Welcome Letter from Wasatch

For nearly 140 years, students have chosen to attend Wasatch Academy for it’s progressive individualized learning environment.

Wasatch Academy was established in Mount Pleasant Utah in 1875, two decades before Utah was granted statehood to the United States of America and well before public education was available to families in Central Utah.

Built upon progressive educational values and approaches, Wasatch Academy has for many decades focused on preparing students for opportunities near and far. It is our mission to empower young men and woman from all corners of the world to develop academically, socially, and morally for college and university study. It is also very important for us to prepare these young future leaders for the challenges of living in the 21st century and to foster and embrace global citizenship.

To this end, Wasatch Academy has expanded its educational offerings and programs beyond the state of Utah. For nearly eight years Wasatch Academy has had the pleasure of working with highly motivated, disciplined, and exemplary students of China.

In 2007 Wasatch Academy opened its first Dual Diploma Program within a Chinese high school. With the aim of preparing Chinese students for American university study, Wasatch Academy went to work developing a specialized curriculum allowing students to receive articulated credits for specified academic subject courses. After successful completion of the credit requirements, students enrolled in the Wasatch Academy Dual Diploma Program were allowed to obtain an American high school graduation diploma from Wasatch Academy.

This course of study and accompanied Wasatch Academy diploma, gave students a clear edge when applying to colleges and universities. Beyond its English instruction and American teacher guidance and influence, these students have access to learning styles necessary for university success. Classes are taught with a project based learning approach with a focus on developing higher order thinking skills. Students are guided to be more creative, to learn to ask questions and to self advocate. Skills necessary to not just score well on tests, but to be successful in all higher level learning environments and beyond.

A few years later Wasatch Academy was pleased to begin a partnership with the Ahead Education Group who held in great esteem those same educational philosophies and values that Wasatch Academy stood for and continues to pioneer.

With Ahead Education Group’s strong secondary education relationships, highly capable management team, and desire to truly make a difference in the lives of these eager Chinese students, a strong education focused relationship was forged. Though in its early stages, many great things are happening on our campuses every day. Eager to graduate our first senior class in June of 2016, Ahead Education Group and Wasatch Academy are committed to strengthen and broaden our sphere of influence.

We are committed to focus on the right things, the proper approaches, and to protect the integrity of our programs.  In so doing we are jointly placing great emphasis on the authenticity and credibility of our student transcripts. As these transcripts represent the honest hard work students have put into their study, we recognize the importance of protecting this vital record of achievement.  Together, Ahead Education Group and Wasatch Academy are committed to providing quality application counseling services to assist our students and families in projecting their best self to colleges and universities. Wasatch Academy will fully support Ahead Education Group’s duty as the official representative and service provider of professional and honest education counseling services to our students. As hard work and consistent effort are put into their studies Ahead Education Group and Wasatch Academy Dual Diploma Program students will be prepared for higher challenges, and poised to do great things. We believe the future of our program is bright, and the growth potential of our students is endless. We look forward to positively impacting and preparing future leaders for years to come.

Over the past two years we have established a three-way collaboration between Wasatch Academy, AHEAD, and the Chinese Host public high school.  By some measures we should also include the local Ministry of Education for their contribution and guidance is welcomed and adds value to the success of our venture.  

We have come together to exchange and share ideas to provide Chinese high school students with the best of both the Chinese and the American educational systems.  The process is difficult to navigate with fourteen time zones, 6,500 miles, two distinctly different languages, and significant cultural differences between the team members.  Yet with all of the inherent difficulties the people involved in the exchanges have come together to further the goals of the program.  The reason we have succeeded is that each of the team members looks past the difficulties by remembering that the reason we are doing this is for the betterment of the young men and women we are educating.  We have come to trust each other in this endeavor by knowing that our common goal supersedes the problems that can and do arise.

Each member of our collaboration plays an important role in our venture.  Perhaps the most important lesson that comes out of this venture is a lesson which has not been yet presented to our students in the classroom.  The most important lesson is that each of the four parties has learned from each other and we are all stronger because of our willingness to accept that we do not have all of the answers.  We are all lifelong learners.