Where learning is just the beginning!

I first came to Small Wonders at the age of three months old. I grew up at Small Wonders and Wilkes-Barre Academy. Throughout that time, Wilkes-Barre Academy became much more to me than just a school. The building and the people in it became my family! Cappie, Cletta, and the teachers became second mothers to me. They assisted in molding me into the person I have become today. I can't thank them enough for all the knowledge, love, and guidance that they gave me during my time there. It was because of these wonderful people that I felt the need to become a teacher myself and continue on with the legacy that they began. Now that I am a mother of two, there was no question as to where my children will attend school. They too will follow the path that I took years ago. I want them to learn in the same environment that I did as a young child. I want to give them the best start in life. There is no other place than Wilkes-Barre Academy that can provide that for them. To this day, many years later, I return to the school and see the same smiling faces and receive the same warm greeting as I did as a student. They remember me and my family with such clarity. To this school, you are not a number. You are a member of the Wilkes-Barre Academy family. Thank you for so many wonderful years and for what you do! I look forward to my children being able to continue the legacy of Wilkes-Barre Academy. 

My daughter went to school at WBA. Great school, couldn't say enough good things about it! 

So love Wilkes-Barre Academy. All three of my girls attended. Great, wonderful family! Miss everyone! 

We loved WBA when our daughter attended and would never consider another school to do it all over again! Cappie and Cletta... you are stuck with us till 2021! We are looking forward to it. 

My husband and I are very happy with the education my daughter received at Wilkes Barre Academy. Not only my daughter was well prepared academically but also she received foundation and preparation that will serve her for life. Her acceptance in every school she applied and the awards she has received are a testament to her solid educational foundation. 

Just a few words to thank you again for preparing Steven for the future. Everyone at the school did a fantastic job. I remember years ago when Steven and I used to fight and cry trying to get through the homework at night. Now, he is in his second year of college at IUP and doing fantastic. He is now 20 and majoring in communications and journalism. He just picked up a second major. He has a radio broadcast twice a week, editor for the school paper, and is announcing the football and basketball games. I watch him on the computer and you can see the passion he has for it. 

The experience and education I received at Small Wonders and Wilkes-Barre Academy prepared me for the many challenges I faced throughout my life. I believe early childhood education is the key in the foundation for success.

Imagine life as a thing red string. Everyone has one. the red string follows you everywhere you go. It follows you to good places, bad places, and everywhere in between. Sometimes your string intersects with other people's strings for better or worse. A history marker you can see but are sure is there. In 1984, my parents made the decision to take their only son and thread his string through Wilkes-Barre Academy (when Wilkes-Barre Academy didn't even really exist) and to tie it right in the center of it. They took a leap of faith and went all in on this new little school, its teachers, and the two red heads running it. It was here my string met up with all of these families, laid a foundation still present today but made stronger since I left. It's much more than a school; as corny as it sounds it's really a community closing in on being a big extended family. It is truly a wonderful place. From here, using the foundation provided to them, decades of students left and ran their strings all over the world: Ivy League schools, Military Service academies, medical schools, Wall Street firms, law schools, Saturday Night Live writer's rooms, Capitol Hill Offices, and a million other amazing places I'm sure I don't even know about. We ended up artists, computer programmers, federal agents, finance whizzes, business owners, lawyers, nurses, prosecutors, teachers, and on and on. Every decision of every single graduate can be followed directly back to this school and the lessons learned here using their little red string. Before we left this place taught us to not only be a good student but good citizens: to keep our strings in the right places with the right people, to think critically about what was presented to us, to be articulate with our words, that the arts have a place alongside science and arithmetic, and to understand our place in the world. We now run our red strings through our communities as leaders, as business owners, as leaders in our workplaces, and now some of us have the most important job of all - being Mom and Dad. Along with that important job comes the time to start threading the strings of our children's lives like my parents did 30 plus years ago. For my wife and I the choice was easy. We followed my red string right back here and started threading our kid's right through here too. I wonder all the time about where my children's strings will go and how far it will take them. I'm happy to have the opportunity to have theirs knotted up in the halls of this school and intertwined with these teachers to give the the best chance at success and happiness. Everyone has a little red string. I can't thank my parents enough for pulling mine through Wilkes-Barre Academy all those years ago and even prouder to bring my own children back here. It feels like home.