Our family has been at Waverly for nine years, and it’s hard to believe that Nicholas, our youngest child, is about to grad­u­ate and get ready to attend Eckerd College in the fall. His older sister, Sophia, also grad­u­ated from Waverly, in 2017. There are many reasons why we think Waverly was an excel­lent school for Nicholas (and also Sophia), but above all, perhaps, the school struck a sound balance between acad­e­mics and personal time. Nicholas is a passion­ate wildlife photog­ra­pher who spends count­less hours in the field on a weekly, some­times daily, basis. Waverly not only left him with enough time to pursue his passion, but even encour­aged and cele­brated it, as it does with all students. At the same time, Waver­ly’s passion­ate and commit­ted teach­ers provided a chal­leng­ing but safe learn­ing envi­ron­ment for Nicholas, one in which he was encour­aged to take intel­lec­tual risks and think outside the box. 

We are grate­ful to Waverly for being a safe and open envi­ron­ment for Nicholas to explore his other, less obvious talents. As a junior, he explored drama, and we were in awe of how well he expressed himself on stage as an actor. Thanks go to teacher Syd for her encour­ag­ing and welcom­ing atti­tude toward students enter­ing drama class for the first time. We knew Nicholas had a comedic streak in him, but we did not quite realize how good he was at acting in front of an audi­ence. This expe­ri­ence allowed us to see our son in a completely differ­ent light. And, it also gave him courage to trust how he comes across to others in general. It helped him feel good about who he is. 

All in all, we strongly feel that Waverly gave Nicholas the space he needed to pursue his passions, while at the same time putting him in a really good start­ing posi­tion for the rest of his life. And for that, we will always be grate­ful to Waverly.