Spring Valley Academy offers multi-cultural, faith-based learning
Dayton-based Spring Valley Academy is very international in the scope of its student experience. As a Seventh-day Adventist Christian School, Spring Valley Academy is dedicated to nurturing each student in the development of a personal relationship with God, achieving academic excellence and inspiring service to others. However, the breadth and scope of the educational experience offered by this K-12 school is truly worldwide.
“Obviously, we are a faith-based school and that is a very big part of who we are,” says Darren Wilkins, principal of Spring Valley. “The sense of community, deeply held values and ethics based on faith are very important to us. We teach our students that there is something bigger in the world outside of ourselves. Understanding that your life means something more on a grander scale lends a lot more meaning to learning.”
Spring Valley Academy is part of the Seventh-day Adventist school system, the second largest parochial school system in the world after the Catholic school system. As such, Spring Valley has access to a tremendous amount of infrastructure and support.
“A school system of this size is able to provide local schools like ours with the kind of infrastructure that a stand-alone school would not have,” says Wilkins.
Being a Seventh-day Adventist School also gives Spring Valley access to other organizations such as Kettering Health and Kettering College, which are sister organizations of the school. The relationship with Kettering College gives Spring Valley graduates a great way to initiate a post-secondary education.
“Our relationship with them allows us to offer college credit courses to be taught on campus,” says Wilkins. “So it’s possible a student can graduate from Spring Valley and have most of their general studies requirements for a bachelor’s degree already completed.”
While it might seem that Spring Valley Academy is a place where children of upper-level executives and doctors can get a leg up on their post-secondary education, it is not by any means only for the upper echelon of society.
“We like to say that we are elite, not elitist,” says Wilkins. “We have immigrant congregations in this region. Three Hispanic churches and a church that is made up of African refugees. We are committed to serving those students. So we’re not just a country club school for the privileged.”
Of the 427 students at Spring Valley, 80 of those made harrowing journeys from refugee camps in Africa or escaped from difficult circumstances in central America.
“We have a real sense of mission for those kids,” says Wilkins. “We are committed to serving those kids and giving them the best future that they can possibly have.”
Their presence on Spring Valley’s campus also enriches the cultural experience of its students, notes Wilkins.
“Our community of parents and students sees that we are better off with that kind of diversity,” he says.
Spring Valley students also are exposed to international communities through annual trips each year.
“We do international trips every year where students have the opportunity to experience different cultures,” says Wilkins. “One year it is a mission service trip where we’ll take medical, dental and construction teams as well as a water purification system to a primitive place like the Amazon rainforest or to Africa where they will work among the Masai people in Kenya along with top medical professionals from across the country.”
On alternate years, it’s studying other cultures in countries like Greece, France, Spain or China. It’s all about giving the Spring Valley student the opportunity to see the world, experience different cultures and prepare them to serve society in a greater, Christian way.
