Academics

Find your purpose

The simple question “why” gets a bad rap in most high schools; it’s often viewed as disrespectful or avoidant. Why are we doing this? Why is that important? Why do it that way? Why should I? But it’s actually a brilliant question and the only one that can reliably lead us toward a sense of purpose, which is fuel for the engine of deep learning.

So we join our students in asking this most fundamental question. But rather than try to answer it for them, we help them discover their own “why” so that everything they do is driven by a personal sense of meaning, purpose, and curiosity. As William Butler Yeats famously said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Once the fundamental question of purpose is answered, that fire is lit.


Supportive College-Preparatory Curriculum and Instruction

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 are able to 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.

Student Experience > Academics

CORE
CURRICULUM


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SUPPORT &
ACCOMODATION


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COLLEGE
COUNSELING


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Hard work doesn’t have to be so…hard.

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.

  • "I’ve never felt more supported, more beautiful, or more free to explore who I am than when I was at Oliverian.  Everyone at college keeps saying how glad they are to be out of high school, and it makes me so grateful for my unique experience."
    Shelly Stein
  • "I would not be the person I am today if it were not for each and every person at Oliverian.  Their patience, compassion, and constantly guiding hands caused me, forced me, to grow in to the man I am now finally becoming."
    Tim Bates
  • "At Oliverian, I found the motivation  to pick up an instrument and let it engulf my life.  Because of that, music is a huge part of me.  And that wouldn’t have happened anywhere else."
    Nick de Stefanis ’14
  • Oli is a school full of incredibly brilliant and incredibly kind people.  The teachers at Oli are some of the smartest and most knowledgeable people I’ve ever met and all of them bring all sorts of really cool experiences and amazing new things to learn. On top of that, it’s located in a really beautiful area surrounded by forests and mountains.  Putting those two things together makes Oli a really nice place to learn and grow.
    Current Student