A Supportive Rigorous Program

At Waterford, we ask students to do hard things. We know that our curriculum is demanding: it pushes students to engage at both broad and deep levels. Students take on challenging coursework, advanced art classes, impressive performing art commitments, and elite athletic commitments. We also know that young people are now subject to so many powerful forces. Some are new, like the emergence of new AI technology, the 24/7 presence of social media, the increasingly competitive college admissions cycle; and some are age-old, like the fact that adolescence is just a time often defined by high peaks and low valleys. 

We are not blind to the societal factors at play, and we see that young people are subject to more pressure than ever. We strive to be a community that pushes students to try hard and to do their best, while also supporting them in very real ways. Waterford has built intentional programming to support students through our program, so that we not only help students achieve their best in the classroom but also be their best selves in our community and beyond. 

Waterford’s Willes Wellness Center provides students with a beautiful, calming setting to access our mental health support resources. We have two full-time counselors, one dedicated to the needs of middle school students and one dedicated to our upper school student population. Students can use our counseling resources on an as-needed, drop-in basis or develop a more consistent relationship with our counselors; they can also enjoy programming that our counseling team puts together to educate the student population about relevant topics like social media use, time management and study skills, and how to be a good friend. 

We also have a robust academic support program to give students targeted learning support in areas of need. Our in-house tutoring staff are trained in explicit reading instruction programs like the Orton Gillingham program. Our tutors are also familiar with our curriculum so they can support students in our rigorous classes in a way that is aligned with our teachers’ lessons and framing. 

More than anything else, we know that young adults can thrive when they have the connections they need. One of our school’s core values is “caring”; we bring this to life by having faculty and staff who are skilled at connecting with young people and helping them feel seen and valued for who they are, not just for what they can accomplish. 

When a student comes to Waterford, they are taking on a challenge, there’s no doubt about that. But they are also entering a community that stands ready to support them in profound ways. When students embrace both the challenge and the support they encounter at Waterford, they can accomplish amazing things and graduate to live incredible lives of meaning and purpose. 

Casey O’MalleyDirector of Academics

Casey O’Malley grew up in Minnesota and moved to New York City to attend Columbia University, where she double majored in English and Russian Language. While an undergrad, she studied abroad in Moscow, Russia, and was the captain of the Columbia University Sailing Team. Casey moved to Utah after graduating and has been at Waterford ever since, serving a variety of roles at the school from crew coach to English department chair and now academic dean. She completed her master’s degree in education from Vanderbilt University in the summer of 2018.

Casey loves to explore Utah’s outdoors with her husband and her young daughter, whether it is on skis in the winter or on trails in the summer.

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