Spartan Stories

List of 3 items.

• June 2022: Preparing for the Unknown: How the IB PYP Cultivates Leaders of Tomorrow

  Preparing for the Unknown: How the IB PYP Cultivates Leaders of Tomorrow

  By: Communications Office 
  
  

  With great pleasure and pride, Harrisburg Academy is proud to announce we received word from the International Baccalaureate Organization that we are now a fully-authorized Primary Years Programme School!

   

  Achieving full authorization is a crucial milestone for not only current Academy students, but for those who will start their educational journey with us in years to come. The International Baccalaureate Program is widely considered the world’s premier academic curriculum. This program is taught in 5,000 schools around the world in over 150 countries. The International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) for children ages 3-12 uses inquiry to allow students to think for themselves. The unique framework challenges students to take responsibility for their learning as they explore local and global issues and opportunities in real life contexts. Additionally, all IB programs foster a joy in learning, and are preparing students to succeed by fostering skills that will assist our students, regardless of how the world and technology change before they enter the work force.
  
  

  Okay, we’ll admit, that seems like an awful lot, and you might be wondering how our curriculum does all of these things…But here’s how! Harrisburg Academy has a Programme of Inquiry, which takes the transdisciplinary themes pictured below, and breaks them down into central ideas, related concepts, and lines of inquiry that our faculty use to prepare lessons. Practically speaking, it means our students participate in hands-on lessons that help them make connections.

   

  This year, as part of “How We Organize Ourselves,” our Kindergarten students explored the following central idea: People make decisions in the process of production. As part of this unit of inquiry, our Kindergarten classes enjoyed a special visit from Mrs. Faith Sgagias P’31, ’32, ’34, an owner of Paxtang Grill, which has been in business since 1963. Students were able to ask questions about supply chains, how the restaurant makes a profit, and where our food comes from. Additionally, they visited Paulus Farm Market, learning more about the farm-to-table process. They began growing their own herbs to sell at their Farmer’s Market in May, but little did they know, Mother Nature would have another idea! As their plants failed to thrive, our kindergarten students pivoted to recover those losses through their own ideas, which included selling healthy snacks and lemonade. Above all, Mrs. Weber, one of our teachers, noted that the students made connections with other material, completely unsolicited. In Spanish lessons, they were learning the vocabulary words for different vegetables. To advertise the lettuce they sold, a student made a sign that listed not only the English word, but the word “lechuga” as well!
  
  

  As our first graders dove into their transdisciplinary theme “Sharing the Planet,” they took a field trip to the York County Waste Authority for a tour and to learn about how waste can get recycled and made into electricity. Through this unit, they focused on lines of inquiry such as ways humans harm the environment, the adaptation of animals, and our responsibility towards the environment resulting from shared resources with other people and other living things.
  
  

  As they inquired about the relationships between and the interconnectedness of individuals from civilizations from local and global perspectives, our second graders researched the idea of heroes. Their lessons allowed them to determine what a hero is, biographies of heroes and how they became one, biography writing structure, and ways to take actions to become an everyday hero. To showcase their efforts, our second grade class hosted a Wax Museum featuring historical figures throughout the ages including Frida Kahlo, Beatrix Potter, Neil Armstrong, and more.

   

  This year, our third graders hosted Market Day to conclude their inquiry into “How We Organize Ourselves.” As they prepared for the event, they explored how decision affect the success of a business. Learning about the way people budget and manage money, the impact of marketing choices, and the impact of our business choices, ultimately means exploration of functioning, causation, and responsibility. As they created their own business models and products to sell at the event, our third graders learned practical lessons about markup on good sold, as well as indelible traits taught through unique experiences. In this case…determination to make their business successful and innovative thinking to outsell the competition.

   

  In fourth grade, our students delved into the physical and geographical characteristics of different places and how that impacts everyday life for their States Fair Project. Each project involved extensive research into a U.S. state of their choosing, covering things such as indigenous tribes and territories, environmental patterns, state symbols and traditions, and influential people in the history of the state. Students also designed an ideal living structure to best combat extreme weather in each state, dovetailing into their earlier unit focusing on the central idea that people have a responsibility to predict, prepare, and provide relief efforts for natural disasters.
  
  

  Throughout their time in our Early Childhood and Lower School programs, our students are ultimately preparing for fifth grade where they step into their roles as leaders of the division. As part of the Primary Years Programme, our students must participate in the Exhibition. Under the direction of teacher and mentor consultation, students direct their learning while working in groups to create their own central idea, key concepts, lines of inquiry, and action plans. This year, our students explored health issues (such as diabetes discrimination and the effects of smoking and vaping), childhood issues (such as cultural bullying and childhood trauma), and environmental issues (such as pollution and deforestation). As a bonus, you can view more on their work by visiting this year’s PYPx website!

