The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
AOA still active once school lets out
Andrews Osborne Academy uses facility in summer months for alternative programming
When the school year comes to an end at the Andrews Osborne Academy, the campus still remains active with summer programming.
The Willoughby campus undergoes a quick turnaround where residential housing gets cleaned and ready for summer programming, and things are rearranged and re-shuffled, explained Scott McNevan, associate head of school and athletic director.
“We take about one week off to do that. Then, we jump right into about nine weeks of summer offerings here on campus,” he said.
The academy’s day camps over the summer primarily consist of local kids. This year, more than 200 youths have been in and out of the summer programs, and 80 to 100 of those are international.
“They’ll spend anywhere from a week to two weeks here adjusting or transitioning to something and then off they go,” McNevan said. “We are trying to offer as many different things as we can, so there’s a lot going on.”
The academy offers a theater program that is open to the public where preproductions are created, as well as half- and full-day summer camps that are themed in different areas such as sports, science and nature.
Additionally, the academy is aiming for their new baseball and softball facility, Loomis Field, to be available for use in September
The academy’s most popular day camp tends to evolve every year. This year, it was called the creator camp.
“Creative thinking is a big focus here,” McNevan said. “One of our science department faculty members runs two weeks of (this camp). Kids, this year, focused on creating these little bots they could then race with each other. We set up a race course here in the parking lot. In using those two activities, they were able to squeeze in some lessons about velocity and engineering. We try to have as much fun as we can while teaching at the same time. In the summer, that’s the most fun kind of learn-. ing when they don’t know they’re learning.”
In addition to the academy’s nature exploration camp and sports offerings, which are changing each week, outside groups come to campus.
The largest is Foreign Language Around the Globe, or FLAG. The group welcomes international students who will be attending boarding schools around the United States in the fall and they spend two weeks at the academy. This year, 40 of those youths have come from Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.
“They get acclimated to American culture and brush up on their English.
There’s a number of other outside groups that come in,” McNevan said. “We love when those groups are aligned with our core values and one of those is global awareness. We have a big heart for international communities and it’s us living out our mission.
“Our admissions will often say that we are a school for kids around the corner and around the globe,” he added. “Our local kids, from kindergarten to 12th grade, end up having made best friends with kids from Europe, Africa, Canada, Mexico and different countries.”
It’s valuable for international students to visit during the summer and any year because the academy offers a safe environment with people they can relate to, McNevan said.
“When they’re leaving home, they’re 15 and they’re leaving mom and dad, and they’re going to go spend a school year somewhere, that two weeks is huge,” he said. “It helps get some of the homesickness transitioned out and it helps bring out some issues they might be having with self confidence with their second language.”
Summer programming at the academy allows for kids to try new things regardless of where they come from or where they go to school, McNevan said.
“We are fully open to anyone who fits the age range,” he said. “Half of our summer enrollment are students enrolled here, but we love when non students check us out in the summer. Usually, they leave with knowing what’s out there.”