College, Career, and Life Readiness
It is our belief that it is never too early to prepare children for the future, so as a creative team (admin, teachers, staff and other community stakeholders), we facilitate the college, career and citizenship readiness beginning the very first day of kindergarten. As written in our vision framework, we believe that is it essential to equip learners for their future by providing them a learning environment through a personalized education where students become collaborators, critical and creative thinkers, and communicators. Learners are invested in their own learning path.
We believe learning goes beyond the four walls of school, into the community and that to best prepare our learners, it is important we create an educational experience to mirror the real world. We believe the development of communication skills through unique community partnerships provides students opportunities to learn transferable skills for college, career, and life readiness. Examples include first graders working with health experts to create a health calendar for the Liberty community (online), second graders creating a butterfly garden from neglected memorial garden in our community, third graders addressing the global water crisis by hosting a silent auction, fourth grader proposing design ideas for an empty building to revitalize Liberty Square, and fifth graders hosting an Empty Bowls evening to raise awareness about hunger in Clay County.
As we navigate through the 21st century, there is an incredible sense of urgency to foster a culture of leaders who will continue developing our complex world. It is our responsibility and obligation to teach students the acquisition process of developing new ideas and redesigning existing ideas. We believe it is essential to empower creativity, equip learners and engage communities. We seek to develop and sustain a dynamic innovative culture for all those part of our EPiC journey. We are preparing learners for jobs not yet created and for an unknown future. If we build on the pillars of P21 skills, we are developing transferable skills that would be helpful in any industry. If we build on the strength of learners, we can help them apply their learning in any situation as they navigate an unknown future. And as we cultivate these skills and confidence within students, they will have the foresight and thought to help transform the world.
Our success as a school is built upon the foundation of engaging key stakeholders, both in and outside the organization, and authentic processes that constructed the components of our building and learning environment. It is essential we continue to include these stakeholders in our conversations and work and share our story freely across all leaders and stakeholder groups.
“People driven by pursuit that push them on the edges are often not on the periphery, but on the frontier, testing the limits of what it is possible to withstand and discover.” - Sarah Lewis
