WJA Stories

1. Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Nutrition: A child can't learn on an empty stomach. WJA provides breakfast, hot lunch, and hot dinner daily. Students eat in a family setting in small groups that include faculty, staff, volunteers, and visitors.

Breakfast Speaker Series:

Throughout the year, prominent business people, professionals and community leaders address the students during breakfast. They share stories of their own childhoods, backgrounds and educations and talk about their own roads to success.

2. Reading

Upon entering Washington Jesuit Academy, 11% of students, on average, read at grade level. After one year, 47%, on average, read at grade level, and upon graduation, 95% of students read at or above grade level. The reading teacher, Robert Wassmann, uses reading aloud and personal reading assignments to increase comprehension and reading speed. An additional reading class is offered in the afternoons.

3. Religious Studies

Students study the history and core beliefs of Christianity as well as religions such as Islam and Judaism. Washington Jesuit Academy is founded on Catholic and Jesuit principles which include an emphasis on the search for knowledge. This is especially apparent in the Religious Studies curriculum where students study the foundation of Catholicism with the same vigor as they study the life of Confucius.

4. Study Hall

Students stay at school to do their homework every evening from 5:30-7:30pm. They work in small groups with the help and oversight of volunteer tutors who come in on a regular weekly schedule. The volunteers form strong bonds with the students, thus enhancing each child's adult support system.

5. Advisory Groups

Washington Jesuit Academy's 7:1 student to teacher ratio enables students and faculty to build lasting relationships with each other. Students have the opportunity to meet with their advisor on a daily basis to discuss their achievements and disappointments in their academic and personal lives.