The Center for Cognitive Formation
Equipped with new scientific data, and a strong belief in the human spirit, Dominion Ridge is taking a fresh look at how students learn.
Classical Education
What does it mean that Dominion Dominion Ridge is a classically based school?
For some, classical education means adding Latin and the study of classical literature to a school’s curricula.
The Center for Cognitive Formation
BEYOND Program
Dominion Ridge recognizes that some students may benefit from additional resources that take them “beyond” the normal curriculum expectations.
The Dominion Ridge Beyond Program, administered by the Center for Cognitive Development, provides students with exceptional learning abilities the opportunities to increase their learning experiences through a variety of projects and assignments, including STEM-oriented activities, additional reading and associated tasks, dual-enrollment with Lord Fairfax Community College, extracurricular events, and more.
Parents are notified of their child’s acceptance into the program.
Additional fees may exist for this program.
Students in the Dominion Ridge Beyond Program are also encouraged to participate in the on-campus dual enrollment with Lord Fairfax Community College beginning in tenth grade.
If you would like your child evaluated for participation in the Beyond Program, please contact the school office for more information.
Interact Club
The Interact Club of Dominion Ridge Academy is a service learning club for students in 9th -12th grade. DRA students have the opportunity to gather with other young people to develop leadership skills and learn the importance of serving others. To read more, visit rotary.org/en/get-involved/interact-clubs.
Why Cursive Writing
In opposition to the current trends of promoting screen time and keyboard use by students, educators and parents have overlooked the benefits of handwriting in stimulating several areas of the brain, creating deeper memory pathways, lowering emotional tension, increasing fine-motor coordination, producing fluency, establishing multi-processing efficiency, and clarifying personal thought…
College Counseling
Dominion Ridge Academy works with your learner throughout his or her academic career, seeking opportunities to explore interests and strengths, to identify potential career paths.
Beginning in ninth grade, Dominion Ridge centers its college counseling program on working with students individually to identify the colleges and programs that suit them best and form the bridges between their past achievements and future aspirations.
High school students are guided in their registrations for PSATs, SATs, ACTs, and preparatory programs. Tours to college campuses of interest are scheduled each fall for students to get firsthand experience with the schools that interest them.
The results speak for themselves.
Our students have been accepted at the following colleges and universities:
Some of our students opt for vocational school or the military. Students have a 95% acceptance rate at the college of their preferred choice.
Service Learning
“Love is a one-way street. It always moves away from self in the direction of the other. Love is the ultimate gift of our selves to others. When we stop giving we stop loving, when we stop loving we stop growing, and unless we grow we will never attain personal fulfillment; we will never open out to receive the life of God. It is through love we encounter God.” –Mother Teresa
Dominion partners education with formation. Through acts of service, students develop compassion, humility, and mercy as crucial character traits that they will take into their future lives. Jesus Christ taught us to serve through His own acts of service.
Students participate in many opportunities to serve their peers, elders, families, neighbors, and the world. Some of these acts include:
- Nursing home visits
- Handmade cards and crafts for shut-ins and the terminally ill
- Various service jobs on campus including set-up and clean-up of special events
- Operation Christmas Child (both gift boxes and volunteering at distribution center)
- Donation of food to shelters and collection programs
- Senior Mission Trip (location/focus varies each year)
