SAS's strong co-curricular program
Reaching their PEAK: Performance. Exploration. Athletics. Knowledge.
PEAK, St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School’s co-curricular program, takes place M-F from 3:40 - 5:30 p.m. Through the PEAK curriculum, students engage in competitive interscholastic sports, non-competitive physical activities, outdoor skills, and creative pursuits. PEAK provides students time and space to delve into their passions, to pursue their curiosities, and to fuel their competitive drive. PEAK focuses on the experience and encourages students to embrace healthy risk taking, to learn from failure as much as success, to seek lifelong learning, and to welcome challenge, strive for balance, and cultivate joy.
Students are expected to engage fully and consistently in the PEAK curriculum, and PEAK activities are listed on student transcripts. PEAK requirements vary by grade-level and whether the student is residential or not. Students can also propose an independent PEAK activity according to their interests.
| Fall | Winter | Spring |
|---|---|---|
| Athletic Manager* | Athletic Manager* | Outdoor Adventure: Cycling 🌱 (MWF) |
| Cross Country | Basketball | Athletic Manager* |
| Farming 🌱 (MWF) | Darkroom Photography (MWF) | |
| Golf* (proficiency) | Theater | Farming 🌱 (MWF) |
| Mind•Body• Exercise (MWF) | Outdoor Adventure: Rock Climbing 🌱 (MWF) | Mind•Body• Exercise (MWF) |
| Mountain Biking 🌱 | Strength & Conditioning (MWF) | Boys' Soccer |
| Outdoor Adventure: Water & Wilderness 🌱 (MWF) | Swimming* | Tennis |
| Radio Broadcasting (MWF) | Textile Arts (MWF) | Musical Theatre |
| Girls' Soccer | Wrestling | Track and Field |
| Strength & Conditioning (MWF) | Yearbook (MWF) | |
| Girls' Volleyball | ||
| Yearbook (MWF) |
🌱 fulfills a Cumberland Scholars requirement
| Fall | Winter | Spring |
|---|---|---|
| Cross Country (MWF) | Basketball (typically ends by Winter Break) | Outdoor Adventure: Cycling (MWF) |
| Farming (MWF) | Swimming* | Farming (MWF) |
| Golf* (proficiency) | Theater | Boys' Soccer |
| Mountain Biking (MWF) | Outdoor Adventure: Rock Climbing (MWF, 8th grade only) | Musical Theatre |
| Outdoor Adventure: Water & Wilderness (MWF) | Strength & Conditioning (MWF, 8th grade only) | Track and Field (MTR) |
| Radio Broadcasting (8th grade only) | Textile Arts (MWF, 8th grade only) | Girls' Volleyball |
| Strength & Conditioning (MWF8th grade only) | Wrestling (TWR, typically ends by Winter Break) | Tennis (MWF) |
| Yearbook (MWF, 7th/8th grade only) | Yearbook (MWF, 7th/8th grade) | Mind•Body•Exercise (MWF, 8th grade only) |
| Girls' Soccer | ||
| Mind•Body•Exercise (MWF, 8th grade only) |
* Indicates evaluation or permission required.
For golf, participants must be able to shoot below a 60 on the 9-hole course. For swimming, participants must be able to make it down the pool without assistance.
Programs in italics are not considered physically active.
Course Descriptions
Adventure Cycling is for students interested in mountain biking without the racing component. The three major goals are:
- on-the-bike skills
- trail maintenance
- place-based education
Participants will explore trails both on and off campus, learn how to navigate trail features and obstacles, and improve their fitness. They will also learn how to build new trails sustainably and take ownership of maintaining the current trail system.
Photography is a natural bridge between art and science and an exciting, hands-on, creative process. This afternoon program will engage students with their environment while teaching them the fundamentals of traditional, film-based, photography. Students will learn how to develop film, as well.
Farming is a hands on/off road experience! Students harvest vegetables and herbs from the SAS greenhouse, apples and pears from the SAS orchard, and deliver our harvest to the kitchen staff for use in meals. Students learn to germinate seeds, transplant seedlings, and apply organic soil nutrients. Along the way, they learn about organic pest control. They prepare growing beds for planting and help with the water collection system for harvesting and transporting rainwater. Farming provides the dining hall with several lettuce varieties, kale, radishes, cilantro, parsley, and basil, as well as, snow peas and tomatoes. In addition, students care for our perennials, mulching, pruning and fertilizing our grapes, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. Future plans include aquaponics and animal husbandry.
This program is for students who wish to focus exclusively on rock climbing and bouldering. Whether beginners or experts, students will improve their fitness, technique, and comfort climbing both in our NEW Outdoor Adventure Center's climbing gym and on real southern sandstone. A typical week includes a day of strength training, a day outdoors in a local boulder field, and a day indoors at the OAC.
They'll enjoy optional weekend trips to regional (and world-famous) climbing areas to attend competitions, volunteer days, fundraisers, and other special events. Students interested in this unique sport will thoroughly enjoy this program, which emphasizes fun, community, positivity, and toughness during the winter months.
To take full advantage of the fall weather and the campus reservoir, this season of Outdoor Adventure will focus on water-based activities such as swimming, canoeing, kayaking, and fishing. Participants will also have chances to get off campus and explore local waterfalls, lakes, and creeks. The course will teach skills such as water safety, rescue techniques, and group problem-solving. Participants will also have the chance to suggest certain projects or trips based on their interests (i.e. building a new bridge, inventing a water game, doing service work, tubing, etc.). Overall, this will be a fun way for students to soak up some sun and skills on our beautiful campus.
In a media driven world, students must understand how to communicate clearly and effectively with their listeners. This hands-on course introduces students to the elements and skills needed for radio broadcast production and DJ-ing shows on our own school radio station WMTN, 103.1, The Mountain. Students will learn the basics of broadcast news writing and editing, creating weather announcements, gathering and incorporating sound into productions, remote sports announcing, and creating podcasts and music shows for on-air broadcast. Students will also learn how to use radio equipment needed for a broadcast.
Strength and Conditioning is designed to give students an opportunity to improve their general physical fitness in a cooperative environment. The barbell is the primary tool the students will use, with the initial goal to develop better movement patterns. After proper technique and understanding of the movements have been established, the students will see improvement in a variety of areas including: speed, power, strength, coordination, balance, flexibility, work capacity, and confidence.
Textile Arts will explore various methods of stitching, by hand and by machine. Students will use the skills acquired to create numerous items, focusing on both function and design. Instructors will teach students the value of sewing in their lives: they'll learn to attach a button if it falls off a shirt or repurpose a garment instead of casting it away. They may also construct new wearables and decorative pieces of their own creation from start to finish.
Theater begins with all participants engaging in theater games and becoming acquainted with each other. The initial activities segue into rehearsals, as the performing arts director selects or creates a play or musical based on the number of participants, recent productions, and other factors. From this point, Theater focuses on getting the play or musical ready for performance. All students in this program are expected to perform.
After the three performances, all the students participate in strike, readying the theater for the next show. Theater will follow a flexible rehearsal schedule utilizing weekday afternoons as well as some weekends. Students may be able to sign up for Theater in addition to another PEAK, depending on the commitment required for the additional program.
Yearbook is a product-based program where students work on the production of the St. Andrew's-Sewanee Phoenix. They use a variety of publishing programs including PhotoShop, InDesign, and various online design and editing software as they work on their skills in photo taking, writing, interviewing, editing, layout, and design. Because there are strictly set deadlines, students must also exercise their abilities to be dependable and organized members of a team. This program is ideal for students who wish to showcase their design skills, practice their photography, or learn the elements of these disciplines.