Many area private schools stress that students reap lifelong rewards from extracurricular activities. Through sports, the arts, clubs and community service, they can learn leadership and teamwork, discover career interests, or simply relax after a rigorous academic day.

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One plus to the private-school experience, administrators say, is that students are encouraged to try myriad activities. Eric M. Gobble, athletic director at Trinity Episcopal School in South Side, said he's seen a baseball scholarship student play guitar at lunch and drama stars try out for football at the 445-student coed school for grades eight to 12.

"Trinity is a place where it's not only safe to try new things, but it's cool to try new things," Gobble explained. "Parents really love that the children get a chance to discover their own unique path."

Suzanne Davenport said her sons received a well-rounded education at St. Christopher's School, an Episcopal boys' school in Richmond's West End with 951 students in junior kindergarten through 12th grade. Her son Stephen, now a senior, is president of the school's missionary society and in pole vaulting, track and chorus.

"That's one of the beauties of a small private school: in public school, there is not always room for those who just want to try [various activities]," she said.

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This is especially true when it comes to sports, school administrators say. As Shane Newcombe, director of communications at Farmville's Fuqua School, a 525-student school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, explained, smaller teams can benefit students.

"They're better able to learn more from the coach because they get more one-on-one instruction time," he continued. "And we have enough students to play the game but we do not have extras, so they get more playing time."

Trinity's Gobble said students are encouraged to try several sports, so they "get more experience and are not just focused on making that one team."

Davenport said St. Christopher's also encourages every student to find a sport he enjoys, especially since athletics is a school requirement. "There is an opportunity for every kind of kid, of every shape, to play sports," she said.

Being in activities at St. Christopher's taught her sons good habits like physical exercise and time-management, Davenport said, but also good social habits such as how to make friends among people with different interests.

"If all you do is go to classes and study and go home," she said, "you don't meet the other shot-putters or people who organized the canned food drives or the singers."

St. Christopher's headmaster Charles Stillwell said the school offers a ange of activities to meet its philosophy to "educate the whole boy, to not just become better students but become the best people we can be, and to do that they have to be introduced to so many areas and elements."

Through activities, students not only pursue their interests and learn teamwork, creativity and problem-solving; but they also understand their responsibility to enrich the community, he continued. "When boys see that their actions can have a positive impact on others around them it makes them feel very proud of what they've accomplished," Stillwell said, "and their pride connects them to success in other areas."

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Community service is pervasive at many private schools, where it's not only a graduation requirement but a student passion. At Saint Gertrude High School, a 277-student girls' Catholic school for grades nine through 12 in Richmond's West End, the school's morning meetings are dominated by project announcements, said school president Susan Walker.

Many Saint Gertrude graduates have put in more than 400 hours of service, well beyond the school requirement of 40 hours, she added. Senior Erin Books, who is student government president and in clubs and music, said she earned 72 hours teaching a children's drama camp. "You're helping the kids but also helping yourself become a more well-rounded person and learning things from them while they're learning from you," she continued.

Several schools also focus on environmental programs. At Trinity, two of the most popular student clubs are the James River Program and Students for Environmental Action, said Headmaster Thomas G. Aycock. Trinity is a designated "green school," and student clubs implement projects such as using environmentally friendly fertilizer on athletic fields, he said.

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Walker said many Saint Gertrude students also discover through service work that they're drawn to working with certain populations, such as children or seniors, and decide to pursue related fields such as nursing or teaching.

At Piedmont Christian School, a 110-student school in Bumpass in eastern Louisa County for grades K-4 to 12, volunteer work gives students valuable hands-on experience in particular fields, explained administrator Marsha Badertscher. Her daughter began volunteering at a veterinarian's office after her boyfriend died in a car wreck. She was looking for a way to fill time while grieving, but loved her work so much she's now in vet school.

"So many times children go to college for four or six years and realize that's not what they want to do," Badertscher said. "When you are [volunteering], you really see it. It's not like looking from the outside in."

Badertscher said community service also leads to scholarships, helps students find college essay material and looks great on transcripts. Brooks, the Saint Gertrude senior, said University of Virginia officials said at a recent college-planning seminar that they prefer students who have made the most of the high-school experience.

Aycock, Trinity's headmaster, pointed out that strong high-school programs can help with college admissions. Trinity's extensive fine arts program, which includes courses such as music theory and digital music production, has led graduates to colleges such as Alfred University known for ceramics and Juilliard, one of the world's premier performing arts schools.

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Getting involved in extracurricular activities also builds skills at the elementary and middle-school levels, administrators explain. At Saint Mary's Catholic School, a 406-student coed school in Richmond's West End for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, Girl and Boy Scouting is popular, as are sports, art and music.

"Middle school is a time when students start to experiment and try things out and look at opportunities," said Principal Thomas Dertinger.

St. Michael's Episcopal School, a coed school in Bon Air with 371 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, offers four FIRST LEGO League teams. The middle-school team won the FLL state competition last year and will compete at the FLL World Festival in Atlanta in April. The three elementary-school teams won awards at the local FLL competition.

In the FLL competition, students have eight weeks to complete a research project on a real-world challenge such as energy consumption and to design, build, program and test an autonomous robot for a 2.5-minute mission.

An algebra and computer science teacher, club adviser Leslie Eckmann said the FLL does engender interest in science and engineering, but most importantly helps children learn teamwork which can be tough for middle-school pupils.

"It's an important skill to learn: that you don't always get your way," Eckmann said. "In the workplace, you don't always get your way. You don't have to be friends, but do have to respect others and their ideas."

At the Academy of Academic Excellence, a nondenominational coed school with 35 pupils in kindergarten through third grade located in Richmond's West End, extracurricular activities include leadership studies and yoga. Dean Rita T. Busch explained that "the Women's Leadership Club assists girls in gaining empowerment skills and becoming thought leaders of the 21st century" by studying figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt.

In the AAE's Men's Studies Group, Busch said, they are exposed to adventures that capture their interest and "teach perseverance in the face of challenge adventures that they will carry with them in their journey as lifelong learners." The boys are now studying the brain waves of Marco Polo.