The pulse of campus, always drumming with activity, is quickening

with a diff erent kind of restoration completed — the curriculum.

Through Compass, a year-long, self-directed course, students can ignite their interests and pursue a real-world project. Saturday Academy gives faculty and students a chance to explore topical learning experiences beyond those of a typical classroom. Beyond Reserve opens doors to incredible summer internship opportunities, where students can gain practical experience in fi elds such as medical research, fi lmmaking, journalism and more. Such commitment has also resulted in the construction of The Center for Technology, Innovation & Creativity, a 6,000-square-foot makerspace.

Find the derivative. Play a C harmonic minor scale. Defi ne covalent bonding. Analyze “Ode to a Nightingale.” Conjugate devoir. We can do these tasks — though we may need a refresher!

— thanks to those who taught us how. And many of us learned how in high school.

When we graduate from Western Reserve Academy, we take away an inventory of abilities, with essential knowledge shelved inside our brains, ready to be pulled and used at any given time.

Embedded in these lessons are less obvious takeaways, ideas and skills that take even deeper root and that last a lifetime.

WRA’s faculty and administration have carved out a curriculum that is tomorrow-focused for today’s students — a curriculum where these lessons to be tenacious, humble, tolerant, confi dent, collaborative, trusting, self-reliant and strong fl ow in great torrents and where students are prepared, more than ever, to be active participants in an ever-changing world.

After almost 200 years as an academic institution, the school opens restored doors and presents even more possibilities to the avid, exuberant scholar.

As the construction projects on Brick Row continue to keep pace, the school heads into a new year with the Admission Offi ce transitioned to the completed President’s House and Seymour Hall’s extensive renovations underway, enabled by The Campaign for Excellence & Access.

But the pulse of campus, always drumming with activity, is quickening with a diff erent kind of restoration making headway — the curriculum. WRA has built an irrefutable reputation for high-caliber academics, and in recent years this commitment has produced remarkable programs of distinction.

Through Compass, a year-long, self-directed course, students can ignite their interests and pursue a real-world project. Saturday Academy’s ECHO modules and Class Seminars give faculty and students a chance to explore topical learning experiences beyond those of a typical classroom. Beyond Reserve opens doors to incredible summer internship opportunities, where students can gain practical experience in fi elds such as medical research, fi lmmaking, journalism and more. Such commitment has also resulted in the construction of The Center for Technology, Innovation & Creativity, a 6,000-square-foot makerspace.

In this new year, the school debuts a refi ned academic program with a fully independent curriculum that houses three major categories: College Level courses, a new daily schedule and a new educational domain unoffi cially dubbed “literacies” (we will announce the offi cial title by the start of the school year). This literacies program is designed to nurture non-cognitive skills such as perseverance, self-suffi ciency and teamwork.

MOVING STEADILY FORWARDIn moving forward from Advanced Placement (AP) courses and creating a curriculum that is entirely its own, Reserve once again is a pioneer.

This bold initiative allowed the school to step away from another charter’s defi nition of high quality, instead empowering WRA’s expert faculty to inform what the highest standard of high school education should resemble.

“Designing your own teaching, your own pedagogy, your own curriculum — completely independent from what’s handed to you from an external instrument — requires a lot of very careful thought,” said incoming Mathematics Department Chair Hardy Gieske. “You have to think about what the students really need, what the world needs and what’s possible. What can you do as a high school math department? You don’t want to bite off more than you can chew, nor do you want to under serve the population. So you calibrate your expectations and aspirations really carefully with the time that you have. Ultimately, I want to design an experience where the students are in the center of it. Where the students are guiding and constructing, taking ownership of the class. In that respect, we are serving a world-need to create collaborators — those who aren’t just recipients of knowledge but controllers and leaders, those who draw on the help and creativity of their peers. I think that’s what the world needs.”

Naturally, the school’s decision to move beyond APs prompted questions from the community such as, “What would this change mean for rising seniors heading into an important year of college decisions?”

“The college landscape is more competitive than ever, so we must ask ourselves how we can be even better,” said Director of College Counseling Gunnar W. Olson. “One of the more exciting movements in education today is being led by Harvard University alongside a consortium of other top colleges. Simply, the movement calls

For every stumble across piano keys, the player learns a lesson in perseverance. When a student steps to the front of the class to solve an equation, they show self-effi cacy and trust in their capabilities. In studying Keats, they see small details and hone their empathy.

We learned far more from our teachers than equations and vocabulary. We learned humility, tolerance, grit, resilience, conscientiousness. We learned how to be.

