Ravenswood Academy
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| Note: Ravenswood Academy is a canonical element in the HERO Universe, as portrayed by the book Teen Champions. While this writeup uses that canonical setting information as the basis for describing the Academy, ultimately, the description of events here diverges from the actual HERO Universe canon. |
| OOC Information: Ravenswood Academy is a physical amalgam of two real-life Detroit area schools: St Mary's Preparatory School of Orchard Lake Village, MI, and the Cranbrook Academy of Bloomfield Hills, MI. For further information on each of these two schools, visit their respective websites at http://www.stmarysprep.com/ and http://www.cranbrook.edu. |
Ravenswood Academy is a fully-accredited secondary-school institution located in Orchardville, MI. The Academy is one of the most highly-regarded independent educational institutions in the United States, and is frequently viewed as one of the top secondary school institutions in the world. Founded in September of 1989 by Kristina Pelvanen as the result of a tragedy involving the death of a young superhero who silently dealt with the negative aspects of his powers in addition to her experiences struggling with her own powers as a youth, the school aims to provide top-quality instruction in both standard academic fields as well as training young metahumans in the use of their powers and abilities. In addition to the superhuman training regimen, the faculty at Ravenswood Academy consists of highly-regarded professionals throughout a wide variety of individual fields, and students at the Academy are frequently capable of delving deeply into highly specialized fields of study that would be otherwise impossible for the average high school.
The school's average class makeup consists of people primarily from the upper echelons of society's social and financial tiers, but the school does not limit itself to those with money -- a number of scholarships are opened each year to up-and-coming students who prove to be academically extraordinary, and privately, there are also a number of scholarships available to metahuman students to help them learn to control their nascent abilities.
Contents
History of Ravenswood Academy
| OOC Note: The complete history of Ravenswood Academy, including information on its founder, Kristina Pelvanen, can be found in the book Teen Champions by Allen Thomas. The IC timeline for this iteration of the superschool begins in 2009 as a result of the Qularr invasion. The book's time line runs up to the 2003-04 school year. |
2009: The Qularr Invade
While Ravenswood had suffered losses before, notably in 2002 when Gloriana was driven mad and several school buildings were destroyed as a result of her absorption-induced rage, the greatest loss the students would suffer would be at the beginning of the 2009-10 school year. Several students transitioned directly from student roles to teacher roles in the wake of the attack of the Qularr just before school began in September of 2009, in part due to the losses of several of the school's core teachers in their defense of the school. As the Qularr mercilessly pounded Millennium City's core, several ships broke off from part of the invasion fleet and headed directly for the campus. Seeing what was coming, Headmistress Pelvanen began the process of evacuating the campus. The reason the Qularr invasion force directly attacked the school is not clearly known, even among the superheroic community. In the wake of the possibility of Destroyer's return, it is entirely possible that he manipulated events so as to take his revenge upon the school which thwarted his last attempt to conquer the world, but even this is conjecture.
As the contingent of invaders bore down on the campus, Headmistress Pelvanen had managed to get the traditional students who had only just arrived on campus to shelter when they attacked. Several of the recent graduates had come back to help out with move-in day, among them Blue Rose and Chill, and the newly-minted graduates were called in to assist in defense of the school. In addition, many of the super-powered faculty stepped up to defend the school grounds. The Qularr bombarded the campus, destroying large parts of the campus in addition to several nearby homes and residences, although Randolph House was saved, primarily through the actions of several of the faculty. Unfortunately, several faculty also perished that day - Headmistress Pelvanen died shielding several fleeing young metahuman students as the Qularr broke into one of the main classroom buildings, Ingrid Sjoblom, the original magic teacher at the school, died as part of a spell she had thrown up to shield Randolph House from being destroyed -- the Qularr's attack was funneled through her, and her body combusted in a column of magical flame that shielded Randolph House for several precious moments. Harry Biggs perished in the initial round of attacks stopping an entire garrison of Qularr from breaking into U-Hall, and the Academy's lovable Lemurian janitor, Hugo, also perished valiantly fighting invading bugs attempting to get in through the school's underwater training dome with only his wrench and his squeaky voice.
