Walla Walla Valley Academy (WWVA) is a

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...

grades 9–12 school located in College Place,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. College Place is next to the larger town of

Walla Walla Walla Walla can refer to: * Walla Walla people, a Native American tribe after which the county and city of Walla Walla, Washington, are named * Place of many rocks in the Australian Aboriginal Wiradjuri language, the origin of the name of the town ...

and is in the

Walla Walla Valley The Walla Walla River is a tributary of the Columbia River, joining the Columbia just above Wallula Gap in southeastern Washington in the United States. The river flows through Umatilla County, Oregon, and Walla Walla County, Washington. Its drai ...

. The academy is a part of the

Seventh-day Adventist education The Seventh-day Adventist educational system, part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, is overseen by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists located in Silver Spring, Maryland. The educational system is a Christian school-based syst ...

system, the world's second largest Christian school system.

History

The school opened in 1886 as the Milton Academy. Originally the school was located in Milton-Freewater, Oregon, where the City Hall building is situated today. It was the first Seventh-day Adventist academy in the Pacific Northwest. Its sister school is Upper Columbia Academy. In 1892, Milton Academy joined Walla Walla College (now

Walla Walla University Walla Walla University is a private Adventist university in College Place, Washington. The university has five campuses throughout the Pacific Northwest. It was founded in 1892 and is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The un ...

) and was renamed Walla Walla College Academy. It academically separated from the college in 1935, and was accredited by the State in 1937. When a new elementary school, Clara E. Rogers Elementary School, was built in 1953, the academy moved to the old elementary school building. In 1964, another move brought the school to its current location and the academy became known as Walla Walla Valley Academy (WWVA). WWVA has several music groups including the concert band, Praise Ringers (bell choir), string orchestra,

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

, and WWVA Singers, who present programs for various church, civic, and school activities.

Academics

The required curriculum includes classes in the following subject areas: Religion, English, Oral Communications, Social Studies, Mathematics, Science, Physical Education, Health, Computer Applications, Fine Arts, Personal Finance, and Electives.

Spiritual aspects

All students take religion classes each year that they are enrolled. These classes cover topics in biblical history and Christian and

denominational A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name and tradition among other activities. The term refers to the various Christian denominations (for example, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and the many variet ...

doctrines. Instructors in other disciplines also begin each class period with prayer or a short devotional thought, many which encourage student input. Weekly, the entire student body gathers together in the auditorium for an hour-long chapel service. Outside the classrooms there is year-round spiritually oriented programming that relies on student involvement.

Athletics

WWVA is currently in the Eastern Washington Athletic Conference. Other teams include DeSales, Dayton-Waitsburg, Liberty Christian, Columbia, Tri-Cities Prep, White Swan, Lyle/Wishram, and Mabton. In the fall WWVA competes in

co-ed Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

soccer,

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open cou ...

, and women's volleyball. The varsity soccer and volleyball teams compete in the annual Fall Classics, an Adventist high school tournament, hosted by the neighboring Walla Walla University. In the winter students may compete in men's and women's basketball. At the end of the season, they compete in a similar tournament hosted by Walla Walla University called the Friendship Tournament. In the spring, WWVA offers track and field, co-ed baseball, and co-ed golf. WWVA also offers a program called AcroKinghts, an acrobatics team. While not technically a sport, with the team performing at various venues instead of competing against other acrobatic teams. It is offered year-round and students are awarded with credits. The team does a bi-annual mission trip to various countries with past trips including Belize and Jamaica. The team's largest performance to date was at the March 12, 2013

Portland Trail Blazers The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Con ...

game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Covid-19 Pandemic

In March 2020, the school began online only schooling, due to the

COVID-19 Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Classes were taught via

Zoom Zoom may refer to: Technology Computing * Zoom (software), videoconferencing application * Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display * Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for image ...

, and assignments were completed through Google Classroom. During the 2020 school year, which began August 2020, students were required to wear a face covering at all times in the building, and perform an online

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

screening at the start of each day. For the first few weeks, classes were conducted outdoors, then returned inside when the weather started to get cold.

References

External links

* {{authority control High schools in Walla Walla County, Washington Adventist secondary schools in the United States Education in Walla Walla, Washington Private high schools in Washington (state)