Tag: learning differences

Largest Class Graduates with Gratitude

Graduations are always exciting. Graduating five seniors who have shown incredible growth and achievement in their years at Sophia is extra special. Seniors are moving on the college, trade school, and into jobs.

Our salutatorian had this to say on graduation day: “Sophia Academy helped us realize we have more potential that we had thought when we were younger.” He confessed that when the class came together in 9th grade, they had not always liked each other, but through the kindness of both teachers and other students, along with an encouragement to share vulnerabilities, this class formed a tight bond with each other. He also expressed gratitude on behalf of his fellow classmates for the patience of the faculty, the safe space that Sophia provided, the acceptance each student felt, and the educational help given to each.

Our valedictorian shared that for her, the “future is a collection of our hopes and dreams [that have been] slowly blossoming . . .the seed that we’ve planted throughout our time at Sophia.” She reminded her fellow classmates that no matter where each student goes, God has already gone before them and knows their future. She concluded by encouraging them all to keep planting, keep growing, and to embrace all there is to love and to fight for.

Community Changes Lives

Four years ago, four scared fourteen-year-olds arrived at Sophia Academy. They didn’t know each other and they didn’t trust each other. “Play nice,” their science teacher kept telling them. That first year, we had meltdowns and tears, anger and frustrations along with laughter and kindness, calm and encouragement. At some point the four became five and at another point five individuals became a cohesive, warm-hearted and tight-knit group of friends who supported each other, listened to each other, and cheered each other on academically. In their senior year, we found them discussing Physics together, teaching each other concepts. We saw them using skills learned in both Executive Function class and Social-Emotional Learning to navigate relationships. We heard them advocating for themselves when the content of a class made them uncomfortable, and then pushing through the discomfort to find meaning.

What made the difference? Honestly, a combination of warm-hearted teachers who believed that each student had great potential along with the student’s own growing maturity, prayers of family and faculty along with the students’ own perserverence have all played a part in changing struggling young teens into confident young adults.

The senior class of 2025 will be attending college, trade school, and entering the work force. We are so proud of who they have become and look forward to hearing of their successes in the future.

Cooking With Garbage

Sophia students participate ever year in the Philly Service Award project. This year, students in STEM classes are building –from scratch–a methane digester that can be used as an outdoor lamp or stove. It will be powered completely by organic trash. Anyone living in a city knows that there is usually plenty of trash to be found. Students have gone into the neighborhood multiple times to pick up trash, thus meeting two needs at once: beautifying the school’s neighborhood and securing a stash of free fuel for the methane digester. Win-win. Just another way for Sophia Academy students to use all their senses and abilities to learn.

More Hands-on Opportunities

(JR intubating a “patient” prior to surgery)

The annual Minorities in Health Sciences Symposium, held at Esperanza College of Eastern University, provided students from Sophia Academy and numerous other high schools in Philadelphia with the opportunity to explore the many varied options in the health sciences field.

Morning speakers passed on great nuggets of information. What do our students remember?

–That when you feel a panic attack coming on, placing your right hand firmly over your chest will simulate the feeling of a hug. That four hugs a day are necessary for life, eight are necessary for growth, and a minimum of twelve hugs each day are necessary to thrive.

–That Jefferson Hospital and Esperanza College have a PACE program which gives students full-time jobs at Jefferson while they take pre-nursing or pre-med courses at Esperanza. And that Jefferson provides scholarships for tuition in addition to the jobs. Win-win.

–That there are many ways to the future and everyone can take the path that works best for them.

The afternoon sessions were completely hands-on as students could choose between dissection, virtual reality, healthy cooking, extracting DNA and much more. Our students compared healthy and diseased retinas under microscopes, used VR to rescue victims of a car crash, handled real human brains with the eyes still attached, and practiced forcing the brain and eye to work together while looking in a mirror to draw a star. Now, that was hard!

Welcoming New Teachers

For a school dedicated to awakening genius through creative discovery, it is important to find teachers who have caught the vision and love being pushed to be their best. Our new teachers this year fit the bill. Let us introduce Ms. Melody Heath (Temple U), new teacher of science and math, Mr. Aaron Vander-Collins (Liberty U, Rutgers), our new teacher of music.], and Mr. Jabarr Graves (Chatham U) new teacher of art.