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The Bridges Academy Story

Every story has a beginning. The Bridges Academy story began in 1994 when the lives of three young international tennis competitors collided with the career of an enterprising educator named Carolyn McWilliams.

With their sights set on college as well as tennis, the young men were looking for a study program that would afford them time to play while still preparing them for college. McWilliams, working from her home, developed and oversaw such an independent study program for the aspiring athletes. She called this home-study program Bridges Academy.

But the tennis players were not her only students. McWilliams also was busy helping gifted students with organizational deficits. These were students who struggled to achieve in the traditional college preparatory school or other settings. At first McWilliams provided supplemental instruction. She called the program Bridges to Learning. It filled an immediate and unexpectedly large need, and within a year, Bridges to Learning had expanded to serve nearly 30 students.

Simultaneously, Bridges Academy also grew in size and scope, offering students in grades 6-12 a highly individualized and supportive full-time secondary education.

During the ensuing years both programs evolved and matured and eventually merged in 1998 into Bridges Academy, Inc. Carolyn McWilliams retired in 2003, but her vision of creating a special school for a remarkably special population was realized.

With McWilliams’ retirement, Bridges began a new chapter in its evolution. The school was led by Charles Potts, who served as interim Head of School for two years, while the Board of Trustees conducted an intensive nationwide search for a permanent head. In 2005, Carl Sabatino was named Head of School and Bridges moved onto the campus of Osaka Sangyo University at Los Angeles (OSULA) in Studio City.

The school has attracted leading experts in the field of twice-exceptional education who are making significant contributions to both curriculum and professional development. In 2007, Bridges partnered with the University of Southern California to create a certification program for professionals who want to understand and serve the needs of the 2e population. In 2008, Bridges hosted the national conference of the Association for the Education of Gifted, Underachieving Students (AEGUS), and three years later the first ever AEGUS International Conference (in Hawaii), another indication of Bridges Academy's ascendance to the forefront of twice-exceptional education. In August 2009, Bridges added a 5th grade.

That same year, Bridges began negotiating for the purchase of the Studio City Campus. On February 18, 2011 we closed the deal at $9.8 million. The school is now engaged in planning for renovation and optimization space to expand our program. The Studio City Campus is comprised of four buildings on 3.5 acres. One of the buildings is a 60 room Dormitory. Plans are underway for the development of five and seven-day boarding programs to begin in the Fall of 2013. The purchase of our campus brings new challenges and opportunities.

Meeting Challenges Through Creative Teaching

Today, Bridges has become one of the nation’s educational leaders in assisting bright, complex students to overcome educational and emotional challenges and meet both academic and social goals. Some of the learning issues we accommodate in serving our “twice-exceptional” (both gifted and challenged) population are nonverbal learning differences, organizational challenges, attention deficit disorder, auditory and visual processing problems, and dysgraphia. We can meet the needs of such diverse students because we offer a structured learning environment that simultaneously allows for individualized instruction and an awareness of different learning styles within the same classroom. The academic program is accredited by the Western Association of Schools & Colleges (WASC) and the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS).

Bridges professional staff includes an educational therapist, who addresses individual learning differences, and a school psychologist, who oversees the integration of social skills into our program and assists with the design and implementation of curriculum. Furthermore, Bridges is constantly forming alliances with the best educators and professionals in both Los Angeles and the nation in order to benefit from their insight, expertise and creative teaching innovations. We are fortunate to have as our Director of Professional Development Dr. Susan Baum, author, speaker and college professor who specializes in teaching strategies for reaching 2E students.

As we look ahead, Bridges will continue to strive for more than just academic excellence. We will work to challenge the intellect of students who might otherwise be bored or frustrated. We will nurture new learning techniques. And we will expand our base as a premier resource center for other educators interested in accepting the challenges of twice-exceptional students. These are the things that make us unique.