This is an approach that has always been part of the educational fabric of the school. Every WRA graduate can attest to the lessons in hard work from rigorous courses and the independence they found within our boarding school. A Western Reserve Academy education seeks to not only do this, but to take this practice to a new level.

Ever Mindful...WRA’s Academic Excellence Continues with a Bold New Chapter

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for a shift emphasis from scores to more — to evaluate students for their accomplishments, not as test-takers but as unique, whole people following their passions, overcoming their challenges and contributing to their communities. Yale University says it conducts a holistic evaluation of every student’s application and performance. Amherst says the majority of applicants to schools are students with perfect grade points and stellar test scores. These students look great on paper, with one major problem: They all look the same. Colleges are taking much deeper dives into students’ high school experiences to find standouts.”

In making the decision to move beyond AP, Reserve further distinguishes its students from others and endeavors to help its already extraordinary students shine with even more visibility.

Other peer schools and prominent institutions in the industry are taking note of the school’s curricular plans. Reserve recently received an invitation from the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) to gather with three other independent schools to participate in the first NAIS Innovation Summit Hack. Earlier this year, representatives from NAIS visited WRA, touring The Center for Technology, Innovation & Creativity and meeting with faculty, administration and students. They left impressed by The Center and the curricular changes planned for the school.

Head of School Christopher D. Burner ’80, Associate Head of School Kate Mueller and Director of Information &

Education Technology Matt Gerber will be visiting NAIS in Washington, D.C., this summer.

“I have been sharing ideas with the NAIS Innovation team about plans for innovation and growth for The Center,” said Gerber. “I look forward to learning more in Washington, D.C., and bringing new ideas back to campus.”

PIONEERING COLLEGE LEVEL COURSESTrue to WRA’s tradition of trailblazing, no other independent school in the region has yet taken this step forward from AP classes, but this initiative required far more than replacing courses. The debut of College Level courses, a brand new daily schedule and literacies was a major undertaking — a true top-to-bottom curricular reconsideration, and one that aligns with our mission.

“We have the ability and the imperative from our mission to offer a transformational educational experience that is unique,” said Burner. “Excellent schools evolve, and WRA has long been an excellent school.”

It is also a direct response to the incredible capacity of Reserve’s students and the expertise of an outstanding faculty.

“We believe the new curriculum is as advantageous for faculty as it is for students,” Mueller added. “It is providing a wealth of opportunities for every member of the community to learn new things

in new ways. Faculty can now engage students by working toward depth of understanding, rather than focusing on covering content rooted in the idea that teachers must teach to the test.”

Fundamentally, the new curriculum is a vote of confidence in WRA faculty and an enormous bonus to the learning experience at Reserve.

“The different approaches to teaching will also have a new look and feel that I think students will enjoy,” said longtime History Department faculty member Sarah Horgan. “Students will be more directly involved in their learning in our more student-centered approach to teaching, and this will feed their curiosity and encourage them to be more engaged. Teachers will be updating the material in our courses to create lessons that feel more relevant and useful to our students and, hopefully, more empowering. Students will be designing their own experiments in science class, cross-examining witnesses in mock trials in their history courses, interviewing refugees and composing poetry that expresses their pain in English class, and designing imaginary cities in geometry class. In many cases, students and teachers will be learning alongside each other rather than the student merely being the receiver of information. And students will benefit from classes that go into greater depth and allow teachers to pursue their passions.”

And with a more flexible curriculum comes even greater opportunity for faculty to use Reserve’s unique facilities.

“I think that the presence of The Center for Technology, Innovation & Creativity has really changed the capacity of what can happen in our classrooms,” said English Department faculty Douglas Ray. “As an English teacher, a personal essay is no longer limited to what can be on the page but it can take on many different levels of media. For example, I can take them into The Center and tell them to create a 3-D narrative that tells me the story of who they are and what they want to do.”

Burner and Mueller steered this effort, aided by the counsel of the Board of Trustees and, of course, in conjunction with invaluable input and support from Reserve’s faculty.

It took considerable time and effort for faculty to re-imagine their courses to fit a refined academic program and daily schedule, but it was a challenge they tackled with the same enthusiasm they demonstrate in the classroom.

“I’m excited to be part of this pedagogical transformation at WRA and applaud our administration for listening to teachers and being willing to try a new approach to teaching and learning,” said Horgan.

