Honors in a Nutshell
For the past ten years Central Valley Christian Academy has featured an Honors Program that integrates the study of history, government, economics and literature. This program is graded on a 5-point GPA scale in cooperation with the University of California Berkeley. Besides this, CVCA offers a college level Psychology class allowing students to receive four college credits at Pacific Union College. These classes provide a solid foundation making the transition towards college level classes much easier.

Honors Program
The purpose of the Honors Program is to develop much needed college level skills that develop conceptual and analytical skills through in-depth examination of history and literature. This integration encourages students to examine and better understand how various facets of life directly affect each other. This approach uses original documents, plays, speeches, short stories, films, and non-fiction works to enrich and bring to life the study of history, government, economics, literature and writing.

This Honors program was set up under the direct supervision of the University of California in Berkeley resulting in the University of California allowing the classes to be graded on a 5-point GPA scale instead of the traditional 4-point GPA scale. Nearly all students who have been involved in the two-year Honors Program report that the transition to college English and History classes was made much easier through their involvement with this program.

College Level Psychology
Another facet of the Honors Program at Central Valley Christian Academy includes a college level course in General Psychology. This course has been taught for the past 26 years at the Academy and allows Senior Students to take this class for college credit. Essentially, for one period a day Pacific Union College in Angwin, California “transfers” its General Psychology department to the campus of Central Valley Christian Academy and teaches an introductory course in Psychology. The students taking this course are given 4 college credits and more importantly an exposure to what college level work is like.

Over 300 students have taken this class over the past 26 years and report that it not only provided a good transition to college work, but it was great to have four college credits completed before they even enrolled in college. This class is a part of Pacific Union College’s “Early College Program” and PUC looks forward to continuing this class for many years to come.