May 31, 2024 | Dan Weidmann
Career Connected Learning: Innovating Education at Doral Academy
Doral Academy’s career-connected learning initiatives stand out for their unique approach to integrating real-world applications into the classroom. This transformative method prepares students for future careers through hands-on, engaging experiences, which was evident during a recent visit by the Find Your Grind team.
Doral Academy, a member of the Academica Charter Network, educates over 4,000 students in grades 6-12. In 2023, the Doral embarked on a three-year partnership with Find Your Grind (FYG) to introduce our curriculum to all 7th and 8th graders. This initiative aims to ignite personalized learning, enhance career exposure, and help students explore lifestyles that resonate with their interests, boosting engagement and motivation.
“What I like is that I was able to find out more stuff about me that I didn’t think about or that I didn’t think I would need. Like, for example, the lifestyle quiz at the beginning… it made me think about the career I want actually fits with who I am.”
– Doral Academy Student
Recently, the Find Your Grind team visited two classrooms at Doral Academy to evaluate the program’s impact. It was inspiring to hear how the curriculum has been instrumental in helping students understand the diverse career pathways available to them and in guiding them to select the most appropriate courses at Doral Academy to pursue their goals.
“I really liked that you can elaborate on two different things with it. Because when you take the quiz in the beginning, you’ll learn about different skills that you didn’t know you had before… I first got something to do with medicine. And then it gave me different skills, like a marine biologist, a doctor, and I was able to learn more about that.”
– Doral Academy Student
Following these discussions, our team was given a tour of the educational opportunities at the school. Here are our top three takeaways:
Esports and Interdisciplinary Content Creation: Doral Academy’s Esports class is breaking new ground by creating content that enhances learning in other subjects. For example, students are developing a biology VR game, merging gaming with scientific concepts to make learning more interactive and fun.
STEM and Robotics: Classes at Doral Academy are not just about theoretical learning. They are about solving real-world problems in innovative ways. For instance, students design drones specifically for window washing, demonstrating their engineering prowess. They are also developing robots to aid in disaster situations, such as locating people trapped under debris and creating AI scanners to detect vaping, addressing a pressing health concern in schools.
Entrepreneurial Ventures with Technology: Creativity and technology converge in projects like the Coffee Bot, a student-built robot serving coffee, and the creation of a cryptocurrency. Students have developed a coin used to purchase items from the school store, introducing them to digital finance and blockchain technology.
Doral Academy’s commitment to career-connected learning ensures that students acquire academic knowledge and gain valuable skills and experiences that will serve them well in their future careers. Find Your Grind is proud to be part of the educational instruction at Doral Academy. Together, we are preparing the next generation of entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders through innovative programming.
Doral Academy’s Success with Find Your Grind in 2023-2024:
- 900+ students and two educators
- 140,000+ Future Ready learning activities completed
- 34% increase in student’s Future Readiness across their self, social, career, and action awareness
- Top Lifestyles: Competitor, Entertainer, Connector
Students combined to explore over 4,000 careers, learn from 1100 mentors, discover over 1700 skills, and complete 36,000+ self-reflection prompts
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