Beacon Academy

Introduction

The First Hunters Academy ever made, by King Arthur Lionheart, Vale's Last King. Beacon has been the shining Icon of hope and unity across the world for generations since the Great War and has been the home to Humans and Faunus alike. It is unknown what purpose the ruins of Beacon served before it's rebuilding as a Hunter's academy in the aftermath of the Great War but it's iconic glowing main tower, large campus and idyllic surroundings with atmospheric giant mountain near by makes beacon the number one spot for learning.
In recent years the School has been struggling due to budget cuts by the Higher Council and a decline in overall applicants to the school but was finished off by the Grimm during the attack on Vale resulting in the loss of the School. The military occupation by Atlas shortly before it's fall also made grades suffer and multiple students died in Field Training leading up to the actual fall it's self.
It's Fall shattered Global Unity and Hope, no one knew how much Beacon meant to them until it was gone.

How the School worked

Beacon was School capable of housing hundreds of thousands of students at a time and had a lot of professors of many talents teaching the students at the time. Beacon was well rounded and was able to accommodate all fighting styles and carried with it the world's 2nd most sophisticated Combat Sim technology, able to immerse users into realistic combat situations and test out their strategies before deploying it on the field.

Uniforms

Every student was expected to wear the uniform, men had the Blazer, sweater vest, tie or bow tie with office pants and leather shoes combo you'd expect of any private school. Women had Blazers, Fake but up corsets, blouses and skirts with optional pants and leggings/stockings options. The Uniforms were well made and are designed to be used in combat during emergency situations.
This is achieved through the use of Microfiber weave in the uniform that made it slightly more itchy but was able to tank one or if lucky two really bad hits, enabling students the chance to run away and call down their lockers for a field change.

Classes

The classes are split up into two groups, Cores which includes Core mathematics, Language, Science, History and more to keep Young Huntsmen and Huntresses competitive with non hunter youth of their age. The 2nd group is Hunt Courses which includes lectures, field trips, combat sims, training sessions, theory and much more, all designed turning Young adults into warriors and fighters.
Cores:
Language
History
Mathematics
Science (All fields)
Social Studies
Geography

Hunt Courses:
Dustology
Auraology
Semblance Class
Grimmology
Survival
Manual Arts (Basic) (Optional)
Smithing (Optional)
Combat Sims
Field Training
Sparring Class
Combat Study

Class Schedules were designed to be dynamic, outside of lectures, assignments and field training. Students are expected to use what's around them to learn on their own and complete their assignments. There is very little hand holding however exams are not the be all end all. Failing your exams is bad but high enough field performance can get you through alone but is obviously dangerous as field training involves fighting real Grimm.
By now most students were the crème of the crop of their respected Lower Academies and most Non-adaptive types have washed out and either gotten a job or joined a university to study for a non-combat career path. Meaning the majority of students who take these classes ordinarily preform as well as can be expected.

How Death is handled

When a Student dies, ordinarily during field training, Vale has a Compensation fund that help pays for the funeral of the lost student as well as 5 years of compensation normally to help fund the education of the next child. However that being said it's not too common for students to die and only really happened a lot during the Twilight days of Beacon shortly before the fall of the Academy.

Relaxation and Study Time

Because it normally takes 5-7 years for a student to graduate fully and get their Hunter's license, there is a lot of spare time donated Towards letting students develop naturally and study, some students don't even have a proper education when they get in and a lot of them do a lot of catch up during their tenure at Beacon Academy.

Answers vs Results

Ozpin made the choice to cater the school around creating effective well equipped fighters rather then people who can remember the right answers to the questions. Unlike normal schools at the end of this one, you fight. So beacon is much more concerned with how you're applying your knowledge rather then your test results. If you score A+'s but do poorly on the field, you will be forcefully ejected from the Program and placed into a University.

Recruitment

After reaching the ages of 16 to 18, Students can transition from their Lower academies to Academies like Beacon. This is done by passing Whats known as the Trial, which is a Gauntlet Combat simulation where Recruits have to succeed at passing the test and surviving the Sim in a acceptable manner. It's also possible to get recruited after achieving amazing combat feats, such as Weiss Schnee destroying a SDC Golem in a personal Combat Test or Ruby Rose confronting fully trained Hunter level combatants at the age of 15 thoguh these cases are rare, from within cities.

