Dr. Adam Hartley, superintendent of Fenton Area Public Schools, has received Tech Edvocate’s 2018 Best K-12 School Leader Award. The award, which recognizes outstanding companies, people, and products in educational technology, reflects Hartley’s success in building out GEARUp Academy, a non-traditional high school in Flint that balances an online core curriculum with in-person experiences involving civic engagement and internships with local business partners.
“Learning does not occur in a box or only during daytime hours,” said Hartley whose work with the nonprofit leadership organization, GEARUp2Lead, inspired him to create GEARUp Academy in 2015. “We wanted to create a different type of school to empower young adults to see themselves as change agents at a time when many students feel like failures in the walls built around them in a traditional school structure.”
GEARUp Academy’s unique approach is rooted in emphasizing four components: Growth Mindset, Empathy, Action, and Responsibility (GEAR).
GEARUp Academy serves as a particularly useful option for those who may be otherwise boxed out of a traditional setting, and through collaboration with the Genesee County Court system, some students are also appointed to attend the school as part of juvenile rehabilitation efforts.
While the troubles of Flint have been well documented, Hartley is a firm believer that authentic resilience is attainable in any condition, noting that “You still have students taking showers with bottled water, students who have been exposed to lead in the water; however, at GEARUp Academy we emphasize that your zip-code doesn’t define you, and the barriers the students are up against is what they use to establish the growth mindset and establish empathy with one another.”
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