SHADY SIDE ACADEMY

'Shady Side Academy' is an independent school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. ^[1]

Contents

Overview and timeline

Campuses

'Green' campuses

Extracurricular activities

Academic

Arts, theater and music

Athletics

Boarding Program

Notable alumni

Department chairs (Senior School)

References

External links

Overview and timeline

★ Shady Side Academy was initially founded as a boys' day school in 1883 on Aiken Avenue in the East End neighborhood of Shadyside, and in 1921 the Senior School was established at its current suburban campus in Fox Chapel. This move also resulted in Shady Side becoming a boarding school, first with a traditional seven-day program and later, with the five-day program that the school currently offers.

★ A later merger in the early 1940s with another local boy's private school, The Arnold School, resulted in the creation of another new campus: a Junior School, located in Pittsburgh's Point Breeze and serving kindergarten through fifth grade students.

★ In the 1950s, the Academy purchased an estate less than a mile from the Senior School campus, creating a middle school for grades six through eight.

★ In 1973, the Senior School embraced the concept of co-education and began admitting female students for the first time. The Junior and Middle Schools followed suit in the 1990s, with the first K-12 "Lifer" female students graduating in 2007.

★ Opening in the fall of 2007, a pre-kindergarten has been added to Shady Side. It is located on the Junior School campus. The total enrollment across all grades fluctuates but is generally slightly under 1000 students.

★ Shady Side Academy serves as a member school of the Chewonki Foundation's Maine Coast Semester^[2]

Campuses

★ 'Senior School:' 423 Fox Chapel Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15238; ''Phone:'' (412)968-3000

★ 'Middle School:' 500 Squaw Run Road East, Pittsburgh, PA 15238; ''Phone:'' (412)968-3100

★ 'Junior School:' 400 S. Braddock Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15221; ''Phone:'' (412) 473-4400

'Green' campuses

Shady Side Academy has made some recent strides to implement "green," or environmentally-friendly, changes to its campuses. The 2006 renovation of Rowe Hall, the main academic building, put into use a number of "green" concepts. The $6.8 million renovation of this primary Senior School facility emphasized environmentally-friendly approaches, from glass that allows more light into classrooms to rainwater collected in an underground cistern that is then used to flush toilets and urinals.
'It's something these kids can really sink their teeth into,' said Marc Mondor, principal of evolveEA, a green consulting firm in the Friendship neighborhood of Pittsburgh. 'It's saving the earth, but it's also giving them a better environment.'"^[3]

Extracurricular activities

Academic

Currently, Shady Side participates in Model United Nations conferences, NAQT quiz bowl competitions, the Western PA Math League, Science Olympiad, and Forensics (Speech and Debate) competitions, principally the National Forensics League.
In 2004, Shady Side placed 3rd in the nation at the National Science Olympiad Tournament at Juniata College, a tournament with over fifty schools from all around the nation. They did this after placing 1st at both the Regional and State Science Olympiad Tournament, which earned them a position in the National tournament. In 2005, the team also placed 1st in the Regional and State Science Olympiad Tournaments, which got them into the National Tournament again, this time held in the University of Illinois, the 2005 runner-up in the NCAA basketball championship. In the 2007 State Tournament, Shady Side's team placed second, as runners up to Sewickley, once again securing a place in the 2007 National Science Olympiad Tournament in Wichita, Kansas.
In 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2007, Shady Side was the season champion of Pittsburgh-based game show Hometown High-Q. At the 2006 NAQT Nationals, the team finished 5th overall.
A sample of the clubs offered at Shady Side Academy include: French Club, Latin Club, German Club, Spanish Club, Chinese Club (Chinese is taught at the senior school), Current Events Club, Sign Language (ASL) Club, Liberal Alliance, Speech and Debate (Forensics), Christian Fellowship, The Noam Chomsky Society, Robotics Club, and many others not listed here.
Additionally, Shady Side has an active chapter of Amnesty International, a Middle Eastern Affairs club, as well as numerous language and nationality clubs. While Italian is not offered at Shady Side Academy, there is an active Study of Italian Club, with the purpose of providing a supportive group of students and techers who will learn the language together.

Arts, theater and music

Since 2003, the school has sponsored a benefit concert led and organized by a student group with the name "Untucked" as a homage to the school dress code which before 2004 required all shirts to be tucked in. Recent bands to appear at Untucked include local favorites The Clarks, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, and Better than Ezra. The "Untucked" event is usually held at the end of the year and includes many activities beyond the band itself, including carnival food and games.
Shady Side Academy's theater, the 650-seat Richard Rauh Theater, is named after local teacher, actor and arts patron Richard Rauh. It resides in the newly constructed Hillman Center for Performing Arts on the Senior School campus. ^[4] Recent theater performances include: ''Amadeus'', ''Footloose'', ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', ''Pygmalion'', ''South Pacific'', ''Oliver!'', ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'', ''Kiss Me, Kate'', ''Babes in Arms'', and ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.'' In 2006, the Academy launched a public performing arts series with the Golden Dragon Acrobats, River City Brass Band, and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. The series' theme is "The Best of Pittsburgh and the World" with a World Music focus and endeavors to bring excellent local and touring artists to the school and regional community.
The Academy produces several publications; one is a monthly newspaper, The SSA News, which is written and produced on campus by Senior School students. The Egerian is the school's literary magazine, produced once a year under the leadership and editing of a student committee. Angles is an annual collection of creative non-fiction. A science magazine, SSA Frontiers of Science, helps to relay to the community significant scientific advances; it is produced once a term under the leadership of a student committee. A political magazine, The Forum, is also published, sponsored by the Senior School History Department and a committee of student editors.