Such a critical move for Reserve required two years of discussion, planning and research, applying principles from several resources, such as Glenn Whitman and Ian Kelleher’s book, Neuroteach: Brain Science and the Future of Education, which discusses creating curriculum that responds to students’ brain development and how they are receiving, filtering and utilizing information.

All of this ultimately culminated in the new curriculum and its three primary sections:

• College Level courses• A new daily schedule• A literacies program

Those perusing the new course catalog will notice classes with “College Level”

(CL) in their title. These classes represent the new apex of academics offered by Reserve, the new highest peak a student can climb to be challenged. Indeed, it will be challenging.

In the coming year, the school will offer 23 CL courses in all six departments: English, Fine & Performing Arts, Modern & Classical Languages, History, Mathematics and Science. Students could register for a CL course investigating themes such as computer science, non-Euclidean geometry, music theory and astronomy — special topics that, true to their title, could easily be seen at the college level.

Notably, the breadth of subject matter is not limited to just those CL classes; there will be diversity in courses across the board, as well as the core classes necessary to a high school education. The essentials like chemistry and calculus aren’t going away — they’re just listed alongside courses not usually seen in a traditional high school.

It’s difficult to say which department was most excited about the opportunity to pursue special topics and craft independent curriculum, but science faculty have been particularly vocal.

“I’m very excited about being able to tackle some of the broader subjects of biology…and how you approach them,” said Dr. Beth Pethel. “For example, with microbiology, you can still tackle the big questions about biology but in a different manner, in a way that could be more nimble and responsive to current events or anything that might be of interest to our students at any given point in time. Having that flexibility to adapt the curriculum as we go is absolutely amazing in and of itself.”

According to its course description, Microbiology: Explore the Unseen offers an exploration of “the world of microbes” where students can “begin to see the previously unseen” and develop

“an appreciation for the ‘simpler’ forms of life while revealing the complexities of these supposed simpler forms and how this information has allowed us to better understand more complex forms of life.” Furthermore, students will learn important lab skills used by microbiologists. And all of this was enticing enough to solicit a full roster of students.

Meanwhile, courses like CL Pathobiology of Human Disease will take science-minded students to an even higher level of scientific inquiry and application. Using human disease as the model, students in this course will study and learn basic principles of biology using hands-on experience, including dissections to explore diseases such as parasitic infections, type 2 diabetes and cancer. Lessons on human anatomy and its systems, development and evolution will introduce students to the world inside the human body.

While students study life in its smallest forms in Wilson Hall, students in the CL Philosophy course will grapple with some of life’s biggest questions. In Reserve’s version of a college’s Philosophy 101, students will be challenged to define existence, explain how knowledge is acquired and determine how happiness is found, all while studying some of the greatest thinkers of all time.

Now more than ever, it is an exciting time to be a Reserve student. During their time on campus, students will receive thorough and thoughtful education in those core subjects and disciplines, and they will have more opportunity to pursue what they love to learn, investigate what they find most curious and discover more wells of knowledge.

A NEW DAILY SCHEDULEIn the new schedule, students will follow a seven-day rotation with 75-minute meetings of each class per day.

In this new year, the school debuts a refined academic program with a fully independent curriculum that houses three major categories: College Level courses, a new daily schedule and a new educational domain unofficially dubbed “literacies.”

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“Researchers argue that these skills, many of which were previously considered personal traits or immutable attributes, are in fact malleable and teachable,” said Michael, who is a longtime Board of Trustee member, Co-chair of the Education Planning Committee and a tremendous asset throughout WRA’s curricular enhancements. “These skills can be fostered, and the evidence suggests that promoting these non-cognitive skills in adolescence is best achieved by interventions that combine education with work-related experience. One does not ‘teach’ perseverance or self-esteem in a classroom. Rather, these personal skills are promoted, by exposure to education with work-related experience.”

WRA students, over the course of their academic career, will naturally develop this skill set, but in answer to the growing emphasis on the importance of these capabilities, Reserve has begun to specifically design a literacies program.

The Class of 2021 will be the first to take the courses in Digital Literacies: Learning to Code and Learning to Make. This class and future freshman classes will head into their sophomore year equipped with an understanding of technology — how to code, program, design and create.

“Pedagogically, the focus will be on helping the freshmen understand how to write programs (i.e., code) that instruct a computer. Students thereby better understand the power and capability of the digital age,” said Michael. “In the process, the student will confront challenges that offer teachable moments for emphasizing perseverance, precision of their work…Students will confront and learn to solve open-ended problems that focus on information, digital and media literacies, and, importantly, they will do so often working in teams that require coordinated actions and decisions, thus sharpening their skills in social interaction.”

