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CARING AND SHARING: THE MANY LESSONS OF CHRISTMAS



 

Over the holiday season, Middleburg Academy students and their families carried a bounty of holiday blessings to those whose lives are much less comfortable and secure than our own.  We believe that the habit of community service begun now helps lay the groundwork for a lifetime of giving.

Did you know...

  • Several hundred Christmas cards, handwritten through our advisories, were sent to our troops overseas including our Executive Assistant, Mrs. Parente’s husband’s unit in Afghanistan;
  • Over two hundred toys were collected and donated to Seven Loaves (an ongoing outreach effort of ten Middleburg-area churches);
  • Our Food Bank commitment (also to Seven Loaves) received an extra push and we are now only 850 pounds away from having collected a ton of food;
  • Under the sponsorship of the National Honor Society, the Adopt-a-Family tradition provided toys and clothing for twenty-four children in the Windy Hill neighborhood of Middleburg and several more through Birthright in Leesburg;
  • Thanks in part to our student and faculty volunteers, A Place To Be Music Therapy in Middleburg – where many of our students offer their time each week – was able to host a community lunch with crafts, entertainment, musical activities, and fun;
  • A student initiated Coat Drive helped others stay warm (while also recycling!);
  • The Parents Association blessed every faculty and staff member with “Secret Angel Wishes” under the Mary House tree (many wishes were for donations to local food banks and other charities in lieu of gifts).

Students also spread their Holiday cheer by singing at the lighting of the Middleburg Christmas tree and enthusiastically participating in the town’s legendary Christmas parade.  St. Nicholas (assisted quietly by Parents Association elves) paid his annual visit, filling shoes with candy, our Performing Arts Students offered a beautiful concert evening, and we held our traditional all-school Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols before dismissing for the holiday break.


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Educating high school students has been 
our focus for nearly 50 years...

and you will not find a more dedicated or highly credentialed teaching staff than the one we offer here.

Why Middleburg Academy

In our close-knit learning community, young adults mature and thrive. We offer a college preparatory program that emphasizes individual attention, mutual respect and kindness, and outstanding academic challenge and achievement. Together with parents, we build a supportive bridge across which teenagers move confidently into early adulthood, then forward to a successful college experience.

We understand that:

  • Rigorous academics and top-tier college acceptances are compatible with a nurturing, friendly, and oftentimes fun learning environment.

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    The high school years can bring tremendous growth, self-discovery and pride in achievement; they needn’t bring undue stress. We believe in challenging our students’ minds, creativities and abilities. Such high expectations are set by our own high-achieving faculty, 86% of whom hold advanced degrees. The results are:

    • 100% college acceptance rate
    • National Merit and AP Scholars
    • Excellent SAT scores
    • A significant number of graduates who leave the school with college credits already earned through our Dual Enrollment Program and Advanced Placement Courses
    • An impressive number of graduates matriculating to top-tier colleges and universities. (see our recent college acceptances)

    We simply do not buy into the notion that this level of achievement can only come through joyless pressure to succeed. Visit Middleburg Academy to hear more about our competitive accomplishments, and also to be greeted by friendly, smiling students, to hear the laughter in our hallways, and to witness fully-engaged learning in our classrooms.

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  • Students challenge themselves beyond what is easily attainable when they have close, one-on-one relationships with their teachers.

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    The stimulating interactions between students and faculty are defining components of the Middleburg Academy experience. We have learned that out of small classes come great things. With a student-faculty ratio of 8:1 and typical class sizes of 12 -16, there is little opportunity for students to be disengaged. Each student is a visible presence, not only in the classroom, but campus-wide where all are known by name. In a recent survey of parents, “individual attention and care” and “the success of each student” ranked among the most prized and enduring qualities of a Middleburg Academy education.

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  • High school is an important time for developing a student's moral compass.

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    We want to produce students with high academic honors, but we also want to produce honorable students. From its very founding in 1965, Middleburg Academy has placed a genuine emphasis on developing the whole person: head and heart, intellect and character. Students study major world religions and are taught to think critically about tough ethical questions, on both a global and a personal level, in year-long Freshman, Sophomore and Junior Seminars that form a core part of the curriculum. We interpret “college preparation” in the broadest sense: we prepare our students for the academic demands of higher education, but we also help each of them to set their own moral bearings in preparation for the increased independence that comes with college.

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  • Teenagers manifest many types of intelligences and benefit from many outlets for expression.

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    Brain development takes dramatic leaps in the teenage and young adult years. In fact, recent research tells us that the significant neural change in teenagers is second only to the rapid growth that happens in early childhood. Granted, the teenage brain is a very complicated and active arena that isn’t always easily understood (by parents, teachers, or even specialists!), but it is exactly that dynamic quality that we, as high school educators, love to see come alive -- and then help channel to good use. It happens here every day.

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  • Schools that cultivate mutual trust and respect produce students who show great leadership and responsibility.

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    If you were to gather a sampling of students from Middleburg Academy’s most recently graduated class, as our Trustees did for Strategic Planning Sessions held last winter (2011), they would want you to understand the vital interplay between “freedom,” “flexibility,” and “accountability.” In the words of Ryan Gregory, now in his first year at the University of Virginia, “During our time here, we were given increasing amounts of freedom and flexibility -- we were put in charge of our own studies and use of resources. This is the best possible preparation for college. Every student here has the potential to succeed in college because we are conditioned to be accountable, not just to our teachers, but to ourselves.” He contrasts this with many other high schools settings, especially the larger ones, where teachers and administrators don’t feel comfortable entrusting so much responsibility to students and may not even know their students by name.

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