An Academy that honors you

Based on the success of Summer STEAM, we anticipate Virginia STEAM Academy boarding high school students will reflect diverse profiles. Some will have participated in the nation’s most prestigious enrichment academies like Johns Hopkins’ Center for Talented Youth and Duke’s Talent Identification Program. Others will not. Some will have competed regionally or nationally in MathCounts, Science Olympiad, First Robotics, chess, or piano, to name a few. Others will show interest in after-school robotics, camping, scouts, orchestra or band, sports, theater, and volunteering at their local museum or civic center. Whatever their pursuits, Virginia STEAM Academy boarding high school students will share a hunger for intellectual STEAM challenge, a zeal for STEM and non-STEM clubs, a desire to learn in residential community, leadership potential, and kindness. They will be highly motivated, disciplined, mature, respectful and self-governing. They will have multiple interests beyond STEAM perhaps sports, music, art, and literature… and we will be an Academy that honors and enhances the fullness of their interests.

A curriculum that challenges and nurtures you

Students at the Virginia STEAM Academy will benefit from a rigorous, internationally benchmarked and 21st century curriculum that offers (1) honors and advanced level courses and (2) core and elective classes in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, entrepreneurship and economics, wellness, social science, English, world languages, history, civics, and the arts. There will be opportunities for interdisciplinary study, creative individual study and research, and service both on campus and in students’ home communities.

Virginia STEAM Academy students will have the opportunity to participate in extra curricular activities such as golf, lacrosse, field hockey, tennis, sailing and swimming; and co-curricular activities such as instrumental and vocal music, debate, drama, social service, campus newspaper, campus government and seminars.

Virginia STEAM Academy students will earn a high school diploma and pursue advanced college credits. They will have the opportunity to obtain badges and industrial certification; routinely collaborate with their peers, faculty, and field experts to address real-world challenges; experience sustained apprenticeships with partner organizations in STEAM-related occupations; and produce culminating projects that demonstrate STEAM-related outcomes. In many respects, then, the Virginia STEAM Academy will act much like a university that serves high school students.

Student outcomes will be measured against international benchmarks, innovative business and industry standards, and traditional assessments.