Campus News

We are deeply saddened by the passing of longtime Sewickley Academy Director of Athletics and coach, Mr. Win Palmer. 

Head of Middle School, Mark Shelley, joined SA on July 1, 2023, although he'd been working closely with administrators leading up to his first official day. Last week he shared a letter with Middle School families to announce four new programs and initiatives that will be implemented with the start of the 2023-24 academic year. His letter is below. 

Earlier this week, Head of Senior School Jamie Nestor shared an update with families and students in Grades 9 - 12 regarding the successful results of academic changes that have been implemented in the past year, and her excitement for all that the Senior School has to offer in the upcoming academic year. Her letter is below.

Recently, Head of Lower School Jerilyn Scott shared an update with Pre-K through Grade 5 families regarding literacy instruction at SA in comparison to trending debates in education. She was pleased to relay that SA has been on the cutting edge of educational excellence and research. Her letter is below.

Sewickley Academy annually recognizes Senior School students with a host of awards for their achievements in academics, arts, athletics, and citizenship. This year’s Senior School Awards ceremony was held in Rea Auditorium on Monday, May 15, 2023. Congratulations to this year’s recipients!

SA is pleased to share that our Trustee and alumnus Robert James '85 has been selected to also serve on the board of Evans Bancorp. Congratulations, Bob!

SA's Senior School Math Team participated in the international online Purple Comet Math Meet and took 2nd place in Pennsylvania! The high school-level competition consists of 30 problems with varying levels of complexity to be completed in 90 minutes.

Congratulations to the cast and crew of SA's 2023 Senior School musical, Big Fish: School Edition on receiving nominations for two Gene Kelly Awards through the Pittsburgh CLO! 

We are incredibly proud to share that Sewickley Academy Senior Katie Serafin has won the Three Rivers Arts Festival's Emerging Artist scholarship through the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust for the second consecutive year.

Please take a moment to enjoy our Day of Giving video which allows you to learn more about Sewickley Academy and hear directly from our students about how the Academy has impacted their education and future. 

Congratulations to four Sewickley Academy Senior School students who have been recognized by Trib Total Media as 2023 Outstanding Young Citizens! 

While anyone in the Sewickley Academy community knows that our faculty are top-notch, it has been exciting to watch our school’s reputation grow as multiple outside groups have recently asked to observe our outstanding teachers in action.

Dr. Ashley Birtwell, Head of School at Sewickley Academy, Pittsburgh’s oldest co-educational, college-preparatory and independent day school, announced the hiring of Mr. Mark Shelley as new Head of Middle School, starting in July 2023.

Sebastian Tan, a Grade 10 student at Sewickley Academy, is in discussion with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) to share and expand a website he designed to connect previously incarcerated people in the Pittsburgh area with workforce openings and opportunities to find success. His website and non-profit organization, OutsideConnection, is free and directs users to communities and businesses that are welcoming to individuals seeking reentry.

On Saturday, May 13, 2023, Sewickley Academy will be presenting its very first TEDxYouth@Sewickley Academy event in Rea Auditorium from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM. Utilizing the TEDx platform, and with the assistance of Mr. Cesario, Manager of Special Projects at SA, the event has been organized by SA junior Anjali Shah.

Sewickley Academy is pleased to share that five Senior School faculty applied and have been accepted as Readers for this year’s Advancement Placement exams. Readers are responsible for grading the written, or essay, portion of the exams. Based on the subjects they teach, Mr. John Basinger will read for AP Calculus, Dr. Sol Boucher for AP Computer Science A, Dr. Ron Kinser for AP Biology, Ms. Cristy McCloskey for AP Computer Science, and Mr. Matt Michaels for AP Statistics.

(Update 5/10/23: A sixth SA teacher will now be serving as an AP Reader: Ms. Jessica Peluso has accepted an invitation to read for AP US History.)

The rebranding efforts of Sewickley Academy’s External Relations Team, which included the “Educating Tomorrow’s Leaders” tagline, received tremendous professional recognition.

Three senior students in Dr. Kinser’s World Hunger class looked for ways to educate their peers about hunger issues, and decided that, with the benefit of having a Pre-K - Grade 12 student body at Sewickley Academy, they would start with some of their youngest schoolmates, the Kindergarten.

The 2022-23 academic year has been all about advancement. There have been many articles in the "Campus News" and the "SA in the News" sections of our website sharing the achievements of our students, faculty, and staff. With so much excellence happening all around us, it's important for our facilities to grow right along with our people. If you haven't been to campus this year, here's what you've been missing.

On Saturday, February 11, four Senior School students from Sewickley Academy’s Whoa!Bots robotics team traveled to McCaskey East High School in Lancaster to compete in the Pennsylvania FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Red Tornado Qualifying Tournament. The competitors included seniors Zan McClain, Derek Peng, and Makhi Lambert, as well as junior Alex Wang.

The Latino Culture Club at SA supported Central American artisans through the Pulsera Project. Through the recommendation of their faculty advisor, Ms. Villalobos, seniors Daniel Torres and Lucas Mendonca volunteered to sell the wares of the organization on SA’s campus, January 13 - 28, with all proceeds being returned to the group and its artisans. Goods include pulseras (Spanish for bracelets) and bolsitas (bags) for $7 and $15 respectively. With tables set up outside of the Middle/Senior school cafeteria and in the Senior School Commons, classmates lined up to make purchases and donations. Sales were also conducted in the Lower School and during the school’s Taste of SA event.

After a forced hiatus due to COVID, the students of Sewickley Academy’s Senior School were thrilled to once again offer an exciting celebration of multicultural spirit called A Taste of SA, designed to showcase, celebrate, and educate about the many cultures and identities that comprise the academy’s student body. Held on Saturday, January 28 in the academy’s Rea Auditorium, the entirely student-led event began with a series of performances and presentations by various school affinity groups and outside cultural organizations.

They say you truly know a language when you start to think in that language and no longer need to consciously translate for yourself. Well, SA’s Spanish II, III, IV, V and Advanced Placement students are on their way, testing their grasp of vocabulary and sentence structure by corresponding with pen pals (amigos por correspondencia) in Barcelona, Spain, since late November. The learning is working both ways, as the 73 high-school aged students in Spain are practicing their English as they reply to our students’ questions about cultural and linguistic differences and similarities.

As a semifinalist for the Morehead-Cain merit scholarship program, Jayne Miner, a Sewickley Academy senior, was given the opportunity to name an educator who has had the most profound impact on her. She chose Dr. Ron Kinser, a science teacher, advisor, and coach at the academy for over a decade.

As Asian Culture recognized the start of the Year of the Rabbit, students, faculty, and staff at Sewickley Academy also celebrated Lunar New Year.

The grades 6 and 8 students who make up the Robopanthers, Sewickley Academy’s robotics team, were treated to a special field trip on December 13, 2022, to visit Agility Robotics in Lawrenceville.