Pacifica Stories

Zoe DeBenning, Pacifica junior, is a light around our campus in more ways than one. She is involved in many areas of student life on campus, including soccer, PACARTS, the ambassador program, The Wolf Post, Pacifica Podcasting, STEM Scholars, and ASG as our Spiritual Life Commissioner. Serving as the Spiritual Life Commissioner is one of Zoe’s favorite activities she’s committed to. During her freshman year at Pacifica, she served on the spiritual life committee, and has been commissioner the past two years. She loves getting to work through the chapel program with students, connecting them to other spiritual life opportunities, and hearing out her own committee to continue spiritual development on campus. Zoe says that she’s passionate about other students knowing that an identity in Christ is worth more than any other. 

Pacifica’s integration of faith as a whole is one of the reasons Zoe loves Pacifica. After having experiences at public school where her expression of faith felt unsupported and isolating, and being homeschooled for several years, Pacifica was the perfect environment for her to grow in her faith while flourishing socially. 

“I got to walk into a school environment that integrated Christian faith into education,” said Zoe. “Instead of forcing Christian religion and teaching on students, I’ve seen my teachers genuinely engage with atheist and non-Christian students, loving them and wanting to hear their point of view. During Socratic seminars in classes like Old Testament and even my philosophy classes, I’ve been able to share my own Christian perspective while hearing and listening to others who disagree with me. I feel like Pacifica is preparing me for a world where not everyone shares my beliefs, and how to love and explain my own positions well.”

While only about half of our student body would consider themselves to be Christian, Zoe is an example of Pacifica’s faith lived out. She is recognized around campus for her kindness, gentleness, enthusiasm to help others, and generosity of time.

Zoe also finds comfort in the Christian expression of faith among the Pacifica faculty and staff. She says that it’s encouraging to know she has teachers who are praying for her and willing to engage in intentional conversations to get to really know who she is. In fact, one of her most memorable experiences at Pacifica was during our All-School Retreat this past school year, where she was able to have some deep conversations with her English teacher and other girls in her cabin. She said that they were able to dive into some of the hard things in their life in the past year, and spend time encouraging and praying for each other. Zoe says that this time cemented her existing friendships, and was an overall meaningful and fun trip. 

So far, Zoe’s favorite class at Pacifica has been AP European History. She said that this class helped her understand how cool history can be.

“Getting to see the evolution of an entire continent over hundreds of years really made me consider how valuable studying history is, and the overall importance of learning from our past,” said Zoe. “Mr. Comer was a wonderful teacher, and I felt like our class was a whole team, pushing towards the AP test, encouraging each other to do the best we could. It was a lot of work, but it was the most fun I’ve ever had in a class as well.”

Zoe is a dedicated student to her studies, but academic material is not all she’s learned while at Pacifica. She says that she’s also grown a lot in her leadership abilities. Before entering high school, she had limited opportunities to lead; however, at Pacifica she has had teachers and students model good leadership for her and encourage her to take leadership roles herself. Zoe says that in the last few years, she’s “become more confident in who she is in Christ, placing her full identity in Him.” That confidence has given her the ability to love others better and enjoy school more overall. 

As Zoe looks towards life post high school, she’s excited about exploring what she wants to study and seeing her gifts grow into an education path that she can invest in and genuinely enjoy. She also looks forward to new friendships and community, while remaining confident that some of her friends at Pacifica will be in her life for a long time.