Lake Country Lutheran High School Blog

Sarah Mathison

Meet Chiropractor Grant Johnson '15

By Sarah Mathison on November 13, 2023

Get to know chiropractor & Lake Country Lutheran High School class of ‘15 graduate, Grant Johnson.

Tell me a little about your experience at LCL. What brought you to LCL?

I went to Divine Redeemer, an LCL feeder school, and was involved with Thunder Athletics, so it was an easy transition. I’m still close to the same friend group that I’ve had since 5th grade. When I get together with my friends, we often talk about time spent in football practice, between classes, doing other activities, and how much fun we had. The teachers were all super approachable and genuinely cared about everyone. It felt more personal than what you’d typically find in a public-school setting. When I run into my old teachers, they ask me about my family, each of my siblings, and they remember details that I had shared with them all those years ago.

Where did your interest in chiropractic come from?

I always wanted to follow in my mom’s footsteps, attend medical school, and become a doctor. But my mom was first diagnosed with cancer when I was in 8th grade. After going through treatment, she realized the healthcare system was a little broken and began to focus more on wellness instead of sickness. Her desire to shift to a more natural based practice sparked my interest, and that’s when I started to look into chiropractic.

How did the LCL family come alongside you in your goals?

Being a high school athlete and navigating my mom’s second cancer diagnosis during my junior year, I didn’t always take school super seriously. My football coach sat me down one day during my senior year and asked me if I had goals for after high school, and I realized I needed to make plans and start going after them. That’s just one example of how the teachers came alongside me to help me focus on achieving my goals. LCL also connected me to Dr. Shepherd, whom I work for now. I graduated from LCL the same year as his son, Sam. I didn’t know much about chiropractic care in high school, but it gave my mom some relief, mobility, and comfort while undergoing treatment. At that time, I started talking to Dr. Shepherd about the profession and process behind becoming a chiropractor.

What is it like working for an LCL alum family?

It’s been about a year of working with Dr. Shepherd, and it’s been great. There’s a lot of comfort in walking into a workplace knowing that your morals and worldviews align with your coworkers.

What’s the best part about working in chiropractic? What’s the most challenging part?

My favorite part is helping people who were initially apprehensive about chiropractic care and seeing them experience a drastic change in their health. I love influencing people to take action in their health in a different way. The hardest part is that we live in a quick fix society, and it can be frustrating because you wish you could’ve helped someone before they felt the need to pursue surgeries or other things.

What is the one thing you want people to know about you or your line of work?

As chiropractors, we strive to help people with muscular and spinal issues by looking to the root cause instead of treating the symptoms. Our bodies are an incredible design that relies on our nervous system to process all incoming and outgoing information to maintain balance. Our spine has the very important job of protecting the nervous system while allowing for stability and movement. We work with individuals of all ages, from birth to 100+, to maintain their spinal health so nerves can function without interference.

Modern Blacksmith

By Sarah Mathison on October 2, 2023

Get to know business owner and Lake Country Lutheran class of ’23 graduate, Michael Burow.

From a young age, Michael Burow, 2023 Lake Country Lutheran graduate, loved blacksmithing, stemming from his love of working with his hands and Forged in Fire, a competition based television show amongst blacksmiths. His grandfather stoked this passion by introducing him to a friend and winner of Forged in Fire, and from there, Michael never turned back.

After years of making things independently, Michael started his own business, MB Iron Werks, which produces one-of-a-kind knives, hatchets, axes, fire pits, and more out of the Milwaukee Lutheran High School workshop. Michael shared that his dad taught him construction when he was younger and encouraged him to start the business and give it his all. “My dad has always taught me to work hard and work for the glory of God.”

Michael has simultaneously worked on building his business, graduating high school, and earning an associate’s degree from Waukesha County Technical College due to his involvement in Lake Country Lutheran’s dual enrollment program. This program allowed Michael to attend half-days at WCTC and finish his remaining coursework at LCL in the afternoons. One year post high school, Michael will graduate with his associate’s degree.

The support of LCL was paramount to Michael’s success as he juggled multiple goals, and they never wavered in their encouragement of Michael’s plans. Michael shared, “LCL is probably one of the best opportunities I’ve ever had. Mr. Malm and Mr. Newman taught me so much about God in a really engaging way... I learned so much about the Bible.”

