News Detail
Senior Spotlight | Max Rios
For nearly his entire life, Life Christian Academy has been part of Max Rios’s story. He arrived as a first grader, and over the years, the classrooms, courts, stages, friendships, and conversations at LCA have helped shape the person he is becoming. But perhaps the most significant change has been learning to make his faith, his relationships, and his future truly his own. As Max prepares to leave the school he has called home for more than a decade, he is stepping forward with a stronger sense of who he is and, quite literally, a desire to find his own voice.
Since beginning at LCA in first grade, Max has experienced nearly every stage of school life on the same campus. Along the way, he participated in cross-country and track during middle school, played tennis throughout high school, stepped into the lead role in last year’s school play, and recently joined band. Each experience has given him another opportunity to discover new interests, build friendships, and stretch beyond what feels familiar.
One of the greatest areas of growth, however, has been his faith.
As a younger student, Max understood Christianity largely through the people around him. It was what his family believed and what his school taught. As he has grown older, that faith has become increasingly personal.
“My view of Jesus has definitely become more personal,” he shared.
That transition has been part of a larger process of becoming his own person. His relationships with family, friends, teachers, and God have become more intentional and more deeply his own.
One teacher who has played an especially meaningful role in that growth is Mr. Johnson. After having him as a teacher in seventh, eighth, tenth, and now twelfth grade, one lesson has remained particularly significant: context matters. Mr. Johnson’s approach to studying Scripture challenged Max to look beyond isolated verses and understand the larger story surrounding them. That lesson still influences how he studies the Bible and approaches his faith today.
“When I go into studying the Bible and my faith, one of the biggest things is remembering the context of everything,” Max explained. “You don’t want to take the Bible out of context.”
As graduation approaches, Max’s plans are still taking shape, and he is comfortable admitting that he does not have every detail figured out yet. College is likely his next step, with business or accounting among the fields he is considering. At the same time, another career path captures his imagination: voice acting.
The interest started naturally through time spent playing with his younger brother. When they created stories using LEGO figures and other characters, Max realized that every character needed a personality and, of course, a different voice. Soon he was experimenting with accents, deeper voices, exaggerated characters, and anything else he could create.
“I love voices,” he said. “I love doing voices and accents. I love cartoons, too, and I thought, ‘I would love to be in a cartoon. I would love to be one of the people speaking for that.’”
He hopes to pursue this dream alongside a practical college education, giving himself the opportunity to build a stable career while also exploring the creative industry that fascinates him.
Even as the future takes shape, leaving LCA will mean saying goodbye to something that has been part of Max’s everyday life since childhood. What he expects to miss most is not a particular class or activity. It is the people. He will miss seeing friends every day, the spontaneous conversations in the hallways, the humorous interactions with teachers, and the relationships built through years of shared experiences. He knows that graduation will change the rhythm of those friendships as everyone begins building lives of their own.
“I’m definitely going to miss those people,” Max said.
Among the traditions he will remember are the school’s performances and, perhaps most memorably, Table Talk with Mr. Gentile, a tradition that has become one of those uniquely LCA experiences he expects to carry with him long after graduation.
Above all, Max leaves with gratitude. He is thankful for the friends who have walked alongside him, the teachers who have encouraged and challenged him, and the family members who have supported him throughout the journey. After more than a decade at LCA, the relationships have become one of the most meaningful parts of his story.
And when asked to complete one sentence that summarizes what those years have taught him, his answer was simple:
“LCA has taught me how to better love those around me.”
After twelve grades, countless friendships, new experiences, growing faith, and more than a few character voices along the way, that may be the lesson that matters most.
Contact
Social
© Life Christian Academy. All Rights Reserved