Ozark Adventist Academy

History

Founded in 1900 as a community church school, the school became Flint Creek Junior Academy and operated as a locally supported school until 1941, at which time it was taken over by the Arkansas-Louisiana Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and named Ozark Academy. In 1976, the named was changed to Ozark Adventist Academy. OAA is fully accredited with the Accrediting Association of Seventh-day Adventist Schools, Colleges, and Universities and by the Arkansas Nonpublic Schools Accrediting Association.

Campus

Ozark Adventist Academy is located about 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Siloam Springs, right off of AR-59 N. The main campus in Gentry is equipped with dorms for men and women, cafeteria, a gymnasium. The main administration building, officially known as the R. E. Callicott Educational Center was erected during the 1970s, and on February 5, 1978 was officially opened by Mr. Callicott himself in a ribbon-cutting ceremony. This 52,000 square feet (4,800 m²) structure houses offices, laboratories, a library and media center, music department, an auditorium, and classrooms.

Student body

OAA has an enrollment of approximately 120 students. Most of the student body resides on campus in the boy's and girl's residence halls. The remainder commute from the community. According to the school's website, most OAA students are residents of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, and Missouri. Although there are also students from all over the world, countries such as Mexico, China, South Korea, Tonga, Samoa, Vietnam, and other countries.

Academics

The required curriculum at OAA includes classes in the following subject areas: Religion, English, Oral Communications, Social Studies, Mathematics, Science, Physical Education, Health, Computer Applications, Fine Arts, and Electives.

Students must successfully complete 24 units to graduate. Graduates meeting specific additional requirements may earn one of the following:

Spiritual aspects

All students take religion classes each year that they are enrolled. These classes cover topics in biblical history and Christian and denominational doctrines. Instructors in other disciplines also begin each class period with prayer or a short devotional thought, many which encourage student input. Weekly, the entire student body gathers together in the auditorium for an hour-long chapel service. Outside the classrooms there is year-round spiritually oriented programming that relies on student involvement.

Extracurricular activities

The OAA experience is shaped by events and extra curricular activities. Vespers is a church service where the students can pray and sing. Ozark Academy also has a Student Association which plans banquets and other events, the Gentlemen's club and the Ladys' club are the two associations that the school has. The two associations elect officials annually, from President to pastor.

The Student Olympics Association of Ozark Academy is the association responsible for organizing the annual high school Olympics, the school Olympics are help in mid September. The Mountain Echo is an organization that distributes the school newspaper within the school campus, the newspaper comes out once every week. The Flintonian is a school yearbook both in the beginning of the year and in the end. The first issue of The Flintonian is in the beginning of the year when the students come to enroll after the summer, and the last issue of The Flintonian is the actual school yearbook.

The Drama class is a school activity that is responsible for all the dramas and skits performed at Ozark Adventist Academy throughout the year. The band performs both at the school campus auditorium and at the Seventh-Day Adventist church across the street during Sabbath services. Ozark Adventist Academy has two Choir groups, the large choir and Royalaires, the smaller choir. Royalaires is a group that are specially chosen from the large choir. The choir at Ozark Adventist Academy is the second largest organization, second to Gymnastics. The Aerialaires are the largest Student organization at Ozark Academy, it is formed of both male and female students they like the choir, often go on trips to different annual competitions throughout the United States. Hand bells and puppets are also after school organizations that perform both on school campus and at church services.

Mission trips are a common activity within the school. Students get to travel to distant countries all over the world to help and to learn from distant cultures. Countries that Ozark Academy have traveled to are Mexico, Peru,Latin America, Africa Nicaragua and to states such as Hawaii.

Other extracurricular activities are led by the following clubs and organizations:

Athletics

The Sky-hawks are the high school male basketball team. They have games both home and away and play home games at the school gymnasium which is within the school campus. The Lady Hawks are the female high school basketball team, they too like the men play home and away games, with the home court being the gymnasium on the school campus. Football (soccer) also has performance matches in the school year. They too like the men play home and away games, the field that the team uses is located also on campus. Volleyball is also another sport Ozark Academy is starting to play as a team. The school plays Intramural matches which is made up of students that simply want to come and play. The sports that are played during intramurals are football, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and softball.