  
  

  As our students finish the Primary Years Programme and proceed to Middle School and Upper School, the International Baccalaureate Continuum fosters skills that will serve our students long after they leave Harrisburg Academy. The IB Learner Profile ensures our graduates are principled and open-minded, thinking beyond their own goals. As they go on to higher education and ultimately professional environments, Harrisburg Academy alumni are effective communicators who can serve as members of teams. They know how to build action plans to achieve a goal. They are hard-working while also knowing how to prioritize and balance their schedules. Ultimately, they are ready to excel as leaders in whatever the future may hold.

   

  For more information on the Harrisburg Academy’s Primary Years Programme and the unparalleled educational experiences available in our Early Childhood and Lower School, please contact our Office of Admission at 717.763.7811 or by emailing admission@harrisburgacademy.org.

• December 2021: Applying to College Shouldn’t Be On One Person’s Shoulders

  Applying to College Shouldn’t Be On One Person’s Shoulders

  by: Keo Oura Kounlavong-Sabath, Director of College Counseling 

   

  If you’re asked to bring a cake to an important event, do you turn to the family recipe, which has been passed down for generations, and get baking? Do you pull out the box of cake mix and the tub of frosting for your homemade cake recipe? Or do you pick up your cake from the local grocery store? Either way you will have cake, but you can’t deny that the process looks different in each of those scenarios.

   

  Applying to college is a lot like making a cake. There are a lot of ingredients needed and specific directions to follow. Miss a step or exclude an ingredient and the results can be disastrous! But what happens when one ingredient such as SAT or ACT test scores, like nuts in a cake, become optional? Or a pandemic impacts your ability to visit college campuses and participate in activities? How does Harrisburg Academy help you deliver the best college application possible?

   

  Important Ingredients in a College Admission Application

   

  Just like cake recipes, admission applications and their requirements are different for each institution, even more so during COVID. The ingredients list goes something like this:

  •  Application with biographical information (completed through Common Application, Coalition Application, Universal Application, or the college website)
  •  Application fee ($0 - $150.00 per college)
  •  High school transcript
  •  Self-Reported Academic Record (SRAR)
  •  Essay(s)
  •  SAT or ACT scores
  •  School counselor recommendation letter
  •  Teacher recommendation letter

  What is Important to the Colleges (a.k.a. The Cake Judges)

   

  According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling’s (NACAC) 2019 State of College Admission report, the top three items remain grades in all courses, grades in college prep courses, and strength of curriculum.

   

  

  Figure 1: Information from the NACAC Admission Trends Survey on the factors considered when applying to college

   

  What to do about the rest of the important factors given the impact of the pandemic on the whole process? You gather your team and tackle each element creatively. 

   

  Directions

   

  Due to ingredient shortages, like SAT and ACT scores, colleges and universities had to embrace a holistic review of applicants. Even large institutions like Penn State who received 95,999 applications university wide during the 2020-2021 admission cycle have reevaluated their process. They too have become test-optional. What does this mean? Approach your college application like making a tiered cake. Each layer is separate, and distinct, but important to the stability of the entire structure.

   

  The Base

   

  It’s your essay, biographical information, and activities list on the application. This may be the only point in the application process that your voice gets to be heard.

  • Take your time with the essay prompts.
  • Have a couple of trusted reviewers look at your drafts. 
  • Make sure there aren’t too many cooks in the kitchen with you. The essay has to have your tone and voice. 
  • Write to tell your story, not to show how smart you are. 
  • Optional is not really optional. Use every opportunity to tell your story.

  List your activities in the order of importance and with the one you have done the longest first. The Common Application doesn’t give you a lot of words to use in the description section of the activities. Colleges know this, which means use action verbs to list your contributions to your club, activity, or sport. Be direct and get to the point.

   

  Don’t forget the part-time job or taking care of family members such as younger siblings. These two things could be preventing you from participating in sports or school activities and that is okay. Explaining how you spend your time is the focus of the activity section. It is something only you can do accurately.

   

  Second Tier

   

  Your transcript tells part of your story, but it’s the most important part. Being a student is your full-time job and your transcript is your work history. How did you show up to work every day? Were you willing to take on new challenges? Make sure it's accurate and you know the information. A transcript is different from a grade report. Those are snapshots of your work ethic and effort during a school year. You can make adjustments to your study habits and classroom behavior after receiving a report, unlike a transcript which is a final report. Students often forget to explain that dip in grades one year or an atypical grade in a subject. Even the decision to not continue four years in a world language or history class should be explained. Was there a schedule conflict? Did your interests change? You have a section in your application to explain this, take advantage of it. At Harrisburg Academy, your team of teachers and the college counselor help you address those dips and moments of growth in a positive way for your application. We help tell your story of growth as a learner.

