“That is where my Grace Academy family helped me,” Logan explained. “Once word got out that I was looking for a technical internship, a whole team of Grace moms started watching and listening for an opportunity for me.” When word reachedHeather Burnside, she wanted to help Logan accomplish his goal of being better prepared for his upcoming engineering classes. She thought there might be an internship opportunity at Headspring, her husband's software company. Her husband, Glenn Burnside, is the director of software development at Headspring.

Mrs. Burnside asked her husband if the company “had ever considered starting an internship.”After talking to his chief operating officer about the idea they decided to offer Logan the position with Headspring. Before Logan could fully take on any workload at Headspring he had to go through the interview process the same as any other employer. The managers had him take a short logical reasoning quiz and a short questionnaire about the C-sharp programming language. “According to the managers I completed them both well,” Logan explained to me.

“Then they interviewed me over the phone, asking me about my previous programming experience, which was a beginning programming course at Austin Community College that I took two years ago. They also asked me about my interest in learning more advanced skills,” Logan eagerly retold.

Here Logan learned how to become a business software consultant. When asked about his daily work at Headspring, Logan said, “a consultant's most necessary skill is the ability to program well, therefore most of my work is learning to program. These days, well written programs should not only function the way you want, but should also be easy for other programmers to understand and modify. This is called maintainability.”

Recently Logan joined a team of consultants working on a web application to collect data about natural-gas-well greenhouse emissions. He has been able to sit in on meetings and discuss solutions for problems that come up. Logan said that the work has been “relaxed and not stressful or demanding.”

Logan went on to express his thankfulness for Mr. and Mrs. Burnside, as well as   the consultants he works with. He appreciates that the company has been willing to take a high school graduate with no college degree and teach him everything they know. Logan is eager to continue working at Headspring when he comes home during summer vacation and even after he earns his college degree.  Also, Logan was thankful for the “Grace Moms” that went out of their way to help him find an internship opportunity. What he received was not just an internship, but a potential career.

He feels that Grace Academy most prepared him by integrating logic into many subjects. Logan said that the logic he learned at Grace developed critical thinking, which is integral to the process of programming.

Parents in the Grace community care deeply about the future of their students and families. They work hard to maintain a classical Christian school, focused on glorifying God by “providing their children a distinctly Christ-centered, academically excellent, classical education as a foundation for life-long learning.” Logan's experience shows how a student's life and career are blessed through such community effort at Grace Academy.