Mathematics Department faculty member Jen Nagano will teach Learning to Code, and she is fully supportive of teaching the youngest students at Reserve how to understand their digital world.

“Honestly, the earlier the better!” she said. “Given that we are a 9–12 school, it makes sense to start with the freshmen.”

Nagano designed her curriculum to allow for what Michael outlined — to give students the chance to develop critical thinking skills, ideas, creative solutions and more. Furthermore, she aims to teach students not just code but how technology works overall so they can better understand relevant news in the media, such as cyber security issues, and develop best practices that will suit them.

“They’re going to be using these technologies throughout their lives, and it’s important to understand how they work,” she said. “This will help them decide how they might use technology as an individual. It could impact the way they create products, if they go into the field. It may even impact voting practices as they decide how they believe technology should be used in society as a whole.”

Gerber will teach Learning to Make, instructing and training the Class of 2021 to use the many technologies and devices available in The Center for Technology, Innovation & Creativity. This introduction to personal fabrication and innovation opens up a world of creative possibilities and fosters those integral skills like critical thinking, entrepreneurship, communication and collaboration in assigning creative and challenging projects.

Through Learning to Code and Learning to Make, every freshman will finish their first year at Reserve with an understanding of technology and programming, will learn how to use the machinery and tools in The Center and will be well prepared for the next years at Reserve when those skills are certain to come in handy.

Digital Literacies are the first step Reserve is taking in pursuit of transferable skills, but this is just one chapter of an ongoing curricular evolution. There will be other literacies soon to come. Rolling out in future years, Reserve will implement literacies designed for every level — freshman to senior — exploring specifics such as

communication skills and ending with a full-fledged senior project.

FOREVER A STUDENT-CENTERED SCHOOLAt Western Reserve Academy, students are always the focal point of the school. Each new year brings new discussions about how to continue to provide a first-class education, assessing what’s best for today’s students and how the institution can help them fit in an ever-changing world.

This thoughtful care and consideration is appreciated by alumni — both longtime and brand new.

“This community gave me an opportunity to do things I couldn’t do other places,” said recent graduate Paul Schumacher ’17. In his junior year, Schumacher participated in Compass, which resulted in the construction of a room in a local elementary school designed to soothe students on the autism spectrum. “It shaped me — took me from a nervous freshman to understanding what I want to do in life.”

Even those newest to WRA understand that the attention is forever on its students.

“More than anything, what I care most about is helping make a difference in my students’ lives, helping them become the best versions of themselves that they can be both in and out of the classroom,” said English Department faculty member Conor O’Sullivan. “Yes, I want my students to be good students. I want them to be good readers, good thinkers, good writers, good communicators. But I also want them to appreciate and understand beauty in all of its guises. I want them to think about their world and their place in it rather than accept things the way that they are and assume, as Pope says, ‘Whatever is, is right.’ I want them to think critically about who they are, where they are and what they’re doing. I want them to flourish as people.”

Certainly, it’s the highest ambition a school can aspire to achieve.

On top of that, students will have a one-hour Academic Plus (A+) period. This time could be spent seeking out extra help on a challenging assignment, tackling a project, collaborating with fellow students — teachers too! — attending a guest speaker’s presentation or hunkering down to study.

With this new schedule, the maximum number of classes a student can fit into any day of the week is four. This sets a new pace for students, one that lengthens the time they spend on their curriculars and offers a manageable timetable without lessening the rigor of the school’s academics.

“Our kids’ intellectual success is important, but what about their emotional success?” said 2016–17 Pioneer Women’s Association President Megan Valentine ’85. “For students, this direction is a show of support, taking into consideration their preparedness AND their wellness. The combination of AP exams, SATs and ACTs, extracurricular activities, and social and academic stressors is intense. In an independent curriculum, and with the new schedule, there’s a palpable commitment to embrace learning for learning’s sake. In my opinion, this is what we really want for our kids — a healthy and lifelong love of learning.”

The longer class periods will allow for a deeper dive into learning and will include different activities to emphasize this. There are no 75-minute lectures. Lesson plans will include direct instruction (lecture) mixed with experiential learning, projects, group work and collaboration to create a flexible, active, engaging and student-centered classroom.

“I see this move as a real opportunity to change what the classroom looks like on a daily basis, where students can drive their own educational inquiry and really take ownership of the learning process,” said Ray.