Athletics

Shady Side's athletic team name is officially the Indians. It is not widely employed, but attempts to change it have been thwarted by various alumni.^[5]
In 1924, Shady Side Academy was a founding member of the Interstate Prep School League (IPSL) -- a league composed of Mid-West preparatory schools. In 1993, the school joined the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL), which is the league that local public schools compete in and is part of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA). The switch allowed them to compete for regional and state championships against local schools. Since the switch, Shady Side has won four state championships: two in boys' basketball, one in boys' swimming, and one in boys' tennis, along with numerous WPIAL championships, in several sports including tennis, soccer, and golf. The Shady Side Girls' Tennis and Field Hockey Teams won the 2006 WPIAL Championship titles for AAA and AA, respectively. The Girls' Tennis team went on to place second in the PIAA Championships.
Several teams do not compete in the WPIAL. The ice hockey teams compete at the Division 1 Prep Level. The boys' team is a member of the Midwest Prep Hockey League and the girls' team competes in the Women’s Ice Hockey League of the Mid- Atlantic. The boys' lacrosse team, which won the Western Pennsylvania Scholastic Lacrosse Association championship in 2004 and were State Runner-Ups in 2004, participates in the Midwest Scholastic Lacrosse Association as well as the previously mentioned WPSLA. The squash team also is a prep level team, composed of top rated junior players.
Shady Side Academy's main academic and athletic rival is Sewickley Academy, others include The Kiski School, Western Reserve Academy, Fox Chapel High School, University School, North Allegheny High School, Vincentian Academy, and The Ellis School.

Boarding Program

Shady Side Academy has a long-standing boarding program. Bayard House (1924), Croft House (1931), Ellsworth House(1922) (now called Hunt Hall), and Morewood House (1922)--all at one time or another residence halls on the Senior School campus--have served as home to the many generations of Shady Side students since the school moved to suburban Fox Chapel from the city neighborhood of Shadyside in the early 1920s. At times nearly 200 students boarded at Shady Side, some as 7-day boarders, some as 5-day boarders, some as Senior Schoolers, some as Middle Schoolers. Since the 1960s, Shady Side has hosted 5-day Senior School (Grades 9 through 12) boarding exclusively, and is one of only six schools nationwide to offer such an option for its students. With all boarding students going home for the weekend each week, boarders almost always come from the three-state area of eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and northern West Virginia. Today, two residence halls are in active use at Shady Side: male students board in Croft House and female students reside in Morewood House.

Notable alumni

★ Peter Ackerman, Hollywood screenwriter of the animated film ''Ice Age''

★ Tunde Adebimpe, actor, director, and lead singer of the alternative rock band ''TV on the Radio''

★ Jerome "Jay" Apt, astronaut^[6]

★ Eugene Baker, NFL player^[7]

★ Jon Beckerman, producer/creator of television series ''Ed'' and ''The Knights of Prosperity''

★ Christian Borle, Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominated Broadway actor. ^[8]

★ Courtney Bress, Colorado Symphony Orchestra harpist

★ Deidre Byrne, oceanographer

★ Chris Frantz, drummer for the Talking Heads^[9]

★ Childs Frick, invertebrate paleontologist and son of Pittsburgh industrialist Henry Clay Frick

★ David Guy, author of the semi-autobiographical Shady-Side-Academy-inspired novel ''Football Dreams'', among others.

★ Kerry Hannon, Women and Finance writer for ''USA Today''

★ Henry Hillman, businessman and philanthropist

★ Edgar J. Kaufmann, American department store magnet (Kaufmann's) and philanthropist. In 1935, Kaufmann commissioned famed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to build his much-celebrated summer home, Fallingwater, in the Laurel Highlands outside of Pittsburgh.

★ Carl Kurlander, Hollywood screenwriter of the film ''St. Elmo's Fire'' and the television program ''Saved By The Bell''

★ Paul Martha, NFL player; Pittsburgh Steelers 1964-69, Denver Broncos 1969-71; NFL executive, Vice President and General Counsel of the San Francisco 49ers 1978-1983; Consensus All-American, University of Pittsburgh 1963^[10]

★ David McCullough, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian^[11]

★ Thornton Oakley, turn-of-the-20th-century artist, illustrator and travel writer, most notably for ''Harper's'' and ''Scribner's'' magazines.

★ Candace Otto, Operatic Soprano and Miss Pennsylvania 2003.

★ Owen Young, Boston Symphony Orchestra cellist

Department chairs (Senior School)

★ 'Arts Department': Mary Beth Gray

★ 'Athletics Department': Eugene Deal

★ 'Computer Science Department': B. Dawson Haytock

★ 'English Department': Paul Ejzak

★ 'History Department': Caswell Nilsen

★ 'Math Department': Christine Czapleski

★ 'Science Department': Kathy Malone, Ph.D.

★ 'World Languages Department': Carol-Jean McGreevy-Morales, Ph.D.

References

1. Top American College Preparatory Private Day School Ranking
2.
3. Shady Side Academy plans green renovation Eleanor Chute
4. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/living/arts/carter/s_376561.html
5. Nicknames of teams still source of conflict Colin Dunlap
6. Astronaut Jay Apt: Director of Carnegie Museum of Natural History, , R. Jay, Gangewere, Carnegie, 1997
7. Eugene Baker Profile
8. Summer 2007 Teacher Workshop
9. Tom Tom Club to drum up support for Haiti at benefit Regis Behe
10. SSA lacks experience, not heart; Fast Facts Sidebar George Guido
11. Presidential biographer gets presidential medal Jerome L Sherman

External links

★ Shady Side Academy website

★ Shady Side Academy Ice Hockey Teams