16Oct
MN Teacher’s Convention: No School
Thursday
Extra Curricular
Hope Christian Academy offers a wide variety of learning and sporting activities. Eligibility for most of these activities starts in seventh grade, although 6th graders are often allowed to practice or observe by permission. These kinds of activities are often significant to home school students and they may enroll through the home school umbrella program.
Band
Band is open to students in grades 5-12 by audition. Instrumentation normally includes a full rhythm section (piano/keyboard, guitar, bass, and percussion), and small numbers of woodwinds, brass, and strings. Smaller ensembles for specific pieces are often made from players in the full ensemble. Most students with instruments take private lessons at school during or after the school day. The band has ministered to others with contemporary worship arrangements, classical works, jazz stylings with improvisation, and traditional hymns.
Basketball
Boys and girls in grades 7-12 are eligible and encouraged to play on HCA's basketball teams. Boys' and girls' teams are viable with an adequate number of players. Throughout the fall and winter basketball teams play other schools in the metro and western Wisconsin area. Home games are played at local rented gyms. Check the schedule for specific locations. Hope is a member of the Christian Athletic League and participates in the CAL basketball tournament at the end of the season. Everyone is welcome to come cheer on our teams!
The boys and girls basketball schedule are available in the Fall.
Hope Christian Academy won the CAL Christian Character Award 3 years in a row 2015-2017! Out of all the participating teams, the coaches, players, and fans have honored HCA by saying that our teams bring a great attitude, a fun, competitive nature, and a Christ-like mindset. Go Hope and praise God!
Volleyball
Girls in grades 7-12 are eligible and encouraged to play on HCA's volleyball team. Throughout the fall, Hope's volleyball team plays other schools in the metro and western Wisconsin area. Home games are held at a local rented gym. Hope is a member of the Christian Athletic League and participates in the CAL volleyball tournament at the end of the season. Everyone is welcome to cheer for our team!
2023 Girls' Volleyball Schedule
Student Council
Student Council gives an opportunity to students to govern and serve at Hope Christian Academy. The Student Council is elected in the fall soon after the school year begins and they meet weekly during the year to pray and plan for the benefit of the student body. The student council typically serves lunch, plans parties and outreaches, and assists in promotional events. They provide a communications link between the administration and student body and petition for changes that will be better for all. Current positions on the Student Council are: President, Vice-president, Secretary, Treasurer, Photo Historian, 9-12 Grade Representative, 5-8 Grade Representative, and 1-4 Grade Representative.
Missions Trips
Hope Christian Academy believes evangelizing and serving experiences in a foreign setting can be powerful, faith building experiences. To that end, HCA encourages students to "go into all the world and preach the gospel." We encourage and support individual students who sense God's call and go. We reach out as a student body in local evangelism and service projects. We take periodic mission trips to foreign countries.
Past trips have been to Southern Mississippi, Louisiana, Mexico, Panama, inner-city Chicago and Honduras.
Community Outreach 
Throughout the year, Hope Christian Academy students are provided with several opportunities to develop servant hearts and serving hands. In the fall, upperclassmen are encouraged to come early before school to pray around our flagpole during "See You at the Pole", a nation wide student-initiated and student-led movement to simply engage with God in prayer and connect with fellow Christians in unity around the flagpole.
In the fall and spring students participate in Adopt a Highway and community pick-ups. The older students pick up trash and garbage on a portion of Highway 61 between Cottage Grove and St. Paul Park, while the younger students clean nearby parks. Local families have also been the recipients of lawn raking and housecleaning.
Before Thanksgiving break the student body joins together to fill and wrap shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan's Purse that brings joy and hope to children in desperate situations around the world through gift-filled shoe boxes and the Good news of God's love. After the boxes are ready, they are prayed over and brought to a local Operation Christmas Child drop-off site.
Feed My Starving Children, a non-profit Christian organization committed to feeding God's starving children hungry in body and spirit, is another favorite spot for serving. In the winter students hand-pack meals formulated especially for starving children, which are then shipped to more than 60 countries around the world.
As the school year comes to a close, music students go to local assisted care living facilities and memory-loss units to share the love of God through vocal and instrumental music and conversation with the residents. Students also have opportunities to go door-to-door witnessing, pass out tracts, and collect food for food shelves.
Local & Regional Conventions 
Every spring Hope Christian Academy students participate in local and regional conventions. With over 144 events to choose from, every student is able to take part at the local level in areas such as music, science, social studies, art, speech, academics, and athletics. Beginning with eighth grade, students may go to the regional convention where they compete with students from other Upper-Midwest ACE schools. Depending on placement, students may be eligible to go on to the International Convention and compete with students from around the world. These conventions provide an opportunity for students to try new areas and learn how to use their talents and abilities to glorify and serve God.
Hope High Retreat
The Hope High Retreat is a yearly September event in which HCA high school students are challenged physically and spiritually to achieve new heights. Through the 50 foot climbing tower and 500 foot zip line students face their fears and encourage one another to attempt new feats. Through the intense activities and powerful teaching/ discussion sessions, students are challenged to rise up and be the leaders, servers and protectors that God has called them to be. The Hope High Retreat is where young men and women are called out to be more than they have been!