Residential Life

Live and Learn

When you choose to live and learn as a boarding student at Sun Valley Community School, you’re choosing:

To join an active community of students from around the country and around the world;
To connect with a welcoming and supportive faculty and staff;
To make your home in a mountain-town location that offers unique outdoor and cultural opportunities in a vibrant resort community.

A Day in the Life

Curious if the boarding program at Sun Valley Community School is right for you? Take a look at a typical day in a boarding setting that is anything but typical.

6:30 a.m. Get Moving

Rufus M. Brown Hall comes to life early. The Julia Argyros Training Center on the first floor is the site of frequent early-morning workouts, as student-athletes make the quick walk downstairs from their residential suites for cardio and strength training sessions. With their first training session checked off, students have time to grab a quick shower and a healthy breakfast before they head to school.

A group of people training in a gym

A group of students sitting at a table looking at computers

8:00 a.m. Dig into the Academic Day

Ours is an inclusive and vibrant community, and Community School boarding students are fully integrated into the life of the school. Academic classes take place on our Trail Creek Campus, a five-minute drive from Rufus M. Brown Hall. Boarding students are supported academically by the residential staff and by faculty. All students are also assigned an academic advisor, with whom they check in daily and who helps manage academic scheduling and communicates any academic issues or successes with the student’s family and the residential staff.

Learn More about Upper School

1:30/3:00 p.m. Pursue Your Passion

During the week, students participate in team sports, clubs, theater performances, outdoor leadership outings, and service learning, among other activities of student life. Depending on the season, when the academic day is done, students may head to the playing fields at the Dumke Family Sagewillow Campus for soccer or cross-country running, to the Fishtank to play volleyball or basketball, to a Model U.N. meeting or other academic club, or, if they are members of Sun Valley Ski Academy, to train on snow.

A group of students sitting on a couch in a game room

6:00 p.m. Recharge and Refuel

Early evening at Rufus M. Brown Hall offers boarding students time to recharge, share a meal, and reconnect. Students might spend an hour in their suite with roommates or visit with day students who swing by the dorm. Because Rufus M. Brown Hall functions as a vital student hub, day students, faculty, and staff often spend time there on an informal basis or to host study sessions during this time.

6:30 p.m. Pitch In

Throughout the week, boarding students—together with residential staff—assume responsibility for Rufus M. Brown Hall through regular chores, including dish duty. This responsibility cultivates leadership and teamwork, and students emerge from the program as responsible, respectful, independent adults who understand how to live and thrive in a close community.

An aerial shot of a student on a laptop sitting in a chair

7:00 p.m. Settle Into Study

Evening hours see most students focused on homework, whether on their own in their room or in the designated study hall. Boarding students also benefit from the expertise of the RA staff, who are also teachers in a variety of academic subjects.

Meet the Director of Residential Life

Clay Wawner

Clay Wawner

Clay Wawner succeeded Nancy Parsons-Brown as Director of Residential Life in 2018. Clay joined Sun Valley Community School from Miller School of Albemarle in Charlottesville, Virginia, where, since 2013, he served as Dean of Students, history teacher, Community Service Coordinator, Head Varsity Lacrosse Coach, Residential Duty Team Chief, Student Advisor, and Senior Administrative Team member.

In addition to his extensive academic, residential, and coaching experience, Clay has over ten years’ experience as an outdoor education instructor, having led wilderness experiences around the U.S. and globally, including two summers employed as a fishing and river guide for The River Company in Stanley.

Clay, along with his wife Maggie, bring warmth, a familial approach, clear expectations, and great residential experience to the dorm, while also working to expand programmatic offerings for all Community School students.

Clay is a graduate of Denison University, where he captained the men’s lacrosse team for two years and graduated with a degree in history. In his reflection of his visit to Sun Valley Community School, Clay shared, “Through a strong set of guiding values, I believe that I can help define a culture that successfully integrates the residential life program into the greater community, bridges the gap between day and boarding students and faculty, and creates a fun and safe environment for our students.”

Clay enjoys spending time in the outdoors with his wife Maggie and their three sons.

Meet the Residence Hall Staff

Tracey Caraluzzi, Residence Hall Chef

Tracey Caraluzzi’s official role is Residence Hall Chef, but her maternal nature (she has five grown children) has led her to another, unofficial, role as boarding students’ “other mom.”

In the kitchen, Tracey’s goal is to debunk notions of institutional food by providing students with healthy, delicious, locally-sourced food that fuels body, mind, and soul. A recent article in Sun Valley Community School's biannual publication, Here+There, touts a few of Tracey's most popular dishes amongst the boarding students.