Wasteland Recruitment

The most common type of recruit is Farmer boys too old to stay at the farm but too poor to build their own farm. Because the lands outside the cities are rough even in Vale, it is easy for Wasteland Recruits to find worthy Grimm to attack and kill. Upon doing so they pass the test and become applicants and recruits. Many Wastelanders come from very poor families who are banking on their youth's success in order to get by and get a cut of the pay when the recruit starts completing contracts and eventually earning their license.
This was how Blake Belladonna got into beacon, after saving the Train she used her skills to hunt down entire packs of Beowulves and brought back their essence as evidence of the kill.

The Emerald Trial

After passing the Trial the students load up onto an airship and embark on a journey to the Emerald Forest where they are told to collect certain relics but given no clues as to what these relics are or where they are. Testing the student's organizational and navigational aptitude as well as sorting out teams based on a first-to-see basis and then finally who grabbed what basis.
For instance Both Yang and Blake grabbed the Black Knight Pieces ,where as Ruby and Weiss grabbed the white knight and thus was sorted into the same team, as Team Rwby. After retrieving the relics the students go to the evac point and the entire time they contend with Grimm, natural animals and many obstacles, such as trying to land after being launched from a launch pad.
Just in case applicants really don't have a landing strategy, they have a Gravity Dust pod on them unwittingly that saves them last second before impact, close enough to scare them but not enough to hurt them. Some wash out after that experience.

For some Students, these Engagements are their first true fight with Grimm monsters and if their performance is seen as sub-optimal they maybe ejected from the Program even at this stage. This means if you run, sacrifice team mates, etc. If you're complaining about the situation and not contributing can also get you ejected. They want fighters not complainers.
A epic set piece and depiction of what really bombastic Trials can end up like, In this case Team JNPR and RWBY would be rated very high as it is not every day that candidates slay two high level Grimm, most trials end with a lot of dead lower level Grimm like Beowolves, Creeps, Boartusks, Ursa and the likes. Team STRQ had to contend with a similarly dramatic trial when a Grimm Dragon attacked the candidates and Summer Rose cut the head clean off in her own fantastic fashion. Daughter like Mother!
After the Trial the teams are afforded as well as any additional awards the newly christened teams may of earnt through their slaying of powerful Grimm.

Day-To-Day Life

Not every day is as exciting as it was for Team Rwby and JNPR, the average student spends their years training rigorously, preforming many combat sims and field operations, broken up by large indepth assignments and study. Lectures happen every so often with professor Port notably having a lot of lectures about his past during his lessons. The Fine tuning of skill and equipment is integral to a student's success.
They also had gaming rooms, libraries and they had Leave on Weekends where they could go out and enjoy some time outside of school. It wasn't uncommon for students to either do Contracts when they're higher level or do part time jobs in between study and learning. Students often spent spare money on upgrades or putting it into savings for their future homes or plans once they graduate and earn their License.
The School also had various facilities like Pools, gyms and cafeteria's to fill up the day, with the food often being quite nice. Warm meals and lots of fruit and vegetables was on hand. Scrolls had apps that let students track calories and build their bodies.
Sometimes there were Hell weeks, where students went through really tough tests such as staying afloat in the water for an hour or more without a break, long hikes extended camping trips or long field Operations to get students used to operating without the ideal facilities and food being on hand.
Most started and ended their day with Training, the order and discipline of it all gave structure to a lot of lives and would help them maintain their performance once they leave the academy.

How it was for Faunus

While discrimination wasn't loud or even really aloud it still ended up occurring with cases of bullying sometimes slipping under the radar due to the overall schedule of the Academy staff. One such case was the case of Velvet Scarletatina.

