Norfolk Academy
Encyclopedia
Norfolk Academy is an independent co-educational day school in Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

. Chartered in 1728, it is the oldest secondary school in Virginia and the eighth oldest in the United States. In 1966, Norfolk Academy merged with Country Day School for Girls in Virginia Beach, Virginia to create the current co-educational school.

The school fosters competitive sports, competing in the Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools
Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools
The Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools is a 10-team athletic conference in the Tidewater region of Virginia. Prior to the 2004 school year, the TCIS had tournaments for JV and Middle School teams as well as Varsity...

 (TCIS). Males compete in the Virginia Preparatory League (VPL) and females in the League of Independent Schools (LIS).

Academics

The Academy attempts to maintain high standards, both academic and ethical, for students and faculty. Norfolk Academy’s German program was recognized in 2007 as the number one German program in the country among high schools. The College Board recognition for the school and German program has been earned, as the Report notes, through the performance of students on the AP German Language Exam. The ongoing exchange with the Copernicus Gymnasium, Löningen (Germany) has been in place since 1973. This exchange is the longest-running high school student exchange program between the two countries.

Norfolk Academy is also known for its matriculation to top colleges and universities.

Students are required to research, compose, and deliver to the student body and faculty an original persuasive speech as a graduation requirement. Public Speaking skills are integrated into the curriculum from the 1st grade on.

Honor code

Norfolk Academy's Honor Code
Honor code
An honour code or honour system is a set of rules or principles governing a community based on a set of rules or ideals that define what constitutes honorable behavior within that community. The use of an honor code depends on the idea that people can be trusted to act honorably...

 requires everyone in the school community to pledge not to lie, cheat, or steal. Students write the statement at the end of each graded assignment "I have acted honorably in the completion of this assignment" and then sign their name. Honor infractions in for seventh through twelfth grades are handled by the Middle and Upper Schools' respective honor councils, which consist of elected students.

Athletics

Norfolk Academy conducts a comprehensive athletic program featuring 74 interscholastic competition for grades 7 – 12. Teams compete in the Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools, the League of Independent Schools, and the Virginia Prep League.
New facilities include a Athletic Pavilion complex complete with fitness center containing cardio-vascular and weight-training equipment as well as a multi-use field house that has over 20000 square feet (1,858.1 m²). Other facilities include the Burroughs and Conrad gymnasiums, the Neff Athletic Training Room, the Vaughan Aquatic Center, the Metro Information Services Tennis Complex, the Watson Baseball Field, the Rixey Lacrosse Field, a 400-meter latex track, and nine additional playing fields.

Norfolk Academy's Men's Soccer Team was often ranked in 2008 as one of the best teams in the country.

Fine arts

The John Tucker Jr. Fine Arts Center was completed in 2006 and provides facilities including multiple Dance Studios, Art Studios, a choral room, band room, orchestra room, rooms designated for private music lessons, a Digital Editing lab,and the new Samuel Johnson Theater which provides seating for 575 in the audience including balcony and box seats.

Norfolk Academy offers private lessons in piano, guitar, harp, violin, and several other instruments for all grade levels. Offerings for more experienced musicians include jazz band, chorus, orchestra (strings), band, and harp ensemble. Lessons are offered in ballet and jazz. A dance team is also present, with practices held after school. Evening classes in modern, ballet, and African dance are also offered at Norfolk Academy.

Many arts courses are offered such as Art History, Film I & II, Music Theory, The History of Cinema, and Studio Art, along with the music and dance lessons also offered.

The popular winter musical and other productions are held throughout the year by the Academy Players as drama performance skills and stage crafts are taught (as well as through theater/film courses).

Clubs and activities

Approximately fifteen Upper School organizations offer students opportunities for planning, leadership, teamwork, and service. Students may join up to three organizations. Each organization must perform a community service project to benefit the community at large. In the spring the executive officers of the Student Council review the progress of each group and vote whether to recharter the organization for the following year.

The Happy Club at Norfolk Academy, which raises awareness and funds for Operation Smile
Operation Smile
Operation Smile is a not-for-profit medical service organization based in Norfolk, Virginia , founded in 1982. A secular NGO, the children's medical charity provides cleft lip and palate repair surgeries to children worldwide, assists countries in reaching self-sufficiency with these surgeries, and...

, was the first high-school club supporting the organization — followed by over 600 other Operation Smile student clubs nationwide.

Organizations other than clubs include Student Council, Honor Council, the school newspaper The Belfry, and the JETS Math, Science, and Engineering Team, which in 2010 tied for 1st place in the state and 10th in the nation (with Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology is a Virginia state-chartered magnet school located within Fairfax County, Virginia, United States...

).

Notable alumni

  • 1865: Littleton Waller Tazewell Bradford
    Littleton Waller Tazewell Bradford
    Littleton Waller Tazewell Bradford was a prominent Virginia politician and a founder of Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.Bradford, a cousin of fellow Pi Kappa Alpha founder Frederick Southgate Taylor, was born in Norfolk, Virginia on July 16, 1848, the son of Edmund Bradford and Anne Elizabeth Bradford...

    , co-founder, Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity (ΠΚΑ)
    Pi Kappa Alpha
    Pi Kappa Alpha is a Greek social fraternity with over 230 chapters and colonies and over 250,000 lifetime initiates in the United States and Canada.-History:...

