Western Reserve Academy
115 College Street Hudson, Ohio 44236
(330) 650-4400
"To prepare students to blaze trails in learning and in life."
We are an independent boarding and day school in Hudson, Ohio, for grades 9-12, with a postgraduate program to boot. We have been around since 1826. There is a 5:1 student to teacher ratio, 86% of faculty have advanced degrees, and the student body consists of 428 students.
FAST FACTS
Head of School:
Suzanne Walker Buck
Director of Admissions:
Thomas Adams-Wall
Gender:
Co-ed
Religious Affiliation:
Nondenominational
Total Enrollment:
431
Percent Boarders:
64%
Percent International:
21%
Application Platorm(s):
SAO
Testing Plan:
Optional
Curriculum
Our curriculum is rooted in the neuroscience of the teenage mind, ensuring that all learning is active — intentional — relational — and relevant. It’s built a bit like a rollercoaster, offering a strong foundational base and building upwards into a diverse, innovative and exhilarating whirlwind of options. We prioritize and honor joy in learning, in all of the shapes it takes. There's joy in the epiphany after working through challenging concepts, in experimenting, in breakthroughs, in success after failure, in growth. What we find time and time again is that this allows our students to push through setbacks, to revel in discovery, to flourish in their findings.
Programming
Our Student Life Office (you’ll call them The SLO) keeps a robust schedule of activities on offer, such as a Diwali Celebration in the Green Key, yoga on the green, a visit to the local Asian Market, a target run, a Cleveland Cavaliers game, s’mores at one of our bonfire pits, and more, more, more.
Activity/Sports Requirements
Reserve students are required to participate in athletics as well as the arts each academic year.
Dress Code
We wear Reserve Green thanks to Headmaster Frederick W. Ashley (Class of 1880) who headed the school from 1892 until 1897. In a letter to the school dated February 1, 1926, he explained that the colors green and white were adopted around 1893 as symbols of "strength and purity" and thus became the colors that WRA would continue to use as their own. Green and white were the unofficial colors of WRA for about 75 years before we adopted them as our own with the offering of the first green and white striped tie in 1961 and soon after, the green blazer. To this day, students dress in Reserve Green on Mondays and Fridays.
Seated Meals
Sit-Down Meals are a time to gather around the table with your advisor and fellow advisees. Sit-Down Meals are served family style with students sharing the responsibility for serving the food and clearing the table. Each table has its own style — some tables might include faculty kids sitting comfortably with a small group of high schoolers while other tables host competitive UNO tournaments. In these moments, we truly look and feel like one big family.
Study Hall
Learning Specialists provide academic support to individuals and small groups throughout the academic day and structured Study Hall in the evenings. Areas of focus often include executive functioning, study skills, reading comprehension, writing, and self-advocacy, helping students develop the strategies they need to succeed across a range of subjects.
Saturday Programming
Each week, we send out a weekend activities newsletter where students can sign up to attend an orchestra concert, explore a haunted house, take a hiking trip to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, pick apples at a local orchard, or just settle in for a comfy movie night. Truthfully, there’s really never nothing to do!
Residential Life
WRA has ten different dorms on campus, with a different style for every taste, from boutique to homey to historic. Faculty live in the dorms as house parents and 24/7 teachers.