Meet the Cizik Family!

After Googling “Christian Schools in Salt Lake City” the Cizik family found Intermountain Christian School. The Cizik’s were moving from Seattle to Utah and finding a Christian school for her son, Luke, was important to Amy. Upon touring ICS during the summer of 2019, Amy was struck by the natural light in the hallways and the friendliness of everyone she met while at the school. The spiritual emphasis of the school solidified Amy’s desire to have Luke attend. The Ciziks moved to Salt Lake on August 11, 2019 and Luke started kindergarten on August 14! The family is grateful for the experience they’ve had thus far.

For Amy, the strong community at ICS is vital. She is assured that Luke’s teachers are caring and that he has great friends in his class. Amy appreciates that parents are able to connect and talk amongst themselves. The fact that there are 14 grades on one campus is a bonus, too, as Amy’s family likes to support the school’s sports teams and theater productions! Luke looks forward to when he is old enough to participate in ICS sports! The Ciziks attend Hope Church and see many of their church friends at school, too, solidifying that sense of community.

The Ciziks feel well supported at ICS and Amy says she knows of many teachers, administrators and staff that she could call/text if she were to ever need anything. Amy trusts that while at ICS, Luke, among his teachers and his friends will continue to “increase in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” Luke 2:52

Meet the Hendersons!

My husband Wesley and I both grew up attending ICS, along with all of our siblings. Wesley started at ICS in pre-K and I started in first grade; he then graduated in 2009, and I graduated 2013. Wesley was a member of the baseball, basketball, and soccer teams when he attended school, and his love for sports is what brought him back to ICS after graduation to help coach the high school boys baseball team, as well as the girls basketball team. During my junior and senior year, I also helped with the girl basketball team and this is where our friendship started. After I graduated, Wesley and I started dating with the purpose of marriage and six and a half years and three kids later, here we are! 

Something that I loved about attending ICS was that the teachers truly cared about their students. When I struggled in a class they would take time to make sure I had the help I needed. When I struggled with things outside of school (family or personal), they would talk with me, and pray for me. ICS was my home away from home, where I felt loved and cared for. 

Wesley and I prayed a lot about what kind of schooling we would choose for our children, and in the end we really felt called by God to choose the school that was such a big part of both of our lives. Our daughter, Ella, is in preschool with Mrs. Saullo and is absolutely loving it! More so, she is thriving at ICS. God willing, we pray that we will send our boys, Bodie and Wade, there one day. As parents it is important to us that we set our children up for success, and give them the best education. But as followers of Christ, it is even more important that we teach them God’s Word so that they may have right relationships and eternal life with Him. We believe that ICS will bless our children, that they will gain knowledge in every scholastic area, have the opportunity to participate in many of the extracurriculars we loved being a part of when we attended, and most importantly that all of this will be built on the foundation/core of Biblical Truth.

The Nerdrum Family's Lion Story

Our experience with ICS has definitely been a God-thing!

We moved from California to Utah last year and had our two boys in a highly recommended public school. Shortly after they started, our oldest was having a hard time, he wasn't feeling challenged and was missing learning about God and Jesus. His demeanor went from a boy full of spunk to his light quickly fading. This moved my husband to jump online in search for a Christian School, he came across ICS and set up a tour within days. We visited and knew right away that ICS was the place for us. About a month after we transferred them over, my husband was pursued and offered a job with a company in the Bay Area CA and after much negotiating (to stay) and praying we felt we needed to move there and take the job. We were so sad to leave ICS and we didn't want to start the boys at another new school mid way so we proposed to ICS to allow us to do long distance learning (this was a couple weeks before the lockdown and that being the new norm). To our surprise they agreed! The staff and teachers were super helpful, supportive and encouraging to set the boys up for success. We know it wasn't easy so we were beyond grateful. Then the lockdown happened and it turned out that our boys didn't miss a beat, they were now doing what the rest of the school was doing. God had it all planned out this way for us. Shortly after arriving in the Bay Area, and given all the uncertainty with Covid, my husband never had to go into the office and the company offered remote work to all their employees. Giving us the opportunity to move back to Utah. After much praying and research we decided to come back and continue with ICS. A total God thing! And we are super grateful that ICS worked with us through all the transitions and uncertainties of this past season. Couldn't be happier! The way they handle our unique situation with such grace showed us the school's heart to serve, willingness to do hard things and flexibility to accommodate challenges. I believe God honored that kind gesture towards our family by preparing the school for what was to come with the lockdown. It spoke to us that they are truly following God's guidance and adapting to the needs of their students and family. True ministry work. We are so grateful! It made our transitions smoother and took away the burden of having our boys go to different schools and all the emotional and mental struggles that come with that. In these times that was a huge blessing! 

Aside from our God thing with ICS, we love that ICS is not just a faith based school but that they value academics. One thing that stood out to us and definitely our deciding factor, is that it is important to them to offer excellent, competitive education partnered with a biblical worldview. Not one or the other but both. Huge for our family. What can I say about the teachers? The teachers are more than teachers, they quickly become family friends. They are thoughtful and care greatly about each of their students. They know how to encourage but also challenge them to grow. We appreciate how they get to know their students' strengths and areas of improvement. This helps us create goals for our boys to work on at home knowing they are being encouraged at school to achieve them too. Tackling areas of improvement together with their teachers is a huge support. We love ICS and believe you will too! We are excited to see how God grows our boys there and for the opportunity to connect more with the ICS community!

Written by Janet Nerdrum, ICS mom