Accredited by the Association of Experiential Education, French Broad River Academy (FBRA) is an independent middle school program (grades 6–8) in Asheville offering a competitive academic program in tandem with outdoor education, leadership opportunities and international travel.

Founded in 2009, FBRA has dual programs for boys and girls on two riverfront campuses. Nestled in the heart of Western North Carolina, the school offers programs that take full advantage of the region’s plentiful whitewater rivers, lush mountains and vast public lands for outdoor experiential learning. Key components of the FBRA experience include international travel, service learning, character development and leadership.

Biltmore Park’s Mandy Hartley enrolled both of her sons at FBRA and is thrilled with their experience. “The faculty and staff at French Broad River Academy have created an idyllic middle school environment,” Mandy shares. “The strength of the school culture provides a supportive structure for the challenges, both outdoors and academic, that students confront. We are grateful to be able to send our boys to a school that nurtures their curiosity and encourages them to take healthy, well-considered risks,” she says.

FBRA’s mission is to build character and integrity for a lifetime of learning, service and leadership. The FBRA experience helps students become confident, compassionate leaders, ready to take on the world.

FBRA offers a rigorous course of study including English Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Spanish, Physical Education, Art, STEM and Music, and the opportunity for high-school course credits in Math I, Spanish I and Biology as well as college preparatory academics.

The school's extraordinary and highly specialized faculty are recognized as leaders in their fields, both in the outdoors and academically. 

Weekly full-day field lessons and 25 nights spent in the field on three overnight trips annually include skill mastery with whitewater canoeing, rock climbing, downhill skiing, camp crafts and leave-no-trace principles.

Students travel to Costa Rica each year for an incredible immersion experience with three primary goals: cultural and language immersion, service learning and outdoor adventure. Homestays with Costa Rican families ensure an authentic immersion experience, and each year’s nine-day trip builds on the prior one and explores a different region of the country.

With a 6:1 student-to-teacher ratio, FBRA students grow in their integrity, compassion, courage, determination and curiosity. Students become young people who are mature, confident, respectful and grounded. They are comfortable speaking in public, at ease in leadership positions and involved in their communities.

French Broad River Academy is currently enrolling for the 2024–25 academic year and hosting open houses for prospective students and their families to learn more. Daily van service is available to and from school for families living in South Asheville.

***SIDEBAR***

Girls Program: Monday, Jan. 8, 8:40 to 10 a.m., South Campus, 1420 Riverside Drive. RSVP to Girls Program Admissions Director Dorrie Sieburg at dsieburg@fbriveracademy.org.

Boys Program: Thursday, Jan. 11 and Feb. 2, 9–10 a.m., North Campus, 1990 Riverside Drive. RSVP to Elizabeth Douglas at edouglas@fbriveracademy.org or by calling 828-348-4320, ext. 1.

 

Go to fbra-avl.org for more details.