Upper School Campus Life & Holistic Support

Our model has always been centered in a holistic approach to supporting student success. While Making Waves Academy’s resources are allocated primarily to teaching and learning, we also make significant investments in a variety of services, personnel and programs aimed to support the health, well-being, and social-emotional development of students. This section provides information on the ways MWA supports the whole student.

Campus Life

Advisory

All upper school students are assigned an Advisory group to participate in with a faculty advisor. Advisory meets daily and during it, students hear school announcements, engage in curriculum on a variety of life and college-preparatory topics, and receive regularly scheduled grade checks for each of their courses. Students can also go to their advisors for general support on a range of issues.

Clubs

Upper school clubs allow students to practice leadership and advocacy. Faculty/staff advisors support club leaders as they take on and accomplish goals for the club. The active clubs for the 2018-2019 school year were:

American Sign Language (ASL) Club
Art Club
Associated Student Body
Baseball Fan Club
Black Student Union
Brain and Psychology Club
Cinema Club
Coding Club
Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA)
Girls’ Olympic Weightlifting
Intramural Club
Journalism & Media Club
Junior Committee
Kiwin’s
Life Hacks
Maker Club
Music Club
National Honor Society
Sangre Latina
Senior Committee
Sophomore Committee
Ultimate Frisbee Club
Yearbook Club

Mental Health

MWA has provided mental health support for students by licensed and experienced clinicians since its founding. At Making Waves Academy, mental health services are administered by a long-time service provider and takes the following forms:

Individual Counseling. Students identified as needing one-on-one support are seen by a licensed clinician for a specified number of sessions. If warranted, additional sessions can be added. Students are also able to receive support from our full-time social worker.
Group Counseling. Students also have the opportunity to participate in topical support groups to share and discuss common issues and concerns with their peers under the guidance of a licensed professional counselor.

Nutrition

Restorative Practices and School Discipline

Transportation

Transportation is provided for a large portion of families. Three buses pick up students in the morning as well as take them home in the afternoon after the Core Day has ended at 3:30 pm. Students apply for spots on the bus and priority is given to Middle School students and siblings. Buses pick up and drop off students at a variety of stops throughout Richmond, San Pablo, and West Contra Costa County. Currently there is no fee charged to students who ride the bus.

Center for Holistic Services

This year, MWA launched the Center for Holistic Services. The vast majority of our students are low-income youth of color who have experienced trauma, and we know that attention to their social-emotional development and psychological needs is critical to achieving our results: a nearly 100% graduation rate, with all seniors college-ready and 95% enrolling in post-secondary college and career pathways.

The Center fortifies our delivery of important services and will help us further improve our quantitative and qualitative results by housing the following in one location:

social-emotional training and development
restorative justice practices
clinical psychological services and case management

This cohesive and comprehensive focus will create a more supportive and enriching student experience that we believe will drive even better outcomes for more than 1,000 students in grades 5-12 each year.