Alex Madrigal would get in fights in the park.
He would smoke marijuana in the car on the way to school and drinkto get drunk. He didn't think he'd graduate.
'The way I was going I figured I'd either be homeless or shot todeath,' he says.
La Salle High School in Union Gap helped change all that.
These days, Alex doesn't drink or smoke, but plays football andbasketball and contemplates visiting Iceland. 'It's just a beautifulplace to go and pray,' he explains.
The 17-year-old is planning to become a priest. And his callingcrystallized through his education.
Private high schools in the Yakima Valley add religion to thetypical academic regimen of reading, 'riting and 'rithmatic.
Most graduates these days don't choose to become priests likeAlex.
But they say the 'Fourth R' in school helps shape their decisionsafter heading off on their own and into the world.
They cite small class sizes and one-on-one time with teachers asadvantages to private education. And they say that the faith thatthey learned in school influences their career goals, work ethic andchoice of marriage partners and friends.
About half continue with private education at four-yearuniversities and colleges.
'It gave me a solid background of knowledge about my faith,' says22-year-old Amy Berkompas of Zillah.
She graduated in 1998 from Sunnyside Christian High School andcontinued with Christian education, graduating in May with a nursingdegree from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Her career goals, like Alex's calling, were defined throughschool. She wants to become a medical missionary, caring for patientsin Africa or Central and South America. She also wants to work in ahospital that serves people with limited access to health care.
'I see all people as God's creation,' Berkompas says. 'Hopefully,I'll be more sensitive to the spiritual aspect of (my patients')health.'
She says her teachers were her role models. And Jana Smeenk, whoplans to teach first grade at a Christian school in California comefall, says the same.
The 22-year-old also graduated from Sunnyside Christian in 1998,then Dordt College, a Christian college in Sioux Center, Iowa, inMay.
Teachers at both schools 'were good role models on how to bedisciples of God, and that is how I strive to be now,' Smeenk says.'They stressed the fact that God loves us.'
Alex's role model was a Catholic priest.
During the boy's first two years at La Salle, he continued gettingin fights and going to parties, sometimes smoking enough marijuana inthe car on the way to school - from Sunnyside to Union Gap - to stillbe high at lunch.
By the end of his sophomore year, he started to worry for his -and his family's - safety. When school let out for the summer, hereached out for help, writing a three-page letter on lined paper to apriest. He wasn't sure the priest remembered him from school.But thepriest wrote back to Alex, called him and visited with him and hisfamily.
Together, they decided it would be best for Alex to move fromSunnyside. That decision, Alex thinks, saved his life.
One of his older brothers, who stayed in Sunnyside, is now servinga 15-year sentence connected to a February 2001 shooting that leftone man dead.
Treat others as you want to be treated. That rule, the 'goldenrule,' will be the No. 1 rule in Smeenk's classroom next fall. Itstems from the heart of her Christian education.
'I went to a Christian college because I wanted to keep thatperspective in every subject,' Smeenk says. 'I learned how torecognize sin and just be more like Christ in everything you do inyour daily life.'
She says those lessons were reinforced at church and at home, andinfluenced her decisions in high school and college.
'We were raised that our bodies are temples of God,' Smeenk says.'By taking too much alcohol - or drugs - you are wrecking yourtemple. That struck me as powerful.'Not all students heed themessage. But their parents want their children to have Bible-basededucations.
'I think that there are some students who feel forced (intoreligion),' Smeenk says.
She didn't feel that way, though.
About half of Sunnyside Christian graduates typically go on tochurch-affiliated colleges, said principal Dean Wagenaar. Ten of thisyear's 15 graduates are going on to Christian colleges.
At Riverside Christian High School in Yakima, more than 90 percentof its 33 seniors this year are going on to college. Sixteen of thoseseniors are going on to private four-year colleges.
Alex - the middle Madrigal with three older brothers, a youngersister and two younger brothers - says he first felt a calling toserve God when he was 8.
But the feeling was fleeting. While his family attended churchregularly, Alex says 'it was no big thing. (Church) didn't have aneffect on me.'
After his father died at 42, Alex entered St. Joseph's CatholicSchool in seventh grade following a move from Indiana. He came withwhat he calls 'the street mentality.'
He sums it up this way: 'I'm tough. I really don't care whatpeople think. I don't care about others. I just care about myself.'
At school, Alex got in trouble 'constantly.' He says he would walkout of class to play basketball outside and get in fights.
His behavior landed him in the principal's office 'two or threetimes a week.'
Now he says, 'I can't believe they let me stay.'
But at that time, he says he 'had to show them I can survive on myown since my dad died.'
At La Salle, Alex learned there is more to life than trying to betough. He learned a different view of the world.
Beth Apol, who attended public schools, wanted her children tolearn a Bible-based outlook on life. She sent her son and daughter toSunnyside Christian. Her daughter graduated in 1998, and went on to aChristian college. Her son graduated in 1996 and joined the Navy.
'I didn't have a bad education, but I can see the advantages ofgoing through a Christian education,' Apol says. 'It's not that thesekids are any better than any other kids. They're just getting adifferent kind of education.'
And while scholarships are available, that kind of education stillcosts money.
'I think people look at Christian education as being veryexpensive, and it is,' Apol says. 'But it's a sacrifice you have tobe willing to make for your kids. You are giving them something thatyou might not necessarily give them at home. You're putting themaround Christian people 24 hours a day. They're basically gettingimmersed in it.'
Marlene Van Wingerden, 24, graduated from Sunnyside Christian in1996 and from Dordt College in 2000. She's currently studying at theUniversity of Puget Sound in Tacoma to become a physical therapist.
'I would say both high school and college helped me form my worldview, gave me a lens with which to judge things,' she says.
Now that she's on her own, she continues attending church onSundays. She wants to someday get married to a man who shares herfaith and values and send her children to a Christian school.
'(Religion) isn't something you take a break from,' Van Wingerdensays. 'It becomes you.'
Since moving in with a friend's family in Yakima, Alex turned outfor football and basketball and took a house-building mission trip toMexico.
He plans to enter a seminary in Oregon at the end of August foreight years of preparation for priesthood.
He wants to return to La Salle to teach, then become a Yakimaparish priest.
'La Salle helped me become closer to God,' he says. 'It helped mesee there's more to life than just going day to day.'