For some faculty, this may be a slight adjustment in how they teach — while others have long since adopted this teaching style.

“I think the students in my history class over the last 15 years will tell you this is not going to be a completely new approach to teaching for me,” said Horgan. “I have incorporated these skills and styles of learning into my courses for some time now. The inquiry approach, experiential learning and a student-centered classroom are part of my teaching philosophy and have been my goal probably since I attended Columbia’s graduate school program in education.”

For WRA’s faculty, it reaffirms the school’s commitment to providing curriculum that best supports the growth of pioneering students — the innovators, entrepreneurs, investigators, trailblazers, those who are eager to engage in the world.

LEARNING MORE ABOUT LITERACIESAccording to insight gathered by seasoned scholar Robert Michael ’60, there is a markedly high demand for those who demonstrate grit, humility, tolerance, self-esteem, resilience and more.

These skills aren’t taught by lectures and PowerPoint presentations — not effectively, anyway. They are learned through practice and action.

Day A Day B Day C Day D Day E Day F Day G

8:20–9:35 a.m. The American Experience

8:20–9:35 a.m. CL Advanced Physics

8:20–9:35 a.m. Photography

8:20–9:35 a.m. Introduction to Arabic and Arab Cultures

8:20–9:35 a.m. Honors French III

8:20–9:35 a.m. CL Linear Algebra

8:20–9:35 a.m. Ecological Sustainability

Academic Plus A+ 9:35–10:35 a.m.

Academic Plus A+ 9:35–10:35 a.m.

Academic Plus A+ 9:35–10:35 a.m.

Academic Plus A+ 9:35–10:35 a.m.

Academic Plus A+ 9:35–10:35 a.m.

Academic Plus A+9:35–10:35 a.m.

Academic Plus A+ 9:35–10:35 a.m.

10:35 –11:50 a.m. Photography

10:35 –11:50 a.m. Introduction to Arabic and Arab Cultures

10:35 –11:50 a.m. Honors French III

10:35 –11:50 a.m. CL Linear Algebra

10:35 –11:50 a.m. Ecological Sustainability

10:35 –11:50 a.m. The American Experience

10:35 –11:50 a.m. CL Advanced Physics

Lunch 11:50 a.m. –12:45 p.m.

Lunch 11:50 a.m. –12:45 p.m.

Lunch 11:50 a.m.–12:45 p.m.

Lunch 11:50 a.m.–12:45 p.m.

Lunch 11:50 a.m.–12:45 p.m.

Lunch 11:50 a.m.–12:45 p.m.

Lunch 11:50 a.m.–12:45 p.m.

12:45–2 p.m. Honors French III

12:45–2 p.m. CL Linear Algebra

12:45–2 p.m. Ecological Sustainability

12:45–2 p.m. The American Experience

12:45–2 p.m. CL Advanced Physics

12:45–2 p.m. Photography

12:45–2 p.m. Introduction to Arabic and Arab Cultures

2–2:15 p.m. 2–2:15 p.m. 2–2:15 p.m. 2–2:15 p.m. 2–2:15 p.m. 2–2:15 p.m. 2–2:15 p.m.

2:15–3:30 p.m. Ecological Sustainability

2:15–3:30 p.m. The American Experience

2:15–3:30 p.m. CL Advanced Physics

2:15–3:30 p.m. Photography

2:15–3:30 p.m. Introduction to Arabic and Arab Cultures

2:15–3:30 p.m. Honors French III

2:15–3:30 p.m. CL Linear Algebra

Tradition continues with Monday and Friday Morning Meetings during A+

Sample StudentAcademic Schedule

Saturday Academy ECHO - Ekphrastic Writing 8:20–10:50 a.m.

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Katie VelbeckB.A., Kent State University - Dance Performance and Choreography, minor in Communications, cum laude

Fine & Performing Arts Department Faculty

What drew you to WRA?The wonderful arts program has drawn me to Western Reserve Academy. The programs the school off ers are like nothing I have ever experienced before as a teacher or student. The most up-to-date technology is accessible here and will help the students be prepared for life after high school!

What quality do you admire most in students?The quality I admire most in students is their passion. I love when students discover their true passion and being able to watch them achieve their dreams.

What would you consider your greatest achievement? One of my greatest achievements in life would be making a career out of my passion for dance. I feel blessed to have been able to follow my dreams of always having dance in my life in some capacity, whether it be a performing or a teaching opportunity. I am so grateful I get to do something every day that I love and that I can extend my knowledge to our students.

