After a summer of quiet in the halls of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy, the air is once again ringing with the sound of excited voices. On Sept. 3rd, OLSWA welcomed its eleventh first-year class for the 2010-2011 academic year. Spirits were high as the forty-two first-year students arrived on the campus that is to be their home for the next eight months. The largest incoming class to date, they were greeted by the Dean of Student Life, Maja Polic, the Student Life Team of Residence Assistants and Proctors, and a number of volunteer returning students.

Dean of Students Maja Polic addresses the incoming first-year class.

That evening, the students and their families shared a dinner with our president, Dr. Cassidy, who congratulated the new class and encouraged them to put themselves in God's hands. The year would be like nothing found elsewhere, he told them, but if they embraced the Academy wholeheartedly they would find themselves deeply rewarded. After the meal, the new students were off to their first meeting in residence, where they gathered with their housemates to get acquainted with residence life and with one another. Meanwhile, their parents were invited to a reception at the Cassidys' house for fellowship.

The following two days were anything but slow. They were a rush of activity, including ice-breaker games such as "people-bingo", policy assemblies, a Barry's Bay-wide scavenger hunt , daily Mass, a burger cookout, an academic address by Assistant Academic Dean Prof. Scott Nicholson, and the annual hike with chaplain Fr. Paul Burchat to Kluke Lookout in Algonquin Park. The evenings were no less busy than the days, with a movie night, an indoor "beach" party, and a weekend finale featuring a bonfire with live music, singing, and games.

The theme of the Orientation Weekend was "Wilderness", a metaphor for the wild wonder and beauty that is so central to the Academy. Though Barry's Bay and OLSWA may seem a strange wilderness to navigate at first, the Student Life Team told the first-years, one soon realizes the fulfillment that comes with "hunting" for the truth. The theme found its way into many of the Orientation events, including an appearance by "Elliott the Moose" in the scavenger hunt and a hunting-based skit performed by returning students.

As upper-year students came back one by one to campus, they found OLSWA a bigger place than they had left it. This year there are eighty full-time students enrolled, as well as some part-time students. As such, a new residence has been opened this year—a women’s residence dedicated to Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha—and one of the former women’s residences has been converted to a men’s residence dedicated to Blessed André Bessette. Both Blessed Kateri and Blessed (soon to be Saint) André are great examples of holiness from our continent. As OLSWA expands in size, it also expands in the diversity of places from which our students come. This year, again, there are a number of American students, bringing the total of U.S. states that our students have come from to twenty-one.

Another exciting development this year is the arrival of a new professor of literature, Mr. Michael Doyle. An OLSWA Alumnus, Mr. Doyle studied at Redeemer University and obtained his M.A. at the University of New Brunswick. The Academy is proud to welcome him as a full-time faculty member.

Classes began on September 7th, and the year is off to a fine start. The students have begun to delve into their books and to fall into the daily routine. Though life at OLSWA might appear at first glance to be nothing more than the clockwork of study such as is found at any other post-secondary institution, those living it know that it is something more. It is the great hunt for truth, and an adventure. As John Hope Franklin said, "We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey." 

First-Year students Don McGeragle and Nicole Hatchen participating in an ice-breaker game during orientation.

*Pictures courtesy of Mary Sawchuk and Rose Nolan.