Columbus Girls Academy

Columbus Girls Academy is a Christian boarding school for teenage girls struggling with life-controlling problems. They offer a disciplined and structured therapeutic environment that emphasizes character development, spiritual growth, and personal responsibility. The non-profit therapeutic program for girls is designed to develop the whole person in four main areas: spiritual, social, academic, and physical.

Columbus Girls Academy is lower in cost, but a highly effective and well-developed program on a beautiful campus. Columbus Girls Academy surrounds its students all day long with an environment to help facilitate life change through the witness and guidance of staff and counselors.

The program entails counseling; both individually and in group meetings. Students in Columbus Girls Academy boarding school are challenged daily in their relationships and respect for others as they interact with school and counseling staff and their peers. It is an environment that balances discipline with personal responsibility to create a positive peer culture. “Our goal is to help students make positive decisions, not based on mandatory compliance, but rather the result of a genuine change of heart. Community service, special projects, outings, and mission trips also help our boarding school students change their focus from self to serving others.”

Columbus Girls Academy is a registered non-public school with the State of Alabama Department of Education. They use the award-winning Switched on Schoolhouse (SOS) Christian education curriculum. SOS offers five core school subjects and a variety of electives, enhanced by exciting multimedia. Columbus Girls Academy accommodates your child and teachers have the ability to customize lessons to meet each student’s individual learning needs.

Therapy involves an interpretation or identification of why the inappropriate behaviors are occurring, and then a contextualization of these reasons as a function of what erroneous assumptions are in place regarding meeting basic needs. Through discipleship curriculum and ongoing pastoral counseling relative to the curriculum content, the students are able to discover their incorrect assumptions and replace them with a relationship with God.

Each Student is specially assigned to the caseload of a Columbus Girls Academy on-site Pastoral Counselor. Along with individual and group counseling, this Counselor is also responsible to ensure smooth delivery of all of CGA’s services to the student and family. The counselor is the point of contact for the family, available to answer questions and give updates on the students’ progress.

Group counseling occurs on a regular basis, guided by the pastoral counselors on staff at CGA. This time is utilized to allow students an opportunity to grapple with and resolve commonly faced issues. Students learn to constructively express their thoughts, ideas, and questions in an environment where each member is accepted and respected. Group counseling is not utilized to scrutinize individual members or to glorify past poor decisions.

A Second Chance at Education

Teens come to us with a wide variety of academic records, often with a history of failing grades and skipped classes. For many of our students, enrollment here means a second chance at graduating high school, a possibility that had nearly been destroyed by their former lifestyle. Our self-paced curriculum, along with one-on-one instruction from our teaching staff, allows students to gain mastery of subjects and earn missed credits toward a high school diploma.

Our educational program features our own in-class teachers, and coursework is facilitated through Ignitia Virtual Academy (a part of Edgenuity).  It is a fully accredited online Christian worldview school with a personalized learning environment designed to help students achieve strong educational goals.  Ignitia motivates our students to achieve phenomenal progress towards high school completion and beyond. Through Ignitia, we offer basic courses, honors, and Advanced Placement courses, credit recovery, intervention, and test readiness.

Edgenuity is a leading provider of online curriculum and instructional services. It is in use by more than 20,000 schools, including 20 of the 25 largest school districts, to meet academic goals and improve student outcomes.

Ignitia Virtual Academy is accredited through Cognia (formerly AdvancED) and the Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWAC) and as such has nationally recognized accreditation. This is the same accreditation awarded to public schools and is fully recognized by high schools and colleges across the country. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has also approved the Edgenuity instructional model and curriculum for online instruction of student-athletes.

While the Ignitia program is intuitive and self-paced, our own certified classroom teachers make sure that our students keep up their coursework, offer tutoring, answer any questions, and give each student plenty of encouragement.  Students who fail to keep up or are having difficulty with a certain topic are specifically helped, but if they are just dragging their feet out of rebellion, they may lose out on some privileges like outings and fun times until they choose to get caught up.

Increasing Student Engagement, Progress, and Achievement

Keeping students engaged in what they’re learning is vital to ensuring they master standards so they can move forward in their education

The Ignitia Virtual Academy online classroom program is especially helpful for students who are failing or have fallen behind in their studies. It meets the rigor of Common Core and state standards, as well as various state’s graduation requirements. Our online courses and curriculum are grounded in research and are aligned to state standards.

