Mount Pleasant Magazine 6.3

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Learning
MakingWaves in Education
Oceanside CollegiateAcademy
Imagine graduating from high
school with two years of college credit
already completed. Imagine doing that and
still having time as a high school student to
focus on a passion such as sports, music, arts
or a job shadow. Scholarship opportunities
could blossom. Once in college,
there could be time for collegiate
athletics or arts programs or an internship. A four-year
college degree could be completed in two years. A higher-
level degree could be attained years ahead of schedule.
Now imagine you are the parents helping foot the bill for
college. The possibilities are endless.
For 600 ninth- through 12th-grade students and their
parents, their imaginations will become reality when the
2016-2017 school year begins.
Oceanside Collegiate Academy
will make waves when it opens its
doors at full capacity in Carolina
Park. It is a public, state-funded
charter school with a model unique
to Charleston County but soundly
proven in similar schools across the
country.
OCA offers a variety of scheduling
options based on a split schedule
in which students attend classes for
half of the day and participate in
extracurricular activities the other
half. Community service hours also
are required. Students graduate with a high school diploma
and can earn up to 60 hours of transferable college credit.
Dr. Marvin Arnsdorff, the school’s chairman of the
board, first learned about the unique model when he
provided business consulting services for a charter school
management group.
“I didn’t even know there was such a thing,” he said.
“It was such an outside-of-the-box approach to education.
It would be somewhere students like my own daughter
would thrive. I was inspired, and I did something about
it. Now here we are, ready to open for the upcoming
school year.”
OCA operates on a “whole-school” educational plan.
Learning is not compartmentalized into subjects such as
English, Math and Science. Rather, the subjects are all
interrelated and are taught as such.
“The educational opportunities continue through
extracurricular activities and service,” Dr. Arnsdorff
explained. “There is a relationship between academics and
athletics in a job setting. Or, for example, if you want to
be a veterinarian, the split schedule would allow you to
work for one or perhaps spend time at an equine center.”
While nearby Wando High School is rightfully
regarded as one of the top high schools in the nation,
OCA’s comparatively small student body, rigorous
academic program, split schedule structure and “whole-
school” educational plan offer a vastly different option.
“What better opportunity for kids and parents to get
two free years of college if they apply
themselves,” Dr. Arnsdorff said. “That’s
the best investment a parent can make.”
The majority of OCA’s students
live in Mount Pleasant, but its small,
rigorous and unique dual-enrollment
program has attracted students from 21
municipalities in South Carolina.
“The students enrolled here work
hard in their studies and want to go to
college with a purpose or want to go
to college and have time to participate
in other activities,” Dr. Arnsdorff
said. “OCA’s mantra is that academics
come first, character comes second
and extracurriculars come third.”
OCA’s students will learn, grow and contribute to the
community in ways previously unavailable to students in
Charleston County.
“That this school is opening at full capacity says
something about the need,” Dr. Arnsdorff beamed. “It’s
incredible how engaged the parents and students are.
They want options and opportunities, and that’s exciting
to me.”
OCA will be located adjacent to the Mount Pleasant
Recreation Department fields at Carolina Park. For more
information, visit .
By ANNe TOOle
Artwork courtesy of Oceanside Collegiate Academy.