It’s not every day that you enter a building bursting with energy and exciting educational enterprise involving students who had long disengaged from traditional school. Some call them drop-outs. Oakmont Education VP Cris Gullacy-Worrel, a former dropout herself, calls them “opportunity youth.”
On average, Oakmont’s first-year enrollees are 18 years old, have been unsuccessful at two previous high schools, and score at the 5th grade level in literacy and numeracy. Compared to their peers in the traditional system, Oakmont students have faced more adverse childhood experiences, have had more contact with the juvenile justice system, and have higher levels of special needs.
But the Oakmont team welcomes these students and accelerates them through an innovative, engaging, 21st Century approach to education that helps break the cycle of failure with a genuine support network, individualized hands-on education and skills-based job training.It’s a brilliant academic model combining an individualized, self-paced program with hands-on work experiences that respond to each student’s particular needs. This allows students to earn their diploma while earning industry credentials in skilled trades, construction and manufacturing, information technology, the retail and hospitality fields, and community health.
It was the second stop of the second Yass Prize Road Show, and it was mind-blowing. There were no cookie-cutter textbooks or teachers lecturing, no standard worksheets or kids zoned out. Instead, students were the drivers of their education.
In one room, students were working with the company Brixilated, using LEGOs to learn the skills of inventory, production, quality, packing, and distribution. Their kits will be sent to Shriners Hospitals internationally, giving student’s significant meaning and purpose behind this project.
In another, students were studying health science and phlebotomy, working towards earning critical certifications to be the next generation of nurses and healthcare professionals.
Another classroom of students wore chef hats and professional aprons, not only learning the safety and basics of culinary arts, but also putting what they are learning into practice every single day in their state-of-the-art kitchen facility – making us a sumptuous lunch, all under award-winning chefs.
And perhaps most exciting was the classroom led by fellow Yass Prize finalist Rapunzl Brian Curcio and Myles Gage, who are partnering with Oakmont’s kids to help them understand smart investing principles and breaking down the ivory tower of Wall Street.
Where traditional schools see – and offer – little or no hope to these students, Oakmont sees exciting opportunities for success and achievement, connecting young men and women to their potential by aligning learning to their unique needs.