On Wednesday, October 11th, sophomores were inducted into their respective academies. Not one of the four academies throughout RPS schools are the same. Each educates students in different ways to point them in the right direction after graduation. With games, speakers, and the introduction of all the academy teachers, sophomore students should get a pretty good idea of who they’ll be working with in their classes and get a better understanding of what their pathway is all about.

   The health academy is all about learning how our body works, and maintaining a proper mental and physical state. Students were exposed to a presentation and learned about what is in store for their pathway going forward into their upcoming years.

   “The health industy is one of the largest in the world, and will pretty much always have open positions,” said Johnny Spiritosanto, sophomore.

   The business academy has the largest student body, educating students on business, entrepreneurship, and economic concepts. The business academy took a new, more creative approach to their induction activity. Students were paired into groups and given a letter from the word “business” to design, which will be made into two stickers and distributed to students later this year.

   “Our group did the letter N,” said Cashin Tokarz, sophomore. “We had to get creative and designed the N using the business academy t-shirts we were given when we walked in.”

   These letters were compiled, and sixteen of the thirty-seven submissions were selected to be used in the sticker.
  “The activity was meant to represent branding in business,” said Mrs. Sherri Ferguson, business academy principal. “In business, it is important to incorporate brands and logos to increase the visibility of a business. Making your business stand out is one of the things that helps it become successful and could be the difference between success and failure.”

   The production academy teaches students about building, engineering, and innovation. This year, the production academy introduced kids to tools and a few activities that allowed students to engage with making something, utilizing these tools.

   “Doing stuff relating to construction was interesting,” said Ryan Maher, sophomore. “The aspect of teamwork felt really important during our activities.”
  The service academy centered their induction around teamwork with a teambuilding exercise. The service academy educates students on a wide variety of public services among its three different pathways including hospitality, education, and public safety. Students used PVC pipe to roll a golf ball from a starting point to a finish bucket. After the ball had rolled through their half of the pipe, students had to act quickly and set up on the other side of the chain to keep the ball rolling.

   “I feel like it built teamwork and allowed me to meet some new people,” said Hannah King, sophomore. “Learning how to work with others is important in really any field of work in the real world.”

   This activity of building teamwork is applicable to all pathways within the service academy, and also allowed students to interact with others they may not have otherwise met or spoken to.

   Academy inductions allow sophomores to feel welcome in their new academy and get to know their new pool of fellow students, teachers, counselors, and staff.

   “Teamwork makes the dream work!” said Mrs. Ferguson. “Creating, designing, and then executing ideas to create a final product within a limited amount of time is part of what successful businesses do every day.”