welcome
Past and Future:
Tradition and Change
Welcome to Shady Side Academy. One of the oldest independent
schools in Western Pennsylvania, Shady Side enrolls more than 900 students in
grades pre-kindergarten through 12 on three unique campuses. Our mission – to provide an
exceptional and balanced education in a stimulating and nurturing environment –
drives our curricular and co-curricular efforts at our Senior, Middle and Junior schools. The heart and soul of any great school is the teaching faculty, and
Shady Side teachers are dedicated to the craft of teaching, passionate about
working with children and young adults, and committed to the idea that learning
is truly a collaborative endeavor.
In partnership with our parents, we strive to build
supportive learning communities where students will be adaptive, resourceful,
innovative and independent learners. We embrace the differences within our community and know that
this diversity adds to the richness and depth of the overall learning
experience. We also encourage Shady Side students to be risk takers, whether in
the classroom, on the playing field or on the stage. We want to nudge all of
our students out of their comfort zones in order to expand the number of zones
in which they are truly comfortable.
As the world becomes smaller and more interconnected, we aim
to provide our students with the knowledge and skills to comprehend its complexity
and to think about it insightfully. Each day our teachers discover new ways to
bring the world into our classrooms, and we have worked hard to expand
opportunities for our students to experience distant places firsthand. Finally,
we encourage students to analyze old assumptions critically, as they consider
solutions to current and future problems and challenges. Our goal is that Shady
Side students will be engaged, thoughtful and compassionate citizens of any
community in which they live.
At Shady Side we also place a very strong emphasis on the
development of character and instill in students our Guiding Principles of Honesty,
Kindness, Responsibility, Respect and Safety. Legendary Shady Side
athletic director Cap Palmer’s captured this spirit best in an exhortation to
his players almost 100 years ago, which still rings true today, whether talking
about athletic contests, academic pursuits or life in general: “Honor the game
thou playest, for he who playest the game straight and hard wins even when he
loses.”
It is a great pleasure to invite you to explore our Shady
Side community. We hope that you will be able to visit the campus in person. I
would be delighted to meet you when you do.
Sincerely,
Tom Cangiano
Academy President