Over the next few years, Michael is excited to continue building his business. He aims to set up a workshop of his own, branch out into more custom work, and continue giving back to Christian organizations. He shared that his career goals center on Christ because of LCL’s impact on him.

Celebrating 120 Years

By Sarah Mathison on September 1, 2023

We are proud to be celebrating 120 years of Lutheran Education in the Greater Milwaukee!

This school year alone...

2,916,300 HOURS of EDUCATION

2,044 STUDENTS

170 TEACHERS

5 SCHOOLS

1 MISSION

In 1903

This year, the Lutheran High School Association of Greater Milwaukee celebrates 120 years of Lutheran education since the start of Lutheran High School in 1903. The first class of Lutheran High School in 1903 was composed of 18 girls who met in the old Immanuel Lutheran School, taught by one teacher. Enrollment steadily increased to 125 students and three teachers in 1918, and in the following ten years, more than doubled in size, reaching 327 students.

In 1929, the mission statement read: “We are distinctly Christian, where the Gospel of Christ permeates all instruction and training. We aim to imbue our pupils with a truly Christian spirit, mold and develop Christian character, and give young men and women who purpose to prepare themselves for a secular vocation a thorough higher education per the principles set forth in Holy Writ.”

In 2023

More than nine decades later, our mission statement reads remarkably similarly, albeit much shorter. Reading “all instruction is permeated by the Gospel” sounds similar to our priority to “Share Jesus.” The next part of our mission statement today is “Shape Lives,” which is a lot like “molding and developing Christian character.” And finally, the original mission statement read “we prioritize young men and women for their future vocations,” which is very similar to our goal today to “Develop Leaders.”

The Lutheran High School Association has changed a lot over the years. Milwaukee Lutheran High School opened in 1955, the addition of Martin Luther High School in 1968, the opening of Lake Country Lutheran High School in 1999, becoming better together with the addition of Mount Calvary Lutheran School in 2021, and finally the start of Trinity Lutheran Classical High School this fall. The LHSAGM has grown and adapted immensely. But the core of our mission remains unchanged:

SHARE JESUS. SHAPE LIVES. DEVELOP LEADERS.

A Year of Growth

By Sarah Mathison on April 17, 2023

The LHSAGM has put many actions in motion during 2022 that, with God’s blessing, will benefit our students, teachers, and city in 2023 and beyond. Two new virtual schools, a partnership with the South WI District to launch a Classical High School, a blossoming business and human resources service for other non-profits, and two executive team member changes are the highlights of the year.

Virtual Campuses

This year, both Milwaukee Lutheran High School (MLHS) and Mount Calvary Lutheran School (MC) partnered with Britestar Virtual to launch virtual campuses. The MLHS-Virtual Campus and MC-Virtual Campus operate like additional campuses of the schools offering high-quality, online Christian education.

Following the trend of remote work becoming more available, education is now emerging more into the virtual world. There is an increased desire and/or need for some students to learn in a remote environment. Reasons range from travel and location flexibility, supervision resources, or simply providing a different type of learning environment that allows some students to thrive. The virtual campus also gives some families access to Christian education that otherwise wouldn’t be attainable.

At the virtual campuses, students receive live (synchronous) online instruction from an accredited teacher. Students are provided with all the technology they need to be successful at home. Additionally, if the student meets the attendance and grade expectations, families are given a stipend of up to $2,000 per year for their support with this endeavor. This stipend serves to provide external motivation for the student to succeed as well as acknowledge the materials, workspace, and supervision needed by the home.

Research has reinforced what we’ve seen these past few years where students are still able to form social connections virtually. Great teachers can make strong connections with students in any format. The virtual staff are intentional in cultivating a virtual community in the online classroom environment through morning meetings, small groups, interactive lessons, and one-on-one meetings with students. Virtual campus students also have opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities at the main campus, receive social-emotional instruction, and have access to school counselors.

In this first year, 60 students attended MLHS-Virtual Campus, and 1 student attended MC-Virtual Campus. It has been a great first year, and we look forward to serving more students as these campuses grow.

Trinity Lutheran Classical High School

Over the last two years, our Association has been working with the South WI District of the Lutheran Church to formalize details and create a plan to start a Classical high school in Milwaukee. These efforts are on track for Trinity Lutheran Classical High School to open for the start of the 2023-24 school year. The high school will be located at Trinity Lutheran Church on 68th street and Arthur Avenue in West Allis. Pastor Brandon Koble will be the headmaster and leading the launch of the school.

