I Am Building Woodward Academy // Videos

The latest edition of the Knightly Knews focused on the dedicated staff of Woodward Academy. As a bonus to that edition, some staff members sat down for an interview and talked about how they are building Woodward Academy. The first is embedded here with the others after the break.

The Dedicated Staff of Woodward Academy // 546 Years of Service

In a field where high staff turnover is often the norm, Woodward Academy has excelled in building a solid team of dedicated staff. In fact, at the end of 2014, WA had 58 staff members with 5+ years of experience (pictured). That equates to 546 years of service, an unprecedented amount of experience that very few facilities across the United States would be able to claim.

Many started their career working with students at Woodward Academy and they have found that they love what Woodward Academy provides. This image was created as the latest spread in our quarterly publication, the Knightly Knews. In that edition, Ryan Santi, Executive Director, said that "a program can only be as good as the staff that it employs… [we] have taken great steps in allowing our staff to make Woodward Academy a career destination. We provide great training and experience to our staff… [and] have always done our best to identify the up and comers, those who have the 'it' factor."

This summer, we will celebrate our 20th anniversary. Over the past two decades, Woodward Academy has built a team who strives to serve as the standard for how juvenile residential care should operate. This team is responsible for building what exists today at WA, and many will move on to help guide the infrastructure for tomorrow.

Knightly Knews Vol. 32 is now online!

The latest edition of the Knightly Knews is now online and you can access it by clicking here. As a .pdf document, you can view or download the quarterly publication to your computer, iPad, or smartphone for easy reading. This I Am Building Woodward Academy staff focused edition includes:

- A note from Ryan Santi, Executive Director
- Royal Rumble Wrestling Week
- How WA is different
- Fall sports recap
- How coaching changes the student / staff perspective
- Image of all the staff who have served 5+ years at WA
- YouTube video bonus

We hope you have a chance to check it out and enjoy the read.

Cal Lane: WA's First Professional Athlete

Over the past couple years, we have been able to follow the professional track & field career of former Knight Cal Lane. He was the cover story of Volume 28 of the Knightly Knews that you can download here. Cal graduated from Woodward Academy in October 2007 and returned to his high school where he won 6 individual state titles and was inducted into his high school's athletic hall of fame. Until recently, he trained primarily on his own and competed in long jump events across the country with a little backing from Woodward Academy and the Lifetime Commitment Fund.

In 2013, he competed at Iowa State University and won the long jump contest at their indoor winter event. He also won at an event held at Arkansas University (you can see the video here) and has competed in several other meets, including those held at The University of Kansas and the 2014 USATF Indoor National Championships in New Mexico.

On December 19, Cal jumped at the University of Indiana and hit a huge jump: 26 feet, 4 inches. He won the meet and is currently ranked #1 in the world. It qualified him for the USA Indoor National Meet in Boston that is being held February 28-March 1. It also ensures that he can jump in any meet that he desires for the next year. We also just found out that Cal is now signing with an agent and will field contract offers that will help pay for clothing, travel expenses, and cash. One of those contracts was from Nike. Cal has decided that over the next few months, he will compete in Europe at events that will pay him between $500-$5,000 in prize money per meet. We are very proud to say that Cal is a Knight and is our first professional athlete.

Basketball Poster 2014-2015

Here is the official poster for the 2014-2015 Knights basketball team. Led by senior Ivan Johnson and junior Anthony Allen, the Knights are off to a great start this season and are a lot of fun to watch. Their balanced team and upbeat style has given opponents a lot of challenges and they plan to continue that trend into the second half of the season. If you didn't have a chance to see the video of the Knights beating a ranked and highly regarded 3A opponent during non-conference play, you can check that out by clicking here.

The image is a composite of individual pictures put together to form the team. If you're on campus, pick up a copy of the poster and attend a game if you get a chance. We'll have more on the team as the season progresses.

Happy Holidays from Woodward Academy

Self-Portraits in Art Class

"Draw what you see, not what you know," was the common phrase used by Sarah Elmore, art teacher at Woodward Academy when students started working on self-portrait projects. After taking their picture, students determined their own version of the project. Pictured are some great examples of what one class did. Other classes did full pencil renders of their image.

All students were asked to make grids on their pictures with several vertical and horizontal lines. This is a common technique used by professionals because it allows artists to break the project up into smaller sections, allowing them to draw faster and more efficiently. In art class, students are always improving their skills. A secondary focus for students who excelled in the grid technique was to focus on shading and to add value to their drawings.