Extracurriculars & Clubs

Upper school students are encouraged to participate in a wide array of extracurricular activities, fostering personal interests, engaging with faculty, and seizing opportunities for enrichment. Whether through a club, an honor society, arts, athletics, or service, students can join in or initiate their own ventures!

The upper school offers over 50 clubs that meet weekly during designated activity period. Everything from Harry Potter, knitting, Sudoku, or Philosophy allows students time to bond with peers and instructors over common interests.

Do What You Love

Academic Enrichment

Honor Societies

Clubs

Upper school clubs offer students an opportunity to connect with faculty and each other over a common interest. Clubs meet weekly during activity period, and offerings span in diversity and size. See below the list of clubs offered in the upper school:

Andy Griffith Show
Big Brother/Sister
Body, Mind, and Spirit
Classic Sports Video
Color Me Peaceful
Creative Writing Magazine
Crochet and Crumpets
Design Lab
Game Show Club
Games Club
Golf Club
Hand-Letterng
History Movie Club
House Leadership
Leaders Eat Last
Life Skills
May the Force Be With You
Movie iPhone
Music Appreciation
National Art Honor Society
Nertz Club
Philosophy and Coffee
Quiz Bowl
ShutterFLY Club
Tea Time
Thespian Society
True Crimes/FBI Files
Ultimate Outdoor Games

House System

The “house” concept is a largely British model of grouping students across grades 9-12 in an effort to build community, improve school spirit, facilitate mentoring by upperclassmen, and establish meaningful traditions. The houses at CPA are Barclay, MacKinnon, Sutherland, and Wallace. Every freshman student is assigned a house for all four years of upper school, joining the tradition of their older siblings and/or classmates of that house; an embrace in camaraderie and tradition.

Learn more

Leadership Opportunities

Athletics

CPA athletes learn to persevere, to lose with grace, and to win with humility. CPA Athletics seeks to teach self-sacrifice, discipline, and personal commitment to attain the goal of excellence. The Student Athletic Leadership Team is comprised of two representatives from each varsity sport at CPA. Students meet on a monthly basis to discuss team culture, common goals, and hear from guest speakers.

Learn more

Arts

Two main stage productions (one play and one musical) 
Coffeehouse Theatre (student-run production) 
Children's Theatre
State Thespian Conference
Spring Jubilation! (Band, Dance, and Vision) 
Visual Art Gallery Night
Media Arts Film Night
Pep Band/Jazz Band 
Middle Tennessee School Band and Orchestra Association Festival
Vision (advanced vocal choir)
Middle Tennessee Vocal Association (MTVA)
Choral Adjudication Festival 
ACDA State Choral Adjudication 
Vocal Music Travel Study 
Band Travel Study 
Visual Arts Travel Study 
Upper School Dance Company
Art Gallery Days

Learn more

Literary Publications and Competitions

Service Partnerships

Advisory

Beginning in freshman year, students are placed into a "homeroom" advisory group, led by an upper school faculty member. This advisory group remains together all four years of upper school, undergoing together the growth and transformation each year has to offer. Advisories create small group communities, a safe space in which students confide, learn, celebrate, and love one another, under the spiritual mentorship of the faculty advisor.

A unique feature at CPA upper school, advisories equip faculty members to better carry out the mission of the school in the day-to-day schedules of school life.

Learn more