Westside Christian Academy adds grade levels, new principal

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, Westside Christian Academy in Westlake is on its way to providing an education to students from pre-kindergarten through high school graduation. They launched the Upper School in fall 2015, combining the existing grades 7 and 8 with a new grade 9. Grade 10 and a pre-kindergarten class will start this fall. Plans are to add grades 11 and 12 in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

To lead the Upper School, WCA announced the hiring of Dr. Bernard J. Mauser, an assistant professor at San Diego Christian College. Dr. Mauser will be teaching and developing the curriculum in his role as principal.

Dr. Mauser doesn’t recall exactly when he first decided to become a teacher. “I always found myself teaching. I would learn all I could [about a subject] and strive to be the best at it,” he said. “I took a gymnastics course and read five books on it outside of the class.” That approach has led him to become an instructor in fields as diverse as martial arts and swing dancing. He has also studied Latin, French, Greek, Spanish and Hebrew.

In addition to his experience at San Diego Christian College, Dr. Mauser has taught courses in philosophy, economics, government and theology at Marquette University, Cardinal Stritch University, Southern Evangelical Seminary and Liberty University. He remains an adjunct professor for Liberty and will be teaching an online course this year, as well as a one-week on-campus course at Southern Evangelical University in the next year.

Dr. Mauser hopes to add more languages to the curriculum, including Greek, and looks forward to teaching a class on martial arts and possibly swing dancing as part of WCA’s series of classes taught by parents on unique topics.