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Saturday Academy
All 10th graders participate in the Saturday Academy that meets two Saturdays per month. Scholars meet for a total of ten Saturdays for a total of fifty hours of instruction between the months of October and March. All courses are strongly focused on writing and preparing the scholars for the college experience.
The 2004-2005 Saturday Academy includes:
Writing Class examines various forms of literary, musical and artistic self-expression as it appears in the Americas. During the semester, Scholars will read, listen to, look at, discuss and write about challenging and engaging works of art from a variety of genres, forms, and places. The purpose of this class is two-fold: 1) to equip students with the necessary skills for reading, analyzing, and most importantly, writing critically about literature and art; and 2) to expose scholars to a host of artistic forms and works.
The Business of Self Class helps Scholars learn two fundamental skills: being critically aware and able to articulate the benefits and skills you can provide to an employer and their leadership ability. This class explores these ideas through hands-on activities, interactive sessions and presentations. Scholars will emerge with a brand statement about their skills, talents, and strengths. Essentially, the articulation of these abilities offers a roadmap and more focused path for students translating into greater wealth and success in the future.
College Exploration Class is designed to enable scholars to clearly understand what is required of them in order to be considered strong candidates for admission to select colleges. Scholars identify and practice many of the skills and abilities necessary to be a competitive applicant. For example, as a final project Scholars have to complete an application to a select college. Based on the quality of the application (essay, transcripts etc.) the instructor grades the students by either awarding them with an acceptance, waitlist or rejection letter. At the end of semester Open House, scholars will act as admissions officers and hold a college fair providing information and answering questions about the colleges they plan on attending. Through this course scholars will learn to how to investigate college possibilities and begin to narrow their choices.
Chemistry Class exposes scholars to the field of industrial and cosmetic chemistry. All of the experiments that the students will perform, will test their current understanding of high school chemistry as well expose them to chemistry that is done at a freshmen level in college. Scholars will learn the different types of surfactants (anionic, cationic, amphoteric and nonionic) and how each one plays a role in personal care and cleaning products. For the final project, scholars will formulate, market and advertise their own window cleaner and compare its properties with commercial cleaners.
The Saturday Academy will culminate on Friday March 11th, 2005 with an Open House and Student Showcase. Parents, friends, school administrators, and representatives from the foundation community are invited to attend the celebration. Scholars present the projects they worked on over the past six months.
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