   

  Third Tier

   

  Recommendation letters make up the next layer by supporting the information you have presented in the other layers. A good recommendation letter doesn’t just list adjectives and activities, but provides examples to support those words. This is a challenge in public schools where the student to counselor ratio exceeds the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250 students to one school counselor ratio. The national average caseload for a counselor is 424 students. At Harrisburg Academy, during senior year, that ratio is approximately 20 students to one counselor.

   

  Choose a teacher that knows you well both inside and outside the classroom. Having this additional point of contact can help your teacher write a strong letter for you. It’s not always the teacher you got an “A” in their class. Choose wisely, carefully, and early! As a result of small class sizes and the seminar setting found in our classrooms, Academy teachers have specific examples to reference when writing recommendation letters. Knowing our students comes naturally in our classroom settings, but also extends outside of the classroom. They are involved in our school community and often provide a coach’s, advisor’s, or mentor’s perspective about a student.

   

  Frosting the Cake

   

  How do you hold it together and make it look appealing?

   

  Know your deadlines! The process officially opens August 1 of your senior year with the Common Application and Coalition Application’s release of the application for the admission cycle. Guess what? You can set up your account before that date as a junior. Our students do this during the college prep class in the spring semester of eleventh grade.

   

  Apply at least two weeks in advance of your deadline. Did you know you should plan to apply to Penn State by November 1? If your heart is set on Georgia Tech, then it's October 15 if you live out-of-state. Applying to college is about each student developing a plan and timeline to achieve their end goal. At Harrisburg Academy, our college counselor meets with each student and their family, customizing the college application process.

   

  Visit and connect with the colleges anyway you can. Plan to visit the campus over the summer if possible. Virtual visits have also become the new norm. Don’t forget those information sessions and high school visits. By checking your email (don’t forget the spam folder), you can demonstrate your interest.

   

  Extra Touch

   

  At Harrisburg Academy, we add sprinkles on top of our cakes…

   

  Essay questions focused on contributing to an inclusive community are less challenging to write. Our students pull from their International Baccalaureate (IB) experience, specifically the discussion tools learned in the Theory of Knowledge (TOK) course to provide specific examples to support their perspective regarding diversity.

   

  There is one person that sees every layer of the cake; that’s the college counselor. So far this year, the Class of 2022 has written over 170 essays and over 140 of them have been reviewed to make sure that all other layers of the cake reflect and support each student. Students and families are not left alone to navigate the process. They receive help with scheduling application submission dates and  individual support before they click the submit button for each application. We do everything together. We also plan everything out early.

   

  Every teacher recommendation letter is reviewed by the college counselor. That’s 45 individual letters this year! More importantly, the review process confirms that every student is seen in the classroom. The teacher recommendation requesting process is seamless for our students. With a dedicated college counselor to facilitate technical aspects of that process, students can concentrate on other important ingredients of their admission application.  

   

  Partnerships with families in the process don’t start in the fall of senior year. They are expected and encouraged from the beginning of ninth grade. Individual family meetings happen on an annual basis, and not just during course selection time. During the eleventh grade college prep course, parents/guardians are encouraged to submit a personal evaluation of their student to the college counselor. This unique insight becomes invaluable during the college application process. The perspective of parents/guardians allows the college counselor to see the student through a different lens. Students often leave out experiences and accomplishments that they feel are “insignificant” or “just forgot about”. These personal evaluations provide families with the opportunity to contribute to their student’s story. During the eleventh grade family meeting, important factors in the college list are discussed from affordability and distance from home to admission selectivity and academic reputation for a major.

     

  As an IB school, the Creativity, Activity, and Service (CAS) element of the IB curriculum adds additional sprinkles by helping students develop and participate in real-world experiences that align with their passions and interests. Student’s don’t just study what they are interested in, they go out and experience it. These experiences are invaluable during admission interviews and when answering essay prompts as our students can draw from real life experiences—not just refer to something they read about in class.   

   

  Standing out in the applicant pool has become more challenging each year as application numbers increase and the process is impacted by COVID. At Harrisburg Academy, being able to help students assemble their application from start to finish helps them stand out. Together, we help them effectively tell their story as an IB learner, leader, and a person of positive character.

   

  Our International Baccalaureate curriculum develops a different type of learner, one who thinks outside of the box. We make our cakes using a can of soda and a box of cake mix. The combinations are endless and the result represents each individual baker’s experience. 

   

  Baking can be hard work, but in the end, when you follow the recipe, there’s no guessing. With the Academy, you’ll receive the personal focus needed to help you achieve your dreams, despite how the goal posts may be moving as a result of the pandemic. Whose help do you want when making that college application cake?