Velvet like many Faunus was bullied in school and regularly and loudly referred to as an Animal or as Sub Human by her piers and while Retribution was eventually had and Cardin Changed, this wasn't the case for some Faunus. Before Ruby's grade it wasn't unheard of for the Academy to sometimes fail Faunus students by not sticking up for them and sometimes racist staff members slipped through the cracks and did their own abuse and slander against Faunus Students
During lead up to the fall of Beacon, this took a sharp decline After Ruby and Blake created the Equality & Rights Club, a Club that advocated for and agitated in the name of equality for the students. While previous clubs have existed prior, this one was notably more effective due to it's ability to brign Humans into it, such as Cardin Winchester who went on to begin pushing around those who bullied Faunus and just about anyone else.
Multiple problem Professors also got exposed and promptly fired by Ozpin, significantly increasing the success rate of that year's Faunus Students and temporarily boosted the number of Faunus Students graduating at beacon. It also began Ruby's career in the Public eye, as being a particularly out spoken Human with Blake Belladonna right at her side, guiding her onto the right path.
Had beacon continued, it's likely that there would be a long lasting legacy of more Faunus becoming Hunters and fundamentally changing public perception of Faunus People in the wider Human public.

Training

A example of what an every day training session would be like, while it may not be as one sided as it is in this video on the account of Pyrrha being more of a force of nature then actual fighter by that point. Beacon offers young adults the tools they need to become well oiled mean and green fighting machines like Pyrrha here. Grimm are tireless difficult monsters, they possess super human strength.
To survive a hit from them you need peak Aura control and fine tuned equilibrium. To not get hit by bullets they need to be able to 'drag' bullets to their blades ,sense attacks coming they cannot see and detect enemies invisible to the naked eye. They have to have the endurance to take a rough hit or endure noxious gas. To create a Hunter is no mere task and the professors of beacon are up to it.
Taking Pyrrha as an example when she started she was Argos' star fighter, so good they made a statue of her when she passed. After training she became so good she could fight upwards to 20 well trained hunter level fighters, and 100's of Grimm alone. Having slain upwards to 520 Grimm on her first year and doubtless would of broken Qrow's record of 20,000+ Grimm during his time at Beacon.
The fact Cinder could defeat her was testament to Cinder's experience versus Pyrrha's top notch training and capability.
To this Day Pyrrha remains the literal icon of inspiration and strength to all students still training in their own academies. Amazing what a good training regimen and dedication can do huh?

Legacy

After the Fall of Beacon, the gap in Hunter Education was sorely felt. Beacon Academy was almost an administrative capital for Hunter schools across the World outside Solitas which of course had its own infrastructure. The Status Quo enjoyed before its fall was brought about by itself and maintained itself with a series of modest reforms working against the Vale Council and Vale Kingdom Politics. 
The most important legacy of Beacon was less the structure of the School but it's final Generation, the most Famous teams including Team RWBY, JNPR, CFVY, SSUN, RRSET and dozens more. These teams would go on to inspire tremendous change in the world and directly lead to the restoration of Beacon as well as a better fate for all Academies. 
The most important teams being RWBY and JNPR which would later turn into the Red Rangers and become a internally renowned organisation both infamously and Famously.

Long will Beacon Shine, lighting our way...

Founding Date

10 AGW

Type

Educational, School/Academy

Alternative Names

The Beacon of the World

Demonym

Valites

Leader

Professor Ozpin

Leader Title

Headmaster / Mistress

Parent Organization

The Kingdom of Vale

Location

The City of Vale

Related Professions

• Hunter

Related Species

• Faunus
• Humans

Number of Students
10,654
Number of Professors
6784
Graduation Rate
89%
Wash Out Rate
11%
A Typical Wasteland Recruit, Often equipped with Family heirlooms as weapons and often very capable and strong handymen and women with a lot of existing skills developed outside of schools and combat sims. Its hard but many walk away as strong Huntsmen and Huntresses and go on to build a real life for themselves, some end up dead.

The Average Class room was wide but cozy, decorated with green or Blue banners and came with holo desks, an chalk boards as well as holo boards. Each room was outfitted to fullfill a particular task. Sometimes people felt comfortable enough to talk to each other about personal disputes and topics in these rooms when left empty. They were quiet and often sound proof.