I was looking for an alternative to my son Alex's public school. Even though it was rated as a Blue Ribbon school and I loved his teachers, its policies and overall approach to the educational process reminded me too much of the Soviet system I’d grown up in. 

As an immigrant from Eastern Europe, I very highly value achievement and this is something I would like to instill in my son. As a child who tested as gifted at an early age, he was not being challenged enough by his public school. Everything was too easy, and even though he was always a good student, I knew that for maximum growth, he needed to be challenged much more. 

We were looking to combine academics and hockey.

Additionally, he was in love with hockey. It was the first thing he would wake up with and the last thing he talked about when going to bed. He constantly begged me to take him to practices, and I soon realized, I needed to find a hockey school for him. 

Bridgedale Academy perfectly solved both my problems.