ABOVE: The Class of 2025 poses with Executive Director Leah Wright (front center), Academic Coordinator Darla Baker (left center) and Academic Coordinator Kathryn Maccormack (right center).
story by MANDY HOWARD
photos courtesy of WAKE MONARCH ACADEMY
Debra Ferris looked to her daughter Dabney and quietly said, “Can I share about … ?” She didn’t finish the question; she didn’t need to. Dabney understood and nodded. Debra took a deep breath. “What I did not share before is that Dabney tried to end her life twice before we found Wake Monarch Academy. The ultimate reality is my child might not have been here to experience this wonderful place with beautiful people like Bodhi and Leah. She would have never experienced knowing that she succeeded.”
Dabney nodded and—with the confidence and maturity that seem well beyond her 19 years—added, “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t think I would be alive if I didn’t have this school.”
This is the reality for so many teens and families, and it is the reason Wake Monarch Academy was founded.
WHAT IS WAKE MONARCH ACADEMY?
Wake Monarch Academy is a nonprofit, private college-preparatory high school with a mission to prevent and reduce substance use by adolescents and help them find a positive path to recovery. Offering a unique educational experience for 9th through 12th-grade students ages 13-21, the school is built upon five core values: community, accountability, acceptance, prioritizing recovery and education.
Motivated by her family’s journey, Executive Director Leah Wright founded the school in 2021 after a 30-year career in the Wake County Public School System. Discouraged by the lack of local resources she found for her son, Wright first established Wake Monarch Academy as a nonprofit in late 2018. She and a passionate team spent the next two years researching best practices, developing a program and laying the groundwork for the school.
Like traditional high schools, graduates of Wake Monarch Academy obtain a high school diploma. Many also earn college credit through Wake Tech online courses. But instead of rows of sterile desks, students sit around large tables and work collaboratively. Instead of security cameras and cramped spaces, there are couches, ping pong tables and pool tables. Most notably, instead of hours of lectures, students have time in their day to meet with recovery coaches and participate in CrossFit’s high-intensity fitness program, which helps their emotional and physical well-being.
While this sounds like a dream setting for any teen, the focus is clear and it’s not easy: Recovery is a lifelong journey that takes strength, motivation and the desire to be sober.
Wright says, “The student has to want to come here. This is not a place where students are mandated to go by their parents, caregivers or the court system … The individual is the only one that can achieve recovery, and sometimes the student is not ready, and that’s OK. It’s heartbreaking, but it does happen. If a student leaves, they know our doors are always open if they want to come back and be committed to recovery.”
COMMUNITY IS KEY
Eighteen-year-old Bodie Happe, who first used substances at the age of 14, is one of those students dedicated to recovery. Currently a senior, he first walked the halls of Wake Monarch Academy while at a recovery meeting two years ago.
“I had heard of [WMA] but didn’t know if it was for me. Public school was not the best fit, so my parents put me in an online program. That didn’t go well either. I didn’t have teachers to be present with me, and I just wasn’t learning well,” he says. He noted the ping pong tables, the couches and the lack of security cameras, saying it just didn’t feel as “depressing” as the school he had been in. He added, “From the time I saw this school, I was curious.”
While it may have been the ambience that ignited a sense of hope in Happe, the true key was the people.
“The community was just different. It’s nice being around students—and people in general—who are in the same situation and have the same goals. We are a community rather than a bunch of kids,” he says.
Throughout his adolescence and early teen years, Happe was drawn to people who made similar choices. “I hung out with all the kids who did drugs. That demographic appealed to me, and I just gravitated to them. At Wake Monarch Academy, it’s the same people with the same experiences, but with the goal of being sober.”
In addition to peers, Happe noted that the teachers and recovery coaches create a warm and open environment. “There’s actually a connection with the teachers,” he says, and that their recovery coach felt just like “an older, more mature version of us.”
Celebrating over a year of sobriety, Happe says if he could go back and talk to his younger self, he would say, “There’s a lot more life to be lived than what I thought was living at 14 years old. There’s a whole life ahead of me.”
Bodie Happe has benefited from the support he received at Wake Monarch Academy.
RECOVERY IS BEAUTIFUL
Dabney Ferris graduated from Wake Monarch Academy in June and has a bright future. She currently works two jobs she loves and plans to enroll in college in the spring semester.
It’s a reality she could not have imagined for herself just a few years ago. As a middle schooler, she dealt with relentless bullying, which continued in high school. COVID shutdowns amplified the emotional distress she was feeling. She soon became addicted to vapes and THC, and felt hopeless.
Dabney first toured Wake Monarch Academy to humor her mom. She smiles, remembering. “I just thought, whatever. I’ll go just to ease her mind a little bit,” she says. “But then I walked in and I think I just instantly knew I needed to be here.”
She agrees with Happe that the community was key to recovery. “You can’t heal in the same environment that made you sick. I can’t go back to public high school and just expect to stay sober, where that’s where it got me started [with substance misuse]. Everything had to change. Did I want it to change? No. But did I need it to? Yes.”
Standing beside her daughter, Debra Ferris beams with pride and exudes gratitude, saying, “Thank you, God. Thank you, Leah. Thank you, Wake Monarch Academy.” She continued, “I think of every parent who’s in the position I was in. You’re terrified all the time. The ultimate loss is the loss of a child and that is your constant fear. So when you’re put into an environment where someone understands, where they’ve walked the walk … it’s a blessing upon blessing that I have my child.”
Dabney Ferris graduated from Wake Monarch Academy in June and will attend college in the spring of 2026.
The overarching message that Wright, Happe and the Ferris’ hope anyone takes from this story is that if you or a loved one is facing addiction or substance misuse, you are not alone.
Debra adds, “There are resources. There is help. Sometimes it’s not staring you right in the face, but it will come. You will find the right people at the right time. Just don’t give up.”
Dabney adds that Wake Monarch Academy introduced her to people with similar goals and helped her redefine what friendship should be. In fact, when asked what she’d say to her younger self, she replies, “I’d say, you don’t have to fit in with all those kids. It’s not worth it. Doing all the things that feel like ‘typical teenage high school’ things, it’s just not worth it.”
Happe added, “Wake Monarch opens your world a little bit more, especially when it comes to people experienced
in sobriety.”
Their stories show that recovery is possible. If you or a loved one is seeking a path to healing, there is hope and help.
For more information, visit wakemonarchacademy.org.