However, with the help of several of the remaining nontraditional students and many of the remaining teachers, they finally drove off the invaders...but there was immense damage to the campus. Randolph House still stood, but the student dormitories were destroyed, and many of the classroom buildings were also permanently destroyed. PLATO, the school's AI, had been taken offline forcibly by a contingent of Qularr who physically destroyed the equipment containing him in the Server Room. Fortunately, the "daughter" PLATO had fashioned for himself, HYPATIA, contained a complete copy of all of his records, so while PLATO himself was lost, the resources he could access were not.
In the wake of the attack, the remaining nontraditional students who had connections to the Superhuman World used those connections to help get the school rebuilt -- and the school was rebuilt startlingly quickly. In honor of the fallen teachers, several buildings were renamed. The four dormitories were renamed in honor of the four figures who perished in the attack -- Biggs Hall and Hugo Hall for the boys (replacing the old Nagel and Braun Houses), and Pelvanen Hall and Sjoblom Hall for the girls (replacing the old Dole and Sturm Houses).
Defender quickly stepped in to intervene in the wake of the tragedy as well, secretly appointing Coreen Murphy (known publically as Aqua Regia) as the new headmistress of the Academy, for reasons unknown. Blue Rose, Chill, and several other recent graduates stepped in to fill the void left behind by the lost teachers. Blue Rose now teaches magic officially at Ravenswood, and does her best to live up to her former mentor's legacy of excellent magical instruction despite only being a fresh graduate herself while still taking classes at MCU. Chill, by comparison teaches combat tactics, and also teaches courses in Superhuman Ethics and Networking, using her friendly demeanor as well as her impressive connections to the Superhuman World that she gained during her years at Ravenswood as a student to further educate the next generation of superheroes.
Ravenswood Statistics At A Glance
| General Information | |
|---|---|
| Student-teacher ratio | 28:1 |
| Average class size | 22 students |
| Campus Size | 500 acres |
| Number of Buildings | 34 |
| Volumes in Main Library | 18,300+ |
| Volumes in Non-Trad Library | 2,400+ |
| Interscholastic Sports | 10 |
| Interscholastic Teams | 16 |
| Student Clubs and Organizations | 42 |
| Enrollment Statistics (as of '09 school year) | |
| Total Students | 1,423 |
| Traditional Students | 1,221 |
| Metahuman Students | 202 |
| Boarding Students | 412 |
| Day-Only Students | 1,011 |
| Student Statistics (as of '09 school year) | |
| Student enrollment spans 3 individual worlds, 38 countries and 13 US States. | |
| Male | 45% |
| Female | 54% |
| Other | 1% |
| Extraterrestrial Students | 3% |
| International Students | 22% |
| Academic Statistics (as of '09 school year) | |
| Average SAT Scores | 710 verbal 765 math 740 critical reading |
| Average ACT Score (overall) | 30.6 |
| Tuition Statistics | |
| Metahuman Training | Varies |
| Boarding | $32,585 |
| Day Only | $28,660 |
| Scholarships are made available to students on a by-need basis as well as an academic basis. There are a set number of scholarships set aside for metahuman students who are incapable of paying tuition. If a metahuman student has a true financial need they are never denied instruction at Ravenswood. | |
OOC Information About The Supergroup
The supergroup is a heavy-RP supergroup; open to all appropriate-minded players. Players are expected to remain in-character in all local and SG chat. OOC chatter is perfectly acceptable, however, we ask that you preface OOC chatter in an easily recognizable way (common practice is to enclose OOC chatter in double-parenthesis). Of course, public chat channels specifically designated as OOC (such as CORP) don't have this restriction, and team channels may be designated as IC or OOC depending on who's playing or the circumstances of the team.
More to come.