     (one of the oldest and largest college fraternities in the United States); Norfolk politician
  • 1899: Hardy Cross
    Hardy Cross
    Hardy Cross, 1885–1959, born in Nansemond County, Virginia, was a U.S. structural engineer and the developer of the moment distribution method for structural calculation of large buildings. The method was in general use from c.1935 until c.1960 when it was gradually superseded by other methods...

    , Structural Engineer, developed the moment distribution method
    Moment distribution method
    The moment distribution method is a structural analysis method for statically indeterminate beams and frames developed by Hardy Cross. It was published in 1930 in an ASCE journal. The method only accounts for flexural effects and ignores axial and shear effects...

      for structural calculation in large buildings
  • 1903: Captain Alfred Hart Miles, writer/lyricist of the official United States Naval Academy
    United States Naval Academy
    The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...

     Fight Song, Anchors Away
  • 1907: Dave Robertson
    Dave Robertson
    Davis Aydelotte Robertson is a former professional baseball player. He was an outfielder over parts of 9 seasons with the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, and Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1916 and 1917 he tied for the National League lead in home runs while playing for New York...

    , professional baseball player for the Giants, Cubs, and Pirates (left Norfolk Academy shortly before graduating)
  • 1913: Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr.
    Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr.
    Lemuel Cornick Shepherd, Jr. was a four-star general of the United States Marine Corps. A veteran of World War I, World War II, and the Korean War, he was the 20th Commandant of the Marine Corps...

    , 20th Commandant of the Marine Corps
    Commandant of the Marine Corps
    The Commandant of the Marine Corps is normally the highest ranking officer in the United States Marine Corps and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...

     of the United States of America serving under President Harry S. Truman
    Harry S. Truman
    Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

     and the first ever Commandant of the United States Marine Corps
    United States Marine Corps
    The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...

     to be on the Joint Chiefs of Staff
    Joint Chiefs of Staff
    The Joint Chiefs of Staff is a body of senior uniformed leaders in the United States Department of Defense who advise the Secretary of Defense, the Homeland Security Council, the National Security Council and the President on military matters...

  • 1962: Hunter R. Rawlings III
    Hunter R. Rawlings III
    Hunter Ripley Rawlings III is an American classics scholar and academic administrator. He is best known for serving as the 17th President of the University of Iowa from 1982 until 1995 and as the 10th President of Cornell University from 1995 until 2003. He also served as Cornell's interim...

    , 10th president of Cornell University
    Cornell University
    Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

    ; former chair, Association of American Universities
    Association of American Universities
    The Association of American Universities is an organization of leading research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education...

    ; former president, University of Iowa
    University of Iowa
    The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

    ; classics scholar
  • 1970: Everett A. Martin Jr., Chief Judge for the Norfolk Circuit Court in Norfolk, Virginia
    Norfolk, Virginia
    Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

  • 1975: Mitch Caplan
    Mitch Caplan
    -Background:Caplan grew up in Portsmouth, Virginia, and graduated from the Norfolk Academy in 1975. He subsequently received a BA in history from Brandeis University – later receiving his JD and an MBA from Emory University....

    , former CEO of E-Trade Financial Corporation
  • 1976: Peter Wisoff, physicist and former NASA
    NASA
    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

     astronaut
    Astronaut
    An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....

  • 1979: Marc Moss
    Marc Moss
    Marc Moss is an American screenwriter raised in Norfolk, Virginia. He received his BA from the University of Chicago and his MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts. Moss was credited with the feature film "Along Came a Spider" , starring Morgan Freeman and Monica Potter...

    , screenwriter
  • 1980: Bob Powell, #1 kayak
    Kayak
    A kayak is a small, relatively narrow, human-powered boat primarily designed to be manually propelled by means of a double blade paddle.The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each seating one paddler...

    er in the United States from 1994 to 1996
  • 1980: Joe Fiveash, Senior Vice President and General Manager of The Weather Channel Interactive
  • 1990: Perry Moore
    Perry Moore
    William Perry Moore IV , also known as Perry Moore, was an American author, screenwriter, and film director...

    , screenwriter, author, director executive producer of films such as The Chronicles of Narnia
    The Chronicles of Narnia
    The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages...

     series
  • 1992: Sean Dugan, actor, Oz (TV series)
    Oz (TV series)
    Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote all of the series' 56 episodes . It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by premium cable network HBO. Oz premiered on July 12, 1997 and ran for six seasons...

    1998-2003; Sundance Film Festival
    Sundance Film Festival
    The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

     movie Overnight Sensation
  • 1992: Glenn Nye
    Glenn Nye
    Glenn Carlyle Nye III is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 2009 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party...

    , former U.S. Congressman of Virginia's Second District
  • 1993: Rebecca Cardon
    Rebecca Cardon
    Rebecca Lynn Cardon is an film and television actress, personal trainer, and product spokesperson. She has appeared on several reality-TV shows.-Early life:...

    , Actress
  • 1996: Angela Hucles
    Angela Hucles
    Angela Khalia Hucles is a former American soccer midfielder and member of the United States women's national soccer team.-Early life:...

    , 2-time Olympic Gold Medalist, soccer
  • 2000: Eric Martin
    Eric Martin (lacrosse)
    Eric Martin from Norfolk, Virginia is a professional lacrosse defenseman for the Washington Stealth of the National Lacrosse League....

    , Professional and International Lacrosse
    Lacrosse
    Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...

    player
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