   

   

• December 2021: How the IB Middle Years Programme Cultivates a Passion for Learning

  How the IB Middle Years Programme Cultivates a Passion for Learning

  by: Heather Mork, Director of Marketing and Communications

   

  Are you a parent or guardian dealing with the academic blues at home? How often have you come home to your Middle or Upper Schooler that just doesn't want to do their homework? If you are searching for an answer to motivate your child, the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP), Harrisburg Academy's curriculum for students in grades six through 10, offers a unique approach to education that will instill habits of life-long learning.
  
  Harrisburg Academy fosters an environment where each child is seen, known, and celebrated. You may read that phrase and think, "That's great, but how?". Our International Baccalaureate Program teaches our students how to think rather than what to think through a student-centered approach to learning, which provides them with skillsets allowing them to pursue their passions, interests, and goals at a deeper level of inquiry.
  
  Design Thinking in the Middle Years Programme

  
  The IB Program is widely know as the world's premier academic curriculum. The Approaches to Learning (ATL) cultivate student agency through developing research skills, critical and creative thinking, communicating effectively, and self-management. For example, MYP design thinking challenges students to think creatively to solve issues, explore the role of design in historical and modern contexts, and to consider personal responsibility when making design decisions and taking action. 
  
  Recently, our ninth grade history teacher posed the question, "What makes a civilization?". Our students learned about civilizations in a historic context by examining the Ancient Greeks and studying the Persian War. Following the initial introduction, students designed their own civilizations, thoughtfully considering social, political, economic, environmental, religious, and military systems that would influence the day-to-day living experiences of citizens.
  
  Harrisburg Academy's ninth graders participated in group projects, creating fictitious civilizations that were tackling problems unique to them. Using their imaginations, one group presented an underwater society suffering as a result of mistreatment of the Earth by humankind. The civilization was collectively re-engineering their living spaces to be further from the ocean floor to avoid rising sea floor temperatures as a result of human pollution.
  
  
  
  Figure 1: A ninth grade group project of an underwater civilization experiencing environmental concerns. 

   

  In this example, this ninth grade group utilized knowledge of historical events, acknowledged an environmental problem (linked to an area of their collective interest), and designed a creative solution to their identified problem.
  
  The Benefits of Design Thinking

   

  According to research, when students gain independence through their own learning, they engage more thoughtfully in content. Student choice has been shown to increase student well-being and satisfaction regarding personal academic performance.
  
  Throughout each year in Harrisburg Academy's program, students are challenged in all subject matters using design thinking and other ATLs. Additionally, at the end of their eighth grade and tenth grade years, students complete capstone projects that they identify as areas they would like to pursue. The culminating projects of our curriculum promote reflection by students on their learning and outcomes of their work, preparing them with tools for self-analysis for the remainder of their educational, and arguably, life journey.
  
  The Community Project at the end of eighth grade facilitates an opportunity for students to pursue service learning. This unique experience allows them to research an area of need within their community that they are interested in, and ultimately, they work to address it in some capacity. For some, this might culminate in direct service, indirect service, advocacy, or research. The Community Project can be completed alone, in pairs, or in groups of three. Examples of Community Projects include one-on-one tutoring, teaching dogs behaviors to prepare them for adoption, or initiating a campaign on local hunger awareness.
  
  The Personal Project takes these concepts to the next level. During tenth grade, students identify an area of their interest and embark on a long-term project which requires them to produce a product or outcome of their own design, create a process journal, and write a report that details the impact of their project based on assessment criteria. These projects are moderated by the International Baccalaureate Program to ensure a global, consistent standard of excellence.
  
  The Personal Projects are oftentimes presented in a "Personal Project Fair," where students and members of the community celebrate learning and the achievements of others. Ultimately, events like this acknowledge and affirm the efforts of each student while also fostering an environment where each student's opinions and interests are known and valued.
  
  Motivation is the Key to Success
  
  Each individual is motivated to learn when something interests them--adults and children alike. Traditional curricular formats that lack a student-centered approach focus on teaching material that students don't absorb if they aren't interested in it. As an adult, you may have experienced that yourself--you may not want to go to a meeting because you aren't particularly interested in the outcome. When you find a professional project you want to do, the process becomes much easier for you because you are motivated to engage.
  
  A child's time in Middle School is often fraught with developmental and socio-emotional challenges. Societally, we often picture preteens and teenagers to be unmotivated, however, the key to their motivation is agency--research shows that this age group specifically longs to demonstrate their worth and their ability to make a difference. Harrisburg Academy's IB Middle Years Programme allow our students to do just that.
  
  
  Figure 2: Harrisburg Academy eighth grade students hone their critical thinking skills by participating in a debate on globalization. They tackled important questions such as, "Do the benefits of globalization outweigh the downsides?" and "Should developing countries be brought into the global market?".

   

  For more information, Harrisburg Academy invites you to attend our IB Open House on December 9 from 6-7 p.m. Registration is available by visiting www.harrisburgacademy.org/open-house!