Federal Judge Deanell Tacha said Tuesday that the students at Bishop Seabury Academy were beneficiaries of a great legacy.

The chief judge of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, said the legacy — unearned, so far, by students at Lawrence’s private Episcopal school — had thousands of components. She focused on three: mentors, education, freedom.

Each is an asset Seabury students have an obligation to earn by improving on the work of others, she said.

“Do not squander them,” said Tacha, of Lawrence.

This was the seventh annual convocation at the school named for Samuel Seabury, the first bishop of the American Episcopal Church. The academy, 4120 Clinton Parkway, serves more than 100 students in junior high school and high school.

Tacha, a Kansas University administrator before taking the bench in 1986, said each Seabury student should be indebted to a parent, educator, pastor or role model.

In Tacha’s case, it was an elementary teacher in her hometown of Scandia. The teacher stayed after school each day for two years to help Tacha become a state champion speller.

“That woman made an incredible difference in my life,” she said.

The judge said Bishop Seabury students should be grateful for educational opportunities available in the United States. Education is the margin that determines whether people are free to make choices or subjugated to the will of others, she said.

“The freedom of the mind is the freedom of the soul,” Tacha said.

She said students should appreciate that they can worship as they wish and express opinions in public. They can thank a group of idealists who shaped a new government more than 200 years ago, she said.

She challenged students to earn their legacy by adding to the foundation built by others.

“You make it fresh, make it more vital.”