Signature Programs

At Sage Ridge, learning isn’t confined to a classroom—it’s bold, immersive, and intentionally designed to stretch minds, shape character, and ignite curiosity.

Our Signature Programs form the backbone of a Sage Ridge education, defining experiences that help students grow from the first day of school to graduation.

Outdoor Education Week

Courage and Community in Action

Every fall, Sage Ridge students and teachers leave the classroom behind for one of the most anticipated traditions of the year: Outdoor Education Week.

Tailored to the developmental needs of each grade, these immersive experiences challenge students physically, mentally, and socially—while fostering independence, resilience, and class unity. From day hikes and campouts to wilderness expeditions and kayaking adventures, Outdoor Ed is consistently named by alumni as one of the most cherished aspects of their Sage Ridge journey.

2025–2026 Trip Locations

Grades 1-4: Reno-Tahoe day trips
Grade 5: Three-night overnight at Grizzly Creek Ranch
Grade 6: Marin Headlands
Grade 7: Lake Tahoe & Donner Lake
Grade 8: June Lake STEM adventure
Grade 9: Yosemite National Park
Grade 10: Angel Island and Sausalito with SeaTrek
Grade 11: Tomales Bay with SeaTrek
Grade 12: Ashland, Oregon

Did You Know? Outdoor Education programs help build mental and physical health as well as enhanced academic performance, and the development of crucial life skills.

Sage Session

Every spring, Sage Ridge shifts gears for Sage Session, a two-week elective experience that invites Scorpions in grades 1-11 to dive into faculty-designed courses that extend beyond traditional academics. Designed to be student-centered, interdisciplinary, and dynamic, Sage Session classes offer experiential learning opportunities and real-world challenges.

Whether it’s podcasting, scaling a rock wall, engineering a robot, or studying democracy in Washington, D.C., Sage Session pushes students to innovate, collaborate and pursue passions they might never have discovered otherwise.

Sage Session is more than enrichment—it’s a signature element of the Sage Ridge experience.

Lower & Middle School Highlights

Students rotate through multiple electives daily. Past courses include:

Engineering & Design with Robots
Ballet and Musical Theatre Jazz
Game Theory
Physics of Flight
Rock Climbing
BizWorld Entrepreneurship
Lake Tahoe Ecology
Short Film Production
Democracy in Action – Washington, D.C.

Upper School Highlights

Students enroll in full-day or half-day immersive courses such as:

SCUBA
Stocks, Bonds, Options and Investments
California Coast Biking Expedition
Proteomics: Theory and Lab
What the Art? An Exploratory Guide to Nevada Arts and Culture
Outdoor Adventures: Expeditionary Education
The Nuclear Age
Kitchen Novice Chronicles: From Culinary Kindergarten to Gourmet Grad
Adulting 101
The Giving Lab: Where Money Meets Mission

International Trip Opportunity

Students in grades 8-11 are invited to participate in an optional Sage Session international trip.

Past and upcoming destinations include London, Paris & Italy (2024), Japan (2025) and Berlin, Prague, Krakow, and Budapest (2026). These international travel experiences blend cultural exploration, academic enrichment, and global perspective.

2025 Divider Logo

Advisory

Every Sage Ridge student is part of a small, faculty-led advisory group designed to offer mentorship, connection, and personal growth. These groups—typically 6-12 students—are led by teachers who serve as guides throughout the school year, offering support academically, socially, and emotionally.

Advisory also provides an opportunity to center the school’s five pillars. Through advisory, students benefit from lessons and activities geared to strengthen their awareness of themselves and their role in their communities. In advisory, students set goals throughout the year and reflect on their growth.

In Lower School, advisory is supported through FLEX periods that build executive functioning, social-emotional awareness, and study strategies tailored to each developmental stage.

Did you know? Research suggests that having a trusted relationship with an adult at school can have a positive impact on student motivation, self-efficacy, and academic achievement.

Latin

Sage Ridge offers the region’s only Latin program. All sixth graders take a semester of Latin alongside a semester of Spanish (which begins in Grade 1) before selecting a language pathway for future study.

Latin at Sage Ridge emphasizes vocabulary, grammar, logic, and culture—enhancing student performance across disciplines and strengthening cognitive and linguistic skills. It’s not just a language. It’s a foundation for advanced learning and a tight-knit subset within the Scorpion community.

Latin scholars often participate in Junior Classical League, an organization that allows students to understand the influences of Classical antiquity in modern society. Scorpions travel to or host the State Convention where Scorpions participate in arts & academic contests and connect with other Latin scholars.

Did you know? Studies show that Latin students outperform their peers on standardized tests and often excel in additional language studies

Senior Experience

The Capstone of a Scorpion Education

The Senior Year Experience at Sage Ridge is the culmination of a student’s time in our Upper School. Designed to replicate the rigor, freedom, and responsibility of college life, this program equips students with the skills, confidence, and perspective needed for success beyond graduation.

There are four segments to the Senior Experience:

History Capstone

A year-long college-level course in the humanities, it draws on material from students’ four years of English and History education at Sage Ridge to ask them to critically examine both the foundational values of our representative system of government, and our ideals of a civil society. Part of the mission of Sage Ridge School is that students are prepared to thrive in our global society, and this course is intended to lay such a foundation by fostering the intellectual grounding and critical assessment of information that are required of future democratic citizens.

Senior Thesis

The premise of the Senior Thesis requirement is that success in higher education is predicated not only on how much knowledge students have acquired, but also on how well they have learned to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate that knowledge. Each student selects a personal topic of interest to research, culminating in a 15–20 page scholarly paper, and a formal defense before a committee.

Research Symposium

Senior Internship

In May, education is moved outside of the classroom and into the workplace when students complete an internship in a career area of interest, gaining real-world experience in fields like medicine, law, engineering, business, communications, and more. Seniors are introduced to the world of work, pursue possible career interests, and are given the opportunity to begin the transition to college with greater individual freedom and responsibility.

Examples of Past Internships
Reno Orthopedic Center, University of Nevada Reno, KOLO 8, Perenn Bakery, Reno Little Theater, Redwood Materials, Western Environmental Testing Laboratory, The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada, Reno Psychiatric Associates

Upper School

Cross-Divisional Programming

Sage Ridge is one of the few independent schools serving Grades 1–12 on a single campus. That means students grow up in a unified environment where older students lead, mentor, and inspire, and younger students rise to the example.

Upper School student directs the winter 2025 Lower School play

Whether it’s third graders presenting information about universities at a “College Fair” for Upper Schoolers, or high schoolers cheering on younger Scorpions at Field Day, our cross-divisional programs build shared traditions, authentic relationships, and a culture of mutual respect.

Signature Cross-Divisional Moments

Weekly Community Meetings
Field Day & Scorpion Days
Lower School College Fair for Upper School Scorpions
Sage Session cross-teaching and coaching partnerships
Leadership & mentorship opportunities in academics, arts, and athletics

These experiences nurture a sense of belonging that transcends grade levels and lasts well beyond graduation.