February 15, 2005

For troubled teenaged girls, Rocklyn Academy offers hope.

The Academy is a private boarding school for girls in grades nine through 12, located near Rocklyn, Ontario on Georgian Bay.  Founded by husband and wife team Robert Shaw and Dale Stohn in 1999, the school is designed for girls who are having trouble at home, who are hard to manage, and who are not doing well in the traditional school system.  Here, students are given individualized attention because of the small student to teacher ratio:  there are 27 students; and 26 staff members.  The program is highly structured with defined rules and 24-hour, seven-day-a-week supervision, but the staff is nurturing, Shaw says, and “it’s not a boot camp”.

“The Academy is successful because we have an absolute belief in what we’re doing,” explains Mr. Shaw.  "Our staff are phenomenal, people work extremely hard and they have big hearts.  It is extraordinary.”

The school originally operated out of Robert and Dale’s farmhouse.  As enrollment in the Academy grew, Robert and Dale made the decision to do whatever it took to succeed, but they needed space for residence.  Without funds, Robert and Dale made their case and secured a loan from the Centre for Business and Economic Development in Collingwood to help put up the new building.  They also worked to define better the market they could serve, and used strategic marketing to attract the students they were best able to help.  Today, the school operates almost entirely on enrollment fees.

The Academy is the only therapeutic school for troubled girls in Canada, and they insist that the student herself agrees to come, which indicates a willingness to invest herself in the program.  The girls share many similar traits; although intelligent, they don’t believe they are.  Many are physically and mentally impulsive and restless – which is often frowned upon in the regular school setting – and learn best by moving and doing.  At the Academy, they learn how to control and maintain impulsive energies to function in the real world.  Many of the girls are angry and lashing out, and they learn to redirect this anger.

“Eventually they learn to control their emotions rather than their emotions controlling them,” explains Stohn, whose background as a psychotherapist is an asset for the Academy.

Students learn to make choices through a system of consequences and privileges that are earned or revoked based on behaviour.

“They come here thinking they are victims … thinking that their parents don’t make sense, that school doesn’t make sense, and they don’t realize that their life is a string of choices,” explains Shaw.  “We help them rediscover their excellence.  All we do is help them find that which is within them.”

Beyond the impact of the Academy for the girls who attend, the school also benefits the community.  Employment is provided for approximately 30 people in the school, which leads to economic spin-offs for the larger community.  The school supports local businesses when purchasing products and services, and staff and students make a conscious effort to be part of the community, including volunteer time contributed by the students.  In 2003, the school implemented a Smart Nutrition Program through the Canadian Centre for Functional Medicine.  Research gathered from this program could have far reaching impacts for children with attention deficit and attention deficit hyperactive disorders.

By helping girls in need and integrating with the local community, Rocklyn Academy is making a difference.  Dale Stohn explains the success of the Academy this way:  “Once girls know that they can make a difference in their life by the choices they make, there is no stopping them!”