Portal:Seventh-day Adventist Church/Selected article/3

Shenandoah Valley Academy (SVA) is one of the flagship high schools or "academies" of Seventh-day Adventist schools in the United States. It is located in New Market, Virginia and is a co-educational, boarding, high school. SVA offers both boarding and day school programs and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and the Accrediting Association of Seventh-day Adventist Schools. It is a member of the Virginia Council for Private Education. It is known for its strong athletic and fine arts program as well as the number of its graduates who move on to highly selective schools.

In 1905 while on his death bed, Charles D. Zirkle donated 45 acres of his property to the Virginia Conference to build a school. In 1907, construction began on the main building of what was known as New Market Academy. The first students enrolled in 1908. In January 1908 New Market Academy assumed its current name, Shenandoah Valley Academy. The name was changed because New Market Academy duplicated an old private school in New Market, ironically, the new name was shared with another, now defunct, military school in Winchester, Virginia. In 1911 SVA graduated its first four students. SVA attracts students primarily from Virginia and Maryland but students attend from across the United States to New York, Florida, or California and across national borders from places such as South Korea, Angola, the United Kingdom, and South America. By the time of its centennial in 2008 SVA had graduated over 6,000 students. During the 2009-2010 school year, SVA had an enrollment of two hundred and forty four students.