Snowdrop Science Academy

AbOUT

Snowdrop Science Academy (SSA) is a PreK-8 private school in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 2005 by the non-profit organization West Penn Cultural Center (WPCC) and was opened by Riza Ulker, Christine Ayman, and Ammar Unal. The school is a private institution with a current enrollment of 54 students. Snowdrop Science Academy(SSA) is both student and teacher-oriented. A primary goal of SSA is to guide children in their journeys towards reaching their fullest potential. We believe that challenging children to improve is more meaningful than turning education into a competition. In this sense, the school emphasizes that every child is unique and has his or her own learning style. With this sensitivity, the school’s curriculum is designed to address all learning styles. This means that each child's emotional, social, academic and physical needs will be met under the guidance and supervision of teachers. In practice, at times, children will follow their interests in their learning but at other times teachers will intervene and change the direction for them when it appears that they are missing something that they should know. At the basic level, since the school’s program gives priority to academic skills, attaining proficiency in these will be the guiding principle.

The SSA program rests on the assumption that all subjects that are taught (e.g. social studies, math, science etc.) are related, because they all help us to understand the world better. From this perspective, all of the subjects will be taught in an integrated way. Although each subject will be taught separately during the day, we will lead our students to see the connection between each subject area, such as between science and math or between social studies and arts. The program will also be integrated into real life. Students will be challenged to make daily use of what they learn in school. The content will be shared with families to involve them. Students will also be taken on field trips so that they can have a “hands-on” experience with what they learn in school.

The key to success of SSA’s vision is both trying to understand the child as a unique person, while also accepting his or her “family” as the second most important agent to learn more about him or her. This requires high parental involvement and is necessary for multicultural programs. With such a diverse population of students, it is impossible to know them in the context of their own cultures without significant assistance from their families. Therefore, as much information as possible will be obtained from families, starting with the registration of the child to our school. The Family Structure and Child Personality Questionnaire will be filled out by each family and will serve as a guide in learning more about students. The collected information will be used to meet the individual needs of every student. Continuous staff development is another important key to providing effective multicultural education. With this in mind, every new teacher will receive adequate training about multicultural education before starting to teach. The school will continue,on a regular basis, to provide appropriate training for teachers’ professional development in a multicultural environment.

In summary, SSA provides students with a Multicultural Curriculum, which is sensitive to diversity and the uniqueness of children, and is both child- and student-oriented and integrated. Two main venues that will help to provide this kind of education will be high parental involvement and continuous staff development.

Mission

Snowdrop Science Academy(SSA) is dedicated to helping its students reach their highest academic and social potential through the use of small classes, a rigorous curriculum and a nurturing learning-environment. The school is based on the values of kindness,-honesty and respect for self and others. SSA provides a traditional academic program that challenges both intellect and-imagination. A solid foundation in core subject areas is taught-along with moral values.

Education

School Uniforms

Boys- Navy blue school pants, a white button-down shirt and a tie.
Girls- Plaided green skirt, white button-down blouse and Snowdrop sweater.
For both Genders- Dress shoes

Awards and Recognition

Snowdrop Science Academy attends the Science Olympiads that happens at The California University of Pennsylvania. Snowdrop Science Academy also hosts Elementary level Science Olympiads at CCAC in of which Snowdrop has won the 2nd place trophy (2007) and the 1st place trophy. (2008)

Extracurricular Activities

Clubs

SSA includes an in-school club hour in which students are able to pick among clubs such as math club, art club, chess club, media club, Club Care, and sports club among other activities.

Extra Information

Snowdrop is open to all students without regard to race, religion, gender, or national or ethnic origin.

For optimum learning, the class sizes are limited to 12 students each. However, all subsequent years will have an application deadline of May 21. Due to our limited openings, students are highly encouraged to apply in the fall for the following school year. If there are no openings for your child’s grade at the time of registration, he/she will be put on our waiting list. The waiting list is managed on a first-come, first-served basis. When an opening occurs, the child at the top of the list will be contacted and offered the available position.

All students entering Snowdrop must take an entrance exam. Kindergarteners also undergo a Kindergarten Readiness Test, regardless of age.