, just reach out. Or maybe you just want to find out about other things going on at North Star. You're a little hesitant, a little nervous.
Speaker 1:Zoe and Rachel would be perfect people. They love students and love. I know you can hear their hearts just caring for our community. So some great girls to reach out to, along with all the other students that we've had on the podcast. Northstar is so blessed and I try to say that every time because I really see it and really believe it with incredible students that are learning to be leaders and leading right here and are so passionate, and so I just thank God so much for both of you and the hard work you're doing, the good work, the beautiful work and know that God's going to keep continuing to do that. So thanks for coming on today and sharing with me. It really means a lot.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having us. Yeah, it was amazing to get this opportunity to be here.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening today. If you have any questions for our guest or would like information about Northstar, please email us. At podcast at nsaschool, we love having guests on our show and getting to hear their stories. If you have anyone in mind that you think would be a great guest to feature, please email us and let us know. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on upcoming stories.