The curriculum is laid out using a variety of teaching strategies and assessment tools such as direct instruction video, use of e-notes, transcripts of lessons, warm-ups, practice journals, quizzes, tests, writing exams, etc. Students who want to use their time here to get ahead can often complete two courses in the same amount of time it would take to complete one classroom course, allowing them to make up credits that they missed out on prior to coming here, or allowing them to get ahead or retake courses to improve their GPA. Students who return home before graduating high school here can easily continue their courses online at home, making for a seamless educational experience.

How Our Academic Program is Different

Our educators and support staff strive to match the student’s courses with courses from their primary school. We work closely with the parents and students to design an individualized program of study that best supports the child’s past educational progress and future educational or career goals.

Our teachers and counselors also lead our own faith-based character-building training courses with the students, which are a key aspect of our overall program. We utilize the Bible and landmark books by today’s leading evangelical Christian authors to teach key concepts. Christian speakers and musicians visit our campus to provide spiritual instruction, encouragement, and motivation, and the boys are taken to off-campus spiritual events.

In today’s culture, what we DON’T teach is almost as important as what we DO teach…
Unlike today’s public schools and schoolbooks, we don’t push a sociopolitical agenda, race theories, gender manipulation, and altered American history. We simply teach the most important skills needed in life and we help our students find real purpose and meaning.

Students learn to become independent while building strong academic and problem-solving skills. Our academic program teaches to the child’s strengths and enables our teachers to intercede when conditions indicate help is needed. Close supervision, the latest education technology, and individual workstations support and motivate students to continue their education throughout the time they are in our behavioral therapy program. Individual tutoring is also available in the classroom for specific subjects.

Our academic program includes:

• Fully Transferable Credits
• Cognia Accreditation
• Latest Technology
• Optional Tutorial Services
• Low Student-to-Teacher Ratio
• Skill Building
• Educational Remediation
• Credit Recovery
• College Preparatory Courses
• GED/SAT/ACT Preparation

Students thrive and get ahead on our structured, year-round schedule. Our educational routine is focused on the classic educational basics, but we also emphasize character, honor, respect, time management skills, responsibility, and accountability. Academic expectations are taken seriously, and our students discover a sense of pride in succeeding with each new educational level.

Self-control and self-discipline are key benefits of our academic program — two character traits that will help them succeed in every aspect of their life. They discover true satisfaction and confidence from attaining goals and achieving good grades, through hard work and self-management. This helps students transform into productive and cultivated adults upon graduation and beyond.

CGA EDUCATIONAL MISSION AND PHILOSOPHY

We believe that quality education serves as a stepping stone to discovering one’s own God-given purpose and identity which is vitally important to a teen’s healthy psychological development. Academic knowledge partnered with character development improves emotional intelligence and empowers CGA students to become problem solvers, leaders, and healthy members of their own families who make meaningful contributions to society. We recognize the parent’s sacred responsibility to have input into their own child’s academic development.

CGA utilizes a curriculum that is based upon universal and eternal truths. Our curriculum reinforces and builds upon primary knowledge and encourages critical thinking that prepares students for life.  Through education, our students learn to apply acquired wisdom.

The teacher-student relationship at Columbus Girls Academy is an academic partnership and professional in nature. Teachers help students examine great ideas, solve problems, and work as a team. Teachers bear the responsibility of setting an example of exemplary character and morals for all students. CGA teachers prioritize classroom management in order to provide a safe environment of structure and nurture where students may thrive.

COLLEGE PREP

Our high school graduates are able to transition immediately into general education college courses with Liberty University. Once a student has transitioned to Liberty University, their educational path is their own.  Students have the ability to keep a collegiate pace while attending CGA.  Several options open up for transitioning into a university setting after CGA.

SAT PREPARATION

Our 11th- and 12th-grade students enroll in Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) prep classes, with videos, two months in advance of the test date. SAT preparation hones the student’s critical thinking skills, broadens their vocabulary base, and develops grammatically correct writing for the SAT essay. Armed with these tools, the student is primed and ready for maximum performance on the College Board SAT test, which is necessary for college entrance.