Oliverian School is a non-profit, alternative, college and life-preparatory boarding high school offering academic, counseling, and social-skills support for bright adolescents who have not thrived in traditional settings.
Oliverian occupies a unique space between a traditional and therapeutic school, providing the right levels of support and guided independence necessary so that students can contribute to any situation and successfully find and occupy their unique place in the world. Our supportive academic and student-life program helps students embrace their identity, purpose, and voice, preparing them for the emotional, social, and academic demands of college and beyond.
At Oliverian, we combine small classes, highly experiential approaches, and warm, supportive teacher-student relationships to make learning irresistible. Our classrooms are comfortable yet challenging places of discussion and inquiry where bright and often unconventional thinkers are safe to find their own best style of learning. Many students who have not thrived in traditional schools finally catch their stride academically at Oliverian, discover their intellectual interests, and learn how to learn.
Oliverian offers a rigorous and personalized college-preparatory curriculum designed to engage students intellectually while accommodating different learning styles and levels. With an average class size of about five students, we can meet each student where they are; we routinely offer university-level challenges for some while remediating subject-area weaknesses for others in a single class. Our tiny class size also allows for a highly relational approach to instruction. Students form deep and caring relationships with their teachers both in and out of class, making school a safe and comfortable place to engage and learn. Not only does a strong teacher-student bond make school much more enjoyable — it also profoundly accelerates learning according to both current educational research and Oliverian experience!
Oliverian’s supportive curriculum, instruction, and college counseling results in a 90+% college matriculation rate with alums reporting a high level of success and satisfaction in college and beyond.
The Oliverian School is committed to the following goals:
- To provide an engaging and challenging academic curriculum that prepares students for college, while remaining responsive to their individual strengths, special needs, and diverse learning styles.
- To provide innovative and exceptional instruction by attracting knowledgeable, dynamic, and experienced faculty who are committed to our community as teachers, mentors, and role models.
- To help students with self-exploration, spirituality, character formation, integrity, and their relationship to others and the natural world through stewardship activities on a local, regional, national, and international level.
- To use an adventure-based approach to learning by offering students an outdoor adventure education experience to help students develop a better awareness of self, a deeper understanding of the world around them, and a capacity for reflective learning.
- To offer students of all ability and experience levels the opportunity to express themselves creatively while developing their skills and craftsmanship.
- To encourage a family commitment to the life of the school through student, faculty, and parent communication and collaboration.
- To maintain a family-style living environment within our 1,800 acre campus, where students will live in small groups in faculty-run, gender-specific houses.
- To empower students to acknowledge and resolve difficulties through an ongoing individual counseling program under the supervision of clinical faculty members.
- To instruct students in a variety of competitive intramural and noncompetitive individual athletic endeavors to promote a lifelong commitment to fitness and a responsible use of leisure time.
- To maintain a low faculty-student ratio to provide an individualized educational experience for each student.
