Sophia Academy is on track to receive accreditation after the site visit team unanimously recommended us this week for accreditation from Middle States Association and Christian Schools International. This caps over a year and a half of rigorous self study.
Here is one commendation the Accreditation Site Visit Team gave us:
“Teachers understand the learning differences of students. Students and parents are thrilled to be in a school where there is a focus on awakening genius and where the student is identified as an image-bearer of God with a lot of potential.”
February 22, 2025 was a momentous day for Sophia Academy as we held our very first fundraising dinner to raise money for student scholarships. The hall was beautifully decorated and the catered meal was fine, but the best part of the evening according to our attendees were the short testimonials given by a parent, a teacher, and a student.
The parent shared how Sophia Academy had helped his autistic son so much. Because of the work that Sophia did with his son, his social skills were leaps and bounds ahead of where he started. His ability to organize himself for school was stellar. His grades were high. This parent couldn’t be happier.
You may like to actually listen to the student’s talk: honest, vulnerable, and giving a lot of credit to his teachers and to the school:
We agree with our student: with the right supports, every student can succeed academically and personally.
Once evening fell, floor lamps strategically placed gave a wonderful ambience
That’s right. In Sophia Academy’s photography class, student not only learn composition, parts of a camera, and the difference between abstract and representational pictures. They also had the challenge of taking pictures while blindfolded, depending only on touch, sense of heat and light, and so on. We think they produced some mighty fine photographs. Here is one. Stay tuned for some of their abstract work and focus on color.
The annual Minorities in Health Sciences Symposium, held at Esperanza College of Eastern University, provided students from Sophia Academy and numerous other high schools in Philadelphia with the opportunity to explore the many varied options in the health sciences field.
Morning speakers passed on great nuggets of information. What do our students remember?
–That when you feel a panic attack coming on, placing your right hand firmly over your chest will simulate the feeling of a hug. That four hugs a day are necessary for life, eight are necessary for growth, and a minimum of twelve hugs each day are necessary to thrive.
–That Jefferson Hospital and Esperanza College have a PACE program which gives students full-time jobs at Jefferson while they take pre-nursing or pre-med courses at Esperanza. And that Jefferson provides scholarships for tuition in addition to the jobs. Win-win.
–That there are many ways to the future and everyone can take the path that works best for them.
The afternoon sessions were completely hands-on as students could choose between dissection, virtual reality, healthy cooking, extracting DNA and much more. Our students compared healthy and diseased retinas under microscopes, used VR to rescue victims of a car crash, handled real human brains with the eyes still attached, and practiced forcing the brain and eye to work together while looking in a mirror to draw a star. Now, that was hard!
Students at Sophia Academy spent the last eight months working on a service project as part of the Philly Service Awards program. We received financing from the organization to carry out the service project and for classroom supplies. At the end of the year, we competed against 75 other high schools in the Philadelphia area for a money award. The Philly Service Awards program gave 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes in three categories. At the awards ceremony on May 2, Sophia Academy students were both shocked and thrilled to hear our school announced as the 2nd place winner in the “Safer Philadelphia” category. This award comes with a great trophy and $5000. A student committee will work together to decide how to spend a portion of that prize money.
What was our service project? Cleaning the bandstand in the local park, ridding it of vegetation overgrowth, moss, trash, and more; offering free yard clean-ups in the neighborhood; visiting our local elementary school to have them help us create artwork about the community; turning their artwork and ours into a mosaic to be installed in the park near the bandstand; and purchasing a doggy waste system to be installed near the band stand.
One of the distinctives of Sophia Academy is our use of the month of January to study in depth a subject of our choice. Often hands-on, these electives vary from year to year. This year’s J-Term offerings are three: Around the World Culinary Adventures, Chess, and Theater Arts. The chefs are proud of the incredible, tasty food they have produced, from a Moroccan Tagine to Korean Beef Bowls to French sauces. They have gone the extra mile by making even their pasta and wraps from scratch. Meanwhile, cries of excitement have been emanating from Theater Arts as students and teachers have written their own script as a team, turned white sheets into beautiful backdrops for the set, and are busily heading toward opening day–well, production day. The quietest class is, of course, chess, where even newcomers have learned the logic and strategy of chess while old hands strengthen their skills and all develop their competitive edge.
For a school dedicated to awakening genius through creative discovery, it is important to find teachers who have caught the vision and love being pushed to be their best. Our new teachers this year fit the bill. Let us introduce Ms. Melody Heath (Temple U), new teacher of science and math, Mr. Aaron Vander-Collins (Liberty U, Rutgers), our new teacher of music.], and Mr. Jabarr Graves (Chatham U) new teacher of art.
Sometimes the challenges are fun–as when Sophia students have to figure out how to get ten people walking 45 to 50 feet on a cable one foot above the ground with no way to hold on (yes, they did it!). Sometime the challenges are hard work–such as trying to figure out if they are looking at a compound, a homogenous mixture, or some other thing with a name they’ve learned for the first time one day before. In all the challenges, though, Sophia students are growing cognitively, emotionally, and even socially.
Social Emotional Learning is popular in 2023, and Sophia Academy joins many other schools around the country making sure that we include SEL training into our school day. We want our students to be comfortable in their own skin, confident in their abilities, and eager to take on new challenges.
Sophia Academy seniors have joined the incoming class at Esperanza College for one class per semester. Dual Enrollment has many benefits for our students: becoming familiar with college expectations and processes, thus taking the “fear factor” out of college matriculation; completing high school requirements while earning college credit at the same time; having Sophia teachers help with everything from time management, to understanding syllabi, to writing.
Each student reacts differently. Some throw themselves into the college course and want to take more. Others drag their feet and say “I’m going to trade school.” But the great thing about classes at Esperanza is that even trade school classes like College Algebra (needed for many trades) can be completed early.
Jose uses study hall time to review his Psychology notes from his college course.
Sophia Biology students planted garden seeds indoors while the weather was still wintry outdoors and then transplanted the seedlings into their Roots Garden plot in early April, way before other people were even thinking about planting. To their delight, they harvested their first small vegetables before the month was over. As the vegetables grow, students will eat some of them, take some home, and donate the rest to the food pantry at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Enrolling grades 9-12. Call 267-595-4723 or email info@sophiaphila.org