Shady Side Academy’s mission is “to challenge students to think expansively, act ethically, and lead responsibly.”

Inspired by this mission, Shady Side’s driving purpose remains the development of responsible, transformative leaders for the City of Pittsburgh and beyond. This reason for existing was embedded at our inception, as the pioneers of the American steel industry founded a preparatory school designed to ensure next generation leadership for what they envisioned would become the great, enduring industrial city of the 20th century.

As we envision the Academy’s next chapter and consider a changing world, we have opportunity to reimagine how we deliver on this mission, creating an unique and valuable education for families and bright, curious students who:

Want Small Classes and Big Opportunities

Shady Side is intimate enough to know, support and care for individual learners, but also large enough to offer a program where all students can find their place to connect, lead, and succeed, often on the biggest stage and under the brightest lights.

With the combination of our intimate and highly relational teaching, coaching and advising models and an overall enrollment nearly twice that of our largest local peer, we pair the closeness typically found in independent schools with a programmatic scale and a broad community spirit entirely unique in our market.

Seek Real-World Learning and To Become The Leaders of A Connected, Digital Future

Shady Side pairs Western Pennsylvania’s most geographically diverse student body (115 ZIP codes, 15 states and five countries) with a broad and balanced curriculum, challenging students who see the world in remarkably different ways to engage in a dialogue that is essential to expansive thought and responsible leadership.

Given the manifold perspectives that make up our community and program, Shady Side has an unparalleled opportunity in our region to help students confront differences and grapple with views and opinions they do not hold themselves. We position our students uniquely to practice civil discourse and develop the humane, constructive relationships that will help our nation and world bridge divides.

Desire a Balanced, Informed Worldview

As Pittsburgh continues to evolve as a hub for technology, research, and design, SSA has made strategic investments in these areas and now has had the unique opportunity to develop leaders at the expanding nexus of technology and the liberal arts. With all that is happening in our city and region—and Shady Side’s countless connections to all of it—the School has the unique capacity to provide our students with the real-world learning experiences that will prepare them to become ethical, humane leaders in a rapidly changing world.