A Community-Connected School 

Some people think New Village Academy is only for Annapolis students. In fact, we are open to any student in the whole county.  BUT we are focused on the City of Annapolis as our classroom because it is the PERFECT place for students to be able to engage and have a real impact.  It is small enough that our school can have a real impact and build strong partnerships with the city government,  the hospital, and the hundreds of businesses and non-profits that serve our community.  But  Annapolis is big enough to have public transportation for student access, and to have difficult city challenges – like gun violence and affordable housing shortages – that impact families every day and need youth input for viable solutions.  It has the environmental opportunities and challenges of being on the Chesapeake Bay.  And Annapolis has THREE levels of government (City, County, and State) so students can see firsthand how decisions are made.  

Not an Add-On – It’s our Curriculum!

How will students leverage these great city-based opportunities if they are in school all day?  Using the City as our classroom means that we AREN’T in school all day!  Every afternoon, students apply the academic standards to real world issues in Community Action Projects –  learning by doing purpose-driven research, experimentation, and advocacy in partnership with community experts.  Fieldtrips will be frequent (using city buses!) and professional experts will come to school to work with our Community Action Teams.  You can see an example in this video from a middle school in Maine. 

Internships and Apprenticeships

And of course, once they have shown readiness for “showing up”  responsibly in an adult workplace, every student spends all day on Wednesdays (and some on Fridays too!)  in an internship or paid apprenticeship, learning what it takes to work in a field of their interest and conducting an independent project that contributes to their learning AND to the business or organization where they are interning.  Here’s a video about internships at a Big Picture Learning  “sister school” in Nashville.