The Residence Life Program gives students a greater sense of community. Girls from around the corner and across the world live together, and have fun together. Any Woodlands student will tell you how much fun it is to be a resident student. There is no experience quite like living with so many interesting people your own age, talking for hours with best friends about everything under the sun or heading to town for pizza.
We have a unique opportunity in the Residence Life Program to directly impact our students’ lives 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Residence Life Curriculum maximizes our effect on students by complementing the religious, academic, athletic and extracurricular opportunities available at Woodlands Academy. This Program is an effort to develop young citizens who will help to build a just and caring community both in this School and later in the larger world.
Goals
- To build community through smaller tight-knit groups, representing a cross-section of our students.
- To encourage all students and staff to explore various issues relating to the Sacred Heart Goals and Criteria, as they relate to our students ’ lives.
- To open our students’ eyes to the different ways that various people and cultures view the same issues.
- To give all our students a chance to share their culture and talents with our community.
Focus: The five Goals of a Sacred Heart Education
- A Personal and Active Faith in God
- Deep Respect for Intellectual Values
- Social Awareness that Impels to Action
- The Building of Community as a Christian Value
- Personal Growth in an atmosphere of Wise Freedom
These goals give us something to strive for. If students and the Residence Life Staff members all work toward bettering themselves in all 5 areas, the result will be a closer and more caring community with well-rounded individuals. The Residence Life Curriculum is based on the understanding that we are not perfect and these goals give us something better for which to strive.
Components
- International Education – utilizing the life experiences of our International staff and students by:
- Posting information on bulletin boards,
- At times, Family Time may be used for a guest speaker, other relevant all-dorm session. Of course, we are open to any suggestions the students have.
- The school year is broken down into 5 sections, each one focusing on one of the 5 Goals of a Sacred Heart Education. Activities/discussion topics designed to explore specific issues that affect the Residents as related to the current Goal.
- One required activity per semester for the entire community e.g. Fall 2003 – Lion King on Broadway
- Three required cultural/educational activities per semester for each 7-day resident - there will be several offered throughout the weekends and they may choose which ones they would like to attend. (Seniors will only have to choose one activity per semester.)
- Weekly required community dinners:
- Announcements are made and holidays, birthdays and special occasions are celebrated.
- The families take turns choosing and saying prayers before the meal.
- Each semester every family will plan a Community Dinner.
- RCC (Resident Community Council) members plan Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinners.
- Disciplining in terms of the Goals & Criteria: This is on-going Houseparents will talk to the residents about the reasons for the student receiving consequences and what Goal her actions reflected and why it is important to her and to the community.
