Southern Wake Academy, located in downtown Holly Springs, is a publicly funded charter high school serving students from the region in Grades 9-12. The school currently serves approximately 100 students and is, therefore, able to provide small classes, personal contact with students and families, and a small learning community.

The academic program focuses upon the subject areas for students to meet the diploma requirements in North Carolina. The school is unique in being able to offer the courses toward graduation and doing so in with a class size average of approximately 15. With the state’s new “Future Ready” curriculum for the students currently in Grade 9 and future high school students, SWA is able to meet the needs of the new curriculum while providing for those older students who have different graduation requirements. A major difference between SWA and the area’s large high schools is the individual attention that staff can provide for students both during the classes as well as through a supportive advisory program.

Beyond the classroom experiences of a typical high school are these requirements for SWA students: Community Service - 30 hours per year; Job Shadowing – four experiences of at least four hours each year; and portfolio presentations at the end of each grading period that provide students with experience in speaking, self-advocating, and evaluating their own work. Many of our graduates have reflected that the portfolio requirement prepared them much better than their college counterparts in being able to speak successfully in the college classroom setting.

One of the other unique factors of the school is an internship that each senior must complete before graduating. The internship is a 265-hour time requirement in a work setting within the community during which the student has exposure to the world of work as either an employee or a volunteer.

Many of the students are able to use a part-time job to help complete their internship requirement.

While most of SWA’s graduates go on to the local community college, there are many who have gone directly to four-year universities within North Carolina as well as to private colleges and universities with a history of success in obtaining academic scholarships and in performing successfully at the college/university level. The school was able to add to the staff during the current year a full-time counselor who assists students with educational planning, college planning, and other student services.

Our current recruiting goal is to enroll 50 first-time freshmen for the fall of 2010.

Most of our students come from the southern Wake County area as well as from Raleigh and surrounding counties within proximity of Holly Springs. Our marketing focus is upon those students currently in middle school who wish to go on to college, whether a four-year public university/college, the area community college, or a private two-year or four-year college.

Since the “Future Ready” curriculum is designed to prepare all students for college admission, the diploma program will provide the opportunity for students to plan their academic programs around their future goals.

SWA offers an abbreviated sports program that includes co-ed soccer in the fall, cheerleading, and boys’ and girls’ basketball teams in the winter. Our teams play other charter and/or private schools in the region and boast several students’ having won athletic scholarships upon graduation.

The next Open House dates for SWA are Feb. 23, March 24, and April 21, 6:45 – 8 p.m. on each of those evenings. Faculty and office staff will be available to talk with parents and prospective students about the school and the enrollment/application process.