Weekends at Montverde Academy are planned to include a variety of on and off campus activities. Off campus trips typically include: a mall, dinner, movie, or shopping trip on Friday night; a major theme park, athletic game, theatre show, or festival trip on Saturday; and one trip from one of the previous two groups on Sunday. Most trips are charged to the students' accounts, and most of the time we are able to get very good group discounts. Faculty members are assigned to "weekend teams" before the school year, and they act as chaperones on these trips, as well as, supervision on campus.
Being only thirty or so miles from Orlando and within ninety miles of Tampa, Central Florida gives the students at Montverde Academy a wealth of activities from which to choose. The students have their pick of theme parks such as Epcot, MGM, Universal Studios, Animal Kingdom, Islands of Adventure, Blizzard Beach, and Busch Gardens, among others, and they are favorites amongst the students. Trips to a skating rink and a local flea market were well attended this year. Area attractions like City Walk, Downtown Disney, the Florida Mall, and the West Oaks Mall are also popular favorites. Orlando and Tampa has its share of sports teams and the students have seen the Magic, the Predators, the Buccaneers, as well as, the Braves, who train in Orlando during Spring Training. There are six Spring Training facilities within 60 miles of Montverde Academy, giving the students even more teams to watch during February and March. Theatre shows are popular as well, and the Bob Carr Theatre and TD Waterhouse are a mere thirty minutes from the school. "Hairspray", "Chicago", and "Oliver" are three recently visited shows.
If a student does not wish to go on an off-campus trip, there is plenty to do here on campus. Montverde Academy is extremely fortunate to have a very nice student center complete with DirecTV, a big-screen TV, a pool table, and carries as much snacks and food as most convenience stores do. Pizza pockets, egg rolls, slices of pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches, chips, nachos, pretzels, and burritos, as well as soda, Gatorade, water, cappuccino, and slushies, are some of the favorites. On Friday nights and Saturday nights, the student center becomes busy with students who are there to watch the "Movie of the Week", to shoot pool, or "to shoot the breeze" with friends.
The Academy's two gymnasiums are also opened at various times during the weekend to allow students to recreate by playing basketball, volleyball, or indoor soccer. The school's state-of-the art fitness center is also well used by students and faculty on the weekends. It is also not uncommon to see twenty students engaged in a pick-up game of soccer on the soccer field, a handful of students practicing their swings on the baseball field, students playing tennis on the newly resurfaced courts, or runners running on the track, trying to shave precious minutes from their personal bests. In the warmer months the pool is open where students can sunbathe or swim.
As you can see, Montverde Academy does not close down on the weekends; in fact, it is just getting "revved up". Most students do not have a problem if they are unable to go home for the weekend, because they have more than enough to keep them busy on campus. |