With more than 30 years of restaurant and catering experience behind her, she strives to offer nutritionally balanced and tasty meals that are thoughtfully planned to appeal to a wide variety of taste preferences and cultural backgrounds and to offer a warm, welcoming meal-time experience to unite the Residence Hall family.

Hannah BenDavid, Assistant SVSA Program Coordinator + Assistant Dorm Director

Hannah BenDavid joined the Sun Valley Ski Academy staff as its Assistant Program Coordinator in 2023. In addition, Hannah will be the Assistant Director of Rufus M. Brown Hall.

A recent graduate of Brandeis University, Hannah holds a BS in Neuroscience and a minor in French. Hannah brings experience teaching Upper School- and collegiate-level students and has a strong grasp of the sciences. Most recently, she was a Science Teaching Assistant at Steamboat Mountain School in Colorado where she assisted in teaching 9th-grade Biology and 11th/12th-grade Anatomy and Physiology; she also led outdoor expedition trips and assisted with residential staff duties for the school’s boarding students. During her time at Brandeis, Hannah was a Teaching Assistant for the Quantitative Biology Research Community, an Undergraduate Researcher for the Turrigiano Lab, and a Neuroscience Undergraduate Department Representative. She is proficient in French, is Wilderness First Aid-certified, and was the President of the Brandeis Mountain Club.

Josh Hack, High Performance Specialist

Josh Hack, an Austin, Texas native, took over the reins in the Julia Argyros Training Center as our new High Performance Coordinator in June 2022. Prior to joining the Cutthroat community, Josh was an assistant strength and conditioning coach with the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins semi-professional hockey team that feeds into the Pittsburgh Penguins. Previously, Josh worked at St. Dominic Savio Catholic High School as head strength and conditioning coach for football and volleyball teams. Josh made a wonderful impression on our community during his finalist visit to campus, in particular the student-athletes who participated in his workouts.

Vicky Kelley, Residence Hall Assistant Cook

The Residence Hall welcomed Vicky Kelley as its new assistant cook in the fall of 2022. In her role, Vicky will cook healthy breakfasts and assist with dinner. Vicky brings a plethora of experience cooking at private schools and restaurants. Prior to joining Sun Valley Community School, Vicky was a hot lunch provider at Lighthouse Christian School. Since 2014, she also worked for Ketchum’s Rasberry’s Catering and Bistro, where she assisted with catering needs and food prep and planning.

John Lane, SVSA Academic Coordinator

John Lane joined Sun Valley Community School in August 2022 in a part-time capacity, teaching Upper School math in addition to serving as an SVSA Academic Coordinator.

Prior to joining the Cutthroat community, John served in a variety of mathematical roles in the Cayman Islands. Most recently, he was a Mathematics Tutor with Cayman Tutors where he tutored students in secondary mathematics from Algebra to Calculus as well as IB Maths A.1 11 and 12. Prior, he was the Mathematics Teacher at the Bren Subic International School teaching Math 6, 7, 8, and 9. And from 2015-2020, he was the Mathematics Teacher at Cayman International School, teaching Math 6, 8, Algebra II, Pre-Calculus, Trigonometry, and IB Maths A.1 11 and 12.

John holds a BS in Mathematics with a minor in Spanish from California Polytechnic University. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time in the outdoors.

Jonna Mendes, SVSA Program Director

As the director of the Sun Valley Ski Academy since 2011, Jonna Mendes has an impressive background as an athlete and coach. A two-time Olympian—at the 1998 Nagano Olympic Games and 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games—Jonna was also a four-time National Champion (twice in downhill, twice in giant slalom) and earned a bronze medal in super-G at the 2003 Alpine World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Following her 2006 retirement from the U.S. Ski Team, Jonna honed her coaching skills as a U.S. Ski Team development coach from 2006-10, working with athletes at national and regional projects and competitions. In addition to her role as SVSA Program Director, Jonna coaches the U16s with Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation. Jonna’s unique perspective and experience as an elite athlete and coach is an asset to the development of our SVSA student-athletes. In her free time, Jonna loves chasing her son, Declan, down the mountain and camping with Declan and her husband, Will.

The most valuable experience has been being able to meet and become friends with a variety of people.
I have met kids from many different countries and have learned about their cultures; everyone in the dorm is different and brings a unique personality to the dorm.
Bergen '18

Weekends: Make the Most of your Mountain Town

An aerial shot of the Sun Valley

On the weekends, boarding students explore and engage as they make the most of the mountain-town lifestyle. They might spend time outdoors on their skis or on a bike or hiking trail, explore town, take in a movie, or spend time with friends. Boarding students also have the opportunity to venture further afield, participating in outdoor excursions in the surrounding are or outings to arts or other local events.