Classical schools develop their curriculum through a different pattern of learning called the trivium. The trivium is grounded in the study of Latin and is designed around students’ progress through grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The knowledge is interrelated and spiraled into the lessons and seven liberal arts disciplines. Historical and biblical knowledge aren’t studied as isolated subjects, but alongside the curriculum in other content areas. For example, when the curriculum focus is on God’s creation, this is explored further in science class, students will use art class to create pieces about creation, study in history will incorporate perspectives of the world’s view versus the Christian view, and papers about the topic will be written for English classes.

Pastor Brandon says, “The mission of Trinity is to nourish our students with a classical education that instills truth, goodness, and beauty through an emphasis on and adherence to the Holy Word of God.”

If you are interested in learning more about Trinity Lutheran Classical for your student, applications are being accepted for 9th and 10th graders only. Please visit trinitywa.org/classical-high-school/ or reach out to Pastor Brandon at 414-543-3580 or pastorkoble@trinitywa.org.

TRIUN3 Growth

Officially offered in the spring of 2020, TRIUN3 (pronounced “triune”) was launched as an outsourced fractional CFO service. TRIUN3 has grown significantly in the last few years by working with the LHSAGM and specializing in non-profits and education. Education staffing solutions, financial services, and strategic consulting are now included in the services offered. TRIUN3 is serving 26 clients across the USA. Of these, 16 new clients were added in the last year, and 17 of the current 26 clients are schools.

TRIUN3 is founded and led by LHSAGM CFO, Kyle Hanson. He and his team have been able to reduce schools’ cost gap per student by an average 29%! For more information about this and the services offered, visit www.triun3llc.com.

Executive Team Changes

Coming this summer, two exciting leadership changes are set to position our organization for continual growth.

Mr. Mark Bahr, the first Chief Growth Officer

The primary role of the Chief Growth Officer (CGO) is to ensure the profitable execution of growth initiatives through the development of relationships and the execution of strategic initiatives. This includes the development of our relationships with private foundations, the growth of our TRIUN3 clients, and the consistent investment in the relationships with supporters of our schools.

CEO Cole Braun shares, “As we look to grow and ensure the financial stability of our organization, there is nothing more critical to our organization than to grow the relationships with our community partners.”

Mark echoes the sentiment for his new role. “I am extremely excited to embrace this opportunity to push things to not only be bigger and better, but to also create sustainability for future growth and continued excellence within our Association.”

Mark has spent forty years in Lutheran Ministry, 35 of them in Milwaukee as an employee of our Association. He has served as our Head of Schools for the past 7 years, working as part of the executive team that develops the long-term vision for our organization. His skill set and experience with the LHSAGM, and the communities that we serve, has allowed him to work intentionally with donor relations, advancement initiatives, and school growth. Most recently, Mark was instrumental in executing the building expansion at Lake Country Lutheran and worked closely with the leadership teams and school staff in the acquisition of Mount Calvary Lutheran School, including the ongoing transition and integration of the two entities.

Mr. Michael Waugh returns to Milwaukee as Head of Schools

In his role, as Head of Schools in Milwaukee, Michael will craft and execute the academic vision for our schools alongside the principals and the school administrations and will also work as a member of the executive team. Michael will have the authority to supervise and will be responsible for all academic and educational aspects of our schools.

Michael shares, “As we look to the future, we see a world that needs Christian education now more than ever before. The Lutheran High School Association of Greater Milwaukee is poised to meet and exceed the immediate educational needs of students and families – and these needs have an eternal impact.”

Michael served as the assistant principal at Milwaukee Lutheran High School for three years before accepting the position to serve as principal in Cleveland in 2018. During his years in Cleveland, Lutheran West expanded from grades 9-12 to grades 6-12, enrollment grew by 50%, and the school is in the midst of completing a $19 million dollar capital campaign. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Michael is a product of Lutheran schools since preschool. He is a graduate of Valparaiso University with majors in Secondary Education, Mathematics, and Classical Languages and a minor in Theology. He earned a master’s degree in Teaching Mathematics from Kent State University, followed by a master’s in Business Administration from Grand Canyon University a decade later.

Mark Bahr will be transitioning to the role of Chief Growth Officer when Michael Waugh joins the team this summer. “God continues to place incredibly talented and passionate individuals in our midst to help move His ministry forward at our schools,” shares CEO Cole Braun.

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