Mark SkinnerB.S., Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Mechanical Engineering with honors

Science Department Faculty

Before coming to WRA… I’ve worked all over — at Blair Academy in New Jersey, St. Sebastian’s,

Noble and Greenough School and Newton Country Day (all three in Boston), Phillips Exeter in New Hampshire, Friends School in Baltimore and most recently at Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh. I’ve primarily taught physics, but have also

taught mathematics, chemistry and environmental science.

If you were a WRA student, which ECHO would you choose?Biking and the outdoors were two of my passions in high school; I think I would

have been drawn to Recycle or the Hiking the Appalachian Trail ECHOs back in the day. If I were in high school today, I think the Aeronautical Engineering class would

be my fi rst choice. Building your own fl ying robot? Very cool.

What talent would you most like to have?I’ve tinkered around some on the guitar and can play a few chords,

but it would be a great gift if I could sing the alma mater at full voice without the squirrels heading deep into their burrows.

New Faculty

Julianne LopezB.A., Blackburn College - Political Science and HistoryM.A., University of New Hampshire - Spanish Literature

Modern & Classical Languages Department Chair

How has your teaching style changed over the years?I’d say in some ways my teaching style has evolved tremendously and in other ways it has stayed true to form. The things that have really changed have been the ways I’ve used technology. I went to a conference recently for using virtual reality, so I’m always looking at ways to enhance the teaching experience.

What are you looking forward to at Reserve?To be perfectly honest, not knowing! I’m looking forward to being the low man on the totem pole, to not having the answers, to being fi lled with questions. I’m looking forward to learning so much, not only from my colleagues in the classroom, but the administrators and other people in the community. And, most importantly, I’m interested and excited about not knowing the students and learning from them and taking my cue from them! Because I will be a student beside them next year — which is just very exciting!

If you were a graduating student, what would your senior superlative be?Biggest bookworm.

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Conor O’SullivanB.A., Amherst College - English , magna cum laude

M.A., University of Chicago - HumanitiesPh.D. candidate, University of California, Los Angeles -

English, granted February 2014

English Department Faculty

What talent would you most like to have?Given the disparity between my love for musical theater and my

ability to carry a tune, I’d have to say singing. But I wouldn’t mind being able to throw a baseball 95 miles per hour, either.

What would you consider your greatest achievement? Personally, being a father. Professionally, directing Doctor Faustus

with high schoolers last winter. It was an enormous challenge and, in my eyes at least, an enormous success.

If you were a graduating student, what would your senior superlative be?

Most likely to say “Did you know…” and then start a 20-minute digression about etymology.

Hardy GieskeB.A., Duke University - English and MathematicsM.F.A., University of North Carolina at Greensboro - Fiction Writing

Mathematics Department Chair

What drew you to WRA?This was a welcome adventure. One thing I noticed, and one thing I’ve certainly heard, is there’s a commitment to values and a commitment to character and what kind of person you are. This matters a bit more at Reserve than at potentially a lot of the very competitive New England schools, and that had real appeal for me.

Who inspires you? My mom and dad, my wife, and then pretty much any underdog, but especially students who have to swim upstream.

What would you consider your greatest achievement?Completing my master’s thesis in fi ction writing.

Andrew Borneman B.A., Grinnell College - English, minor in

Gender and Women’s StudiesM.Ed., Xavier University - Secondary Education

and licensure in Integrated Language Arts

English Department Faculty

If you were a WRA student, which ECHO would you choose? Defi nitely the ice cream one. It is my favorite dessert.

What quality do you admire most in students? Tenacity.

Who inspires you? Nobel Peace Prize winners like Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela.

Brandi WheelerB.A., Emory University - English/Creative WritingM.A., Georgia State University - Secondary English Education

Director of The Academic Center

What drew you to WRA?I love that WRA has such an appreciation for history and tradition, but also shows a strong commitment to moving forward and embracing diversity. This seemed like a great place for my daughters to continue their education, and I felt like it would be a good fi t for me as well.

Who inspires you?Toni Morrison. She was nearly 40 before she even began her career as a writer. She went on to become one of the most acclaimed and profound writers on the African American experience and is still going at 86. I always think of her as a reminder that you never know what surprises the next chapter in life will bring.

What would you consider your greatest achievement? I spent several years homeschooling my two daughters, Jasmine ‘20 and Camille ‘21, and I was very proud of the type of education I was able to provide the two of them. I feel my greatest achievement was establishing a K-5 classical education learning center for my fellow Northeast Ohio homeschoolers.

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