About Us - Abundant Life Academy Christian Boarding School

Abundant Life Academy is a premier Christian boarding school tailor made to effectively address the unique set of needs faced by youth in today’s culture. The issues that teenagers are presented with, as well as the level of exposure they experience today are far beyond what took place even a decade ago. Today’s teens are met with issues and situations at a much more advanced level than in previous generations. With the onset of technological advances such as Facebook, cell phones, texting, etc., teens deal with things that most of us never experienced in our own adolescent development. This creates a unique set of challenges for parents in today’s society. Often parents find they do everything they can to address these issues while frequently feeling like they are left wanting. The impact of social media on today’s youth have contributed to the disconnect between teens and their families and have only furthered the communication gap. The result is an even greater resistance on the part of youth to engage in the things that strengthen family communication, build trust, and increase the familial bond that God intends for us to have. We are in a new era of parent/child relationships.

At Abundant Life Academy, we recognize this and acknowledge the impact that our current culture has on a teenager. We realize that, in today’s post-modern society, spiritual and moral absolutes are essentially non-existent in the mind of a teen. We are conscious of the fact that emotionally immature youth find comfort in the misdirected opinions of their peers while shunning the wisdom, direction, and proven life experience of their parents. We are keenly aware that the privilege of an education takes a back seat to social acceptance and immediate gratification. Our students are phenomenal leaders who are either unaware of their innate leadership gifting or who, while aware of them, have re-directed them toward negative, anti-social values. All of these issues combined have left our students in a place of loss and established in them a desperate need for a paradigm shift in the following areas:

At Abundant Life Academy we go to great lengths to address each of these issues in a way that supports the family while creating a pathway for our students to have ownership in their personal growth and development at the same time.

The foundational component of Abundant Life Academy is the spiritual. We are a non-denominational Christian academy where we present the Word of God clearly and without compromise. We realize however, that most of our students come to us in a place where they have rejected their spiritual heritage and are rebellious to the truths of Scripture, often in mere defiance of their parent’s faith. At ALA, Christian principles are presented clearly and without concession, but done in a way that permits each student to chart his or her own course. This allows our students to be in a pressure-free spiritual environment where they experience the freedom of choice as well as the ability to establish critical thinking skills. The result of this model is that, when a student makes the choice to establish--or return to--their faith, it is done with a sense of ownership. This allows each student’s faith in Christ to take root and creates spiritual longevity long beyond his or her time at ALA. The youth that we serve come to us as self-absorbed, entitled teens with little care or concern for the impact that their decisions have on others. A large component of our spiritual program consists of providing opportunities for our students to move from being self-focused to becoming others-centered. The message of Jesus Christ was one of service and, as such, is a large component of what is required of our students at Abundant Life Academy. Students of ALA are required to complete 120 hours of community service in each of the three phases of the program. Additionally, we provide Mercy Ministry trips at the local, national, and international level. Each student is required to attend a weekly on-site church service, youth group, and Bible classes. Additionally, we have numerous student-directed Bible studies, prayer groups, and praise & worship services which are provided on a voluntary basis.

Abundant Life Academy is a Family Restoration program. While each youth is responsible for the personal choices they have made prior to enrollment at ALA, we would be naïve to assume that their choices were made completely independent of family involvement. We don’t want to simply enroll a student and spend a year “fixing them” only to send them back to the same environment from which they came. We realize that, while each student is personally responsible for their choices, often parents, siblings, and others have a certain level of responsibility to them. It is rare that we enroll a teen whose parent has not done everything within the realm of their abilities to help their child. Frequently, the parents of the students we serve have exhausted every resource they know of to help their child and are simply out of material from which to draw. They are tired, losing hope, and desperate for some direction. Our Family Restoration program is just that—a time for the entire family to be restored. It is not just the student that does the work. Parents are engaged in their child’s growth from the first day they arrive through graduation. We require that each parent commit to participation in Parent Coaching, independent study, conferences, and Family Restoration phone calls. The Family Restoration component culminates in a signed Family Covenant created, drafted, and signed by the entire family. Great care is taken to ensure a successful re-entry into the family upon graduation.

At Abundant Life Academy, we believe that education is a privilege. We offer a fully accredited, year-round educational program that emphasizes mastery--each of our students is required to achieve an 85% or higher prior to scholastic advancement. Academics at ALA do not run independent of the program; academics are a vital part of the program equally as important, if not more, than any other element we provide. We believe that a person’s education is the one thing that they can take with them when they leave, even if all else fails. We place a high priority on our academic program and are constantly researching best practices and ways to enhance each student’s learning experience. We provide every student with an individualized educational plan and follow through with consistent and scheduled academic progress evaluations. Many of the teens that enroll with us have, as a result of their poor choices, found themselves with poor grades or diminished academic success. Beyond the core courses provided each student, as part of our program we also have a venue for grade repair and credit recovery. This allows students the ability to be provided a second chance to lessen the effect their past poor choices have had in regards to their educational goals.

Abundant Life Academy’s therapeutic program differs from the average boarding school. The primary modality for most emotional growth or therapeutic boarding schools is what is known as behavior modification or, in it’s simplest terms, a system of rewards and punishment derived from a student’s behavior and choices. At ALA, we implement positive peer culture as the primary model of our therapeutic environment. Additionally, we do not practice a traditional clinical approach with our students but instead initiate a model referred to as Milieu Therapy. This simply means that, rather than sitting in an office with a clinician, the environment itself serves as the primary mode of counseling. This is based on earning the right to speak into a teen’s life based on trust and therapeutic rapport established through relationship. Each of our Life Coaches and therapists works directly on the floor with students and participates in their daily activities. We do, however, recognize the value of traditional methods so, in addition to Milieu Therapy, Abundant Life Academy also offers individual therapy, various topical group therapies, equine therapy, and pastoral counseling as determined by our therapeutic team.

The remaining primary component of Abundant Life Academy’s program is the Advanced Leadership Training we provide. We believe that each of the teens that God brings to us has purpose. This is in accordance with Ephesians 2:10 which states that each of our students is the masterpiece of God and has skill sets and gifting ordained for them before the beginning of time. As such, we provide advanced level leadership training in the area of personality insights and development, emotional intelligence, interpersonal communication and relationship skills, and formal peer leadership.

Abundant Life Academy takes a holistic approach to each teen that we serve. It is not enough to merely “fix the problem.” Our most sincere desire is that every individual we serve has the most complete opportunity to recognize-through accountability and responsibility-the patterns that have led them to enrollment with us, implement the tools to make healthy choices, and then share that experience with others through a lifetime of service.