Lee’s Summit’s High-Tech High School Enhances Education
education, high schools, lees summit, public schools, school district, summit technology academy, technology,
In a lot of cities, a “high-tech” education means the chance to play games in the school computer lab once a week. Not so in Lee’s Summit.
Juniors and seniors from 18 area high schools have the opportunity to get a jump on college and their careers at Summit Technology Academy, a pre-professional program that augments standard high school curriculum.
Roughly 275 students spend a couple of hours during their school day at Summit, participating in one of 10 programs that range from engineering and digital media technology to biomedical science and pre-nursing.
The R-7 School District was recently ranked seventh best in the nation, largely due to students’ access to Summit, many believe.
The 10-year-old academy’s newest program is the Summit International Studies Academy, which prepares students for careers with global impact by focusing on business and economics, world cultures and foreign language training. Students are organized into teams that operate as functional international consulting firms that work with a variety of local companies on multicultural business issues.
“We’re a pre-professional learning environment, and we challenge each student to a 21st-century global experience,” says David Sharp, director of the academy. “The biggest piece of what we do out here is try to emulate real-world business environment.”
The program just received a $75,000 grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation that will fund video-conferencing equipment, webcasting software and equipment, an Apple mobile learning lab and digital media creation kit, renovation of classrooms, furniture and supplies.
Professional mentoring relationships are a cornerstone of the program, giving students real-world work experience and career-specific advice before they even graduate. Students in the engineering program, for example, worked completely independently to design a recycling facility that the city then constructed.
Approximately 80 to 85 percent of students go on to attend two- or four-year colleges, and the relationships they build in high school often lead to job opportunities.
“What’s great is that a lot of the kids that were in that class and graduated four years ago are now in our hospitals working as nurses,” Sharp says, emphasizing the heavy role that the Lee’s Summit community plays in the program.
The academy opened in 1999 with one class for 26 students. Today, 10 programs serve nearly 300 students.
“I want them to have those personal relationships with real-world, hands-on experience,” Sharp says. “We’re probably the best-kept secret in Lee’s Summit.”
Story by Michaela Jackson
