This fall three North Carolina school districts will open the Yadkin Valley Regional Center Academy. The academic institution will initially admit 50 to 75 eighth-graders, according to James Fitzgerald, school chief executive officer.
The three locations will include Davidson County, Thomasville City, and the Lexington, North Carolina school districts.
The purpose of creating what is considered a multi-county initiative, is to produce a high school experience that is tailored around the career interests of students.
According to Barry Sink, co-chair of the school's cheering committee, the academic format of the institution will be based upon Scandinavian teaching methods. There will be an initial focus on communication, team work, project-based learning, and creative problem solving.
The school is said to be very student driven and feature lots of student-centered instruction. The academy will have strong focuses on careers in global logistics, advanced technologies and manufacturing, and health sciences and medical informatics.
"We want to prepare students for careers in STEM-related fields. It will be a small classroom environment where our teachers will be responsible for understanding all of the areas that students are taught," said Fitzgerald.
STEM fields are science, engineering, mathematics and technology focused areas.
This teaching model is geared towards assuring that students are highly competitive candidates once they are a part of the college applicant pool in the future.
All students begin on the same educational tract within the first two years at the academy. Upon their junior year, students are asked to focus career goals and choose a specific path to focus more attention on. During students' last two years, they will engage in internships, job shadowing, mentorships, and networking opportunities with community businesses.
Fitzgerald states, "Our focus is how do we expose students to a variety of career options that are available to them in this region, so that when they graduate, if they choose not to go to college, they have some relevant skills that they can use in the real world."
