On Friday, Dec. 1, Shady Side Academy Senior School opened the doors of its new on-campus Health Center. The spacious 2,000-square-foot facility will provide health services to approximately 460 day and boarding students in grades 9-12 and serve as the home of the Senior School nursing team, which includes school nurse Maria Thieman and night/after-hours nurse Amy Gray. It includes a nurses' office, exam room, waiting area, six private beds, a kitchen, two ADA-accessible bathrooms and wireless internet.

The Health Center was constructed over the summer and fall as an addition to Kappel House, an-on campus faculty house where Nurse Gray and her family reside, located just across the street from Rowe Hall Courtyard. It is a significant upgrade to the previous nurse's office, which was a small 160-square-foot room inside the Deans' Office suite in the heart of Rowe Hall. The new facility is 12.5 times larger, can accommodate multiple students at once, and is away from the noise and bustle of the student center. It also provides a place for boarding students who are ill to stay overnight, out of the dorms and steps away from the night nurse. Previously, ill boarders slept in a designated "sick room" inside each dorm, and the night nurse would need to walk across campus to the dorms to check on them.

View a photo slideshow of the new Health Center below: