In English Language Arts class, the students at The Academy are working on creating a Literary Magazine for Compass Rose. For this project, students must develop a concept for a campus literary magazine and then create a presentation covering things such as aesthetic, layout, publishing model, and production costs. Students have brainstormed ideas such as newsletters, magazines, and literary collections featuring students’ works. This project will culminate with a capstone project in which they present their idea to a formal audience. They will pitch their idea to the Academic Director who will determine which Literary Magazine ideas are feasible to reproduce and distribute to the Compass Rose community. 

One of the groups is proposing an idea for their team to create and publish a school yearbook. They intend to integrate Compass Rose Academy’s Growth Model of care into aspects of the yearbook through visuals, photographs of students living out our model, etc. They have developed a publication timeline, a design layout for each page, and the price of publication. 

“I’ve learned a lot about what it actually takes to make something a ‘real’ thing. In some ways, making the magazine was kind of like being an entrepreneur. We had to think about all of the little things, not just the pretty layout and design. We had to look into publishing and make sure that websites we wanted to use were compatible with the technology we’re using,” said a current CRA student.

The students working on this project have gained valuable experience with composition, editing, project management, budgeting, and group collaboration. These are highly sought after, real-world skills that employers are looking for. This is one example of how The Academy’s Project Based Learning model of instruction aims to prepare students for their next academic pursuit — whether that be continuing high school, going on to college, or entering the workforce.