Student Experience

Personalized learning allows students to co-design their education based on their unique abilities, strengths, skills, preferences, interests, backgrounds, and experiences. Learning at their own pace, students are active agents of their own learning and exercise voice and choice in determining what and how they learn. To aid in achieving the objectives of a personalized education, each student develops a personalized learning plan (PLP). Through personalized learning, AVA creates a self-directed environment for students to learn and grow to their full potential.

Community-based learning (CBL) incorporates meaningful community engagement with course content so that students get real-world experience while earning credit. CBL consists of a variety of strategies designed to engage students in learning at high standards, including community leadership and stewardship, civic education, environmental education, place-based learning, service learning, and work-based learning. Students can choose to take any of these paths throughout their time at Algoma Venture Academy. Through all of these strategies, the community provides the context for learning, students build on what they already know, and their work focuses on addressing the community’s vital conditions.

Project-based learning (PBL) promotes students’ education through active engagement in real-world and personally meaningful projects. Instead of learning content and being tested on it, students are engaging with the material and using it to inform their creation of a product, model, or presentation. This way, students demonstrate their development of skills and understanding of the information in an authentic way. Through this process, students develop in-depth content knowledge, gain skills valuable in today’s workplace and in life, such as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication skills.

• "Many students can’t sit still and want to learn by experiencing and using their hands. I love that the school is actually doing things and not just talking about things."
• "My daughter disappeared and got lost in the other schools. The traditional learning path was not showing her true talents. She is creative and she was being measured by tests. This new path was made for my daughter."
• "I want to make sure my daughter is ready for the real world. They teach you real-world situations rather than the material or specific learning competencies."
• "You cannot hide at Algoma Venture Academy. Each student is expected to not just survive, but to thrive."
• "My daughter hated school until she started at Algoma Venture Academy. She did not feel she belonged. She has been allowed to be her own person. She has agency. She has morphed into a kid that can make her own learning decisions and leads others rather than follows."
• "I do not want to talk my kid into having to go to school. The kids should feel safe and comfortable at school. They get to be true to who they are and learn through their strengths."
• "I love that they can be independent. They can work through their strengths. She gets to take her passions and run with them."
• "My daughter is learning real skills that can be used in EVERYTHING that she does. It is not a memorize and regurgitate. She is learning how to interact with adults and behave as a team."

• "I like that I can learn by actually doing and not just sitting."
• "I think the community link is important because I get to get out of school and learn in the community."
• "I never thought I would enjoy growing plants. Now they are my biggest priority."

• "We have expectations and expected benchmarks. But the STUDENT gets to decide the path to the benchmarks."