Last week, SA 8th graders who applied to a district high school received their placement offers. It reminded me of when my daughter was deciding where to go for high school. Ultimately, she chose to stay at SA, and she is now in 11th grade, with a great group of friends both new and old, a high GPA, close relationships with teachers and deans, and a passion for track in which she excels. Neither she nor I have ever regretted her decision to stay at SA.

Before the curtains part to reveal the opening act of SA HSLA’s production of In the Heights, a huddle of scholars are quietly dimming the lights, troubleshooting the sound, and pulling aside lead actors, reminding them to project their lines. They are the tech crew, and they are the behind-the-scenes hands and hearts of SA HSLA’s plays and musicals.

Is a specialized high school the best option? Should I stay or go, is what many kids are asking themselves. In the case of Idalis Antonia Soto and Cana Iinuma, two SA scholars who were accepted to Brooklyn Tech last year, the answer was to stay. They’re now in the spring of their freshman year at Success Academy High School of the Liberal Arts, and agreed to share how they came to their decisions and what they’re enjoying so far about this first year at SA HSLA.

Three of SA HSLA’s most promising debaters flew to Emory University in Atlanta recently to compete in the Barkley Forum. Extremely selective, the Barkley Forum admits only two or three competitors from schools with strong speech and debate programs each year. This year, juniors Tajaih Robinson and Bintou Cisse, as well as sophomore Silma Bathily, made their way down South to test their prowess against the nation’s top debaters.

Success Academy debaters and athletes competed in some major tournaments this January, marking several significant milestones for our programs. We’re excited to share the news about these incredible accomplishments!

It seems like just yesterday that we waved the founding class of SA graduates off to college, but they’ve already completed their first semester of freshman year! Recently, several of our graduates returned to SA High School of the Liberal Arts for an inaugural reunion. Members of the Class of 2022 shared pizza, cookies, and […]

When Success Academy 10th graders Ebrahim Jaiteh and Kiera Toussaint first arrived at the Loomis Chaffee boarding school campus, they were slightly shocked by the sound of silence — and the number of trees. The setting, so unlike the noisy bustling streets of where they grew up, would be the first of many differences that […]

What do track and field runners at Duke, Stanford, and Georgetown have in common? They are all members of some of the most competitive collegiate teams in the nation — and they all have to balance intense training with rigorous academic workloads. Success Academy coach Ozzie Henderson thinks he has the next big star for top collegiate programs like these — someone who thrives both on the track and in the classroom: sophomore Ronn’e Bailey.

If you do the math, factoring in what the WNYC data showed about attrition for elementary, middle, and high school grades, a hypothetical group of 72 first-graders at a typical district school serving kids through Grade 12 would be expected to have about 11 students remaining by the time they were ready to graduate. Compare that to the Success total: 23 students remaining, 16 of them graduating seniors.

On Thursday, June 7, our very first class of high school seniors graduated at the stunning Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, 100% of them college-bound, many with full scholarships.

On the last weekend of April, two of our high school debaters, sophomore Tajaih Robinson and senior Aida Bathily, travelled to Kentucky to compete in the Tournament of Champions, the most competitive debate tournament in the country. Both of them reached the quarter finals of the Lincoln Douglas (LD) section, placing sixth and seventh respectively out of 88 top debaters from across the country.

This week, our trailblazing high school seniors were featured in the first of a two-part Wall Street Journal article examining our high school model (which you can learn more about by taking the high school virtual tour!).

During this year’s New York State Chess Championships, spectators likely saw a sea of Success Academy blue and orange: about one in eight competitors at the event was an SA scholar, with 135 participants representing 14 Success Academy schools.

42 middle school scholars and 14 high schoolers from Success Academy competed in the 44th Annual Harvard National Forensics Tournament, where they faced hundreds of top-ranked debaters from around the country in policy debate. The tournament concluded with 36 wins for SA’s 19 middle school teams at the high school tournament. Our high schoolers performed exceptionally well — with SA High School of the Liberal Arts senior Sekou Cisse winning the Lincoln-Douglas division and his peers senior Aida Bathily and sophomore Tajaih Robinson making it to the quarterfinals and earning a trip to the Tournament of Champions in April!

This past weekend, fifteen Success Academy scholars boarded a plane to Atlanta, Georgia, to participate in one of the most competitive track meets of the indoor track and field season: the Dunamis Super Meet. We’re so pleased and proud of how our scholars performed, especially given their youth and relative inexperience!

This November, Imani Johnson and her classmates from SA High School of the Liberal Arts were invited to visit a home in Derbyshire, England. Step inside their journey to England and find out more about our experience at Chatsworth House!

As families and staff head off to relax and celebrate the holidays, I want to share some thrilling news from the high school. Over the past week, our founding senior class heard back from many of their early action and decision applications. I’m proud to report that 14 of the 17 seniors have already earned an admissions offer, with 23 acceptances overall!

Last week, 35 scholars from across the Success Academy network traveled to Orlando, Florida for some sunshine — and chess! Competing in the prestigious National K-12 Grade Championships, Success Academy improved from last year’s already stellar performance at both the individual and the team levels.

A group of middle schoolers might not be the obvious choice to turn to for advice on time management, cultivating a strong work ethic, and investing in your passions — but you’d be remiss to skip over our scholars. They might be young, but my 5th – 8th graders are incredibly hard-working, intelligent, and invested […]

Many people understand that you need strong scores to get into elite colleges, but they don’t realize how much our education system is flawed — that it often stacks the odds against minority students. So the top score isn’t always what’s the most important. Together, my class and I achieved an average score that was far above the rest of the country’s. It wasn’t just me who took part in this achievement — it was all of us.

One of our scholars was selected as one of just 80 participants (out of 2,400 applicants) for the prestigious Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science (MITES) program at MIT. High School of the Liberal Arts Principal Andy Malone shares two emails from the scholar recounting this truly special experience.

In July, Success Academy Scholar Autumn Swepson traveled to Ireland with Putney Student Travel: Writing in Ireland. This unique travel experience brought together carefully selected student writers to explore the literary roots and storytelling traditions of Ireland, all while improving their own craft.

Success Academy sent HSLA world history teacher Natasha Venner to the prestigious Gilder Lehrman Teaching Seminar at Oxford University this summer. History at Success is all about active engagement and using a rich variety of texts and techniques. The seminar was an incredible chance for her to bolster her skills and spark new ideas for the fall.

Current and former Merrill Lynch interns offer inside looks at their experience, while another Success Academy student shares what he learned interning with 300 Entertainment.