Career Academy

The first few weeks of the new school year have been a whirlwind for Pat Hawkridge, but she’s looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead as she gets settled in as Atlantis’s new Career Academy Director. This is the first time Atlantis has had a full-time Academy director. In this role, Hawkridge will oversee all aspects of the Career Academies, from the hiring of adjunct instructors and the recruitment of new students, to the curriculum taught in the five Academies and the arranging of senior internships. To do this, she will work closely with the adjuncts and the entire 7-12 [...]

Atlantis Charter School received validation from the State of Massachusetts for the work it has been doing in its innovative Career Academies. The Massachusetts Governor's Office announced that Atlantis is one of four new high schools selected to take part in the Innovation Pathways programs after recently receiving official designation from the state Departments of Elementary and Secondary Education and Higher Education. The Pathways will serve to further grow Atlantis’s Career Academy Program by exposing students to even more in-demand careers. The Pathways include Advanced Manufacturing, Business & Finance, and Healthcare & Social Assistance and will serve 368 students when fully [...]

As the saying goes,  “it takes a village to raise a child” -- and in our case it takes a community to educate one.   Atlantis partners with a variety of organizations to give students the skills and knowledge they need to be successful as adults. Some of these partners are unique to Atlantis, others, like Junior Achievement, support public schools and their students across the country. You may remember Junior Achievement (JA) from when you were a child. The national organization, formed in 1919, serves to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy. Today, Junior Achievement of [...]

Atlantis senior Benjamin Boule has finished his spring internship with BankFive, but he hopes it is not the end of his relationship with the Fall River-based financial institution. Twice a week for the past six weeks, Boule visited the bank’s North Main Street Corporate Office. He shadowed managers in every department, including human resources, marketing, finance, consumer lending, loan servicing, retail operations, the customer call line and the main office/teller lines. “Until a student gets in a work environment, it is hard to imagine or picture oneself in an office atmosphere,” said Deidre Fountain, vice president of human resources at BankFive. [...]

Atlantis STEM instructor Alexzandr Hirschmann was on April vacation when he got the email, but he couldn’t wait for school to return to session to share the news: he was selected as an Excite Award recipient and is a finalist for a $10,000 InvenTeam grant from the Lemelson-MIT Program. Each year, STEM instructors from across the country apply to the Lemelson-MIT Program.  Up to 35 educators are elected to receive an Excite Award based on their ability to lead a yearlong open-ended invention project at their school. Of those 35, only up to 15 will receive a grant. “I am honored [...]

Two times a week, seniors in Atlantis’s Career Academies pack up their belongings and head off to their spring internships. Atlantis staff spent months lining up internships of interest to seniors, as well as rides for those students who need transportation.  Many of the internships are in Fall River and adjoining communities, but one aspiring engineer travels to Cranston, Rhode Island each week to intern at a casting company. Internship placements include the Business and Innovation Center, South Coast Autism Center, Kids Dental Care, Chase Farm Veterinary Hospital, and BankFive.  Students in the Teacher Development Academy stay on campus, working at [...]

Students talk to representatives from local businesses and colleges The 2nd Annual Atlantis Career and College Exposition returned to the UMass Dartmouth Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), bigger and better than the first. Students in grades 7 to 10 traveled to the UMass campus on January 30 to learn more about the colleges and careers on which Atlantis has modeled its Career Academies. Like last year, there was a guidance room where students heard from counselors and adjuncts about Atlantis’s Career Academy model and a career room where students had the opportunity to meet with representatives from local [...]

Atlantis had the opportunity to showcase its Career Academies during a recent visit by State education leaders. Gathered around the large table in the STEM classroom, administrators, adjunct instructors, and partners from local businesses and higher education institutions held a roundtable discussion with Shailah Stewart and Jennifer Gwatkin from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Stewart talked about the State’s new Innovation Pathways initiative which is designed to introduce students to high-demand industries, such as IT, engineering, healthcare, life sciences and advanced manufacturing through coursework and internship experiences.  The idea is to expose students to career options and [...]

Inside Atlantis Charter High School, students are charting pathways to college and career success. They are learning skills that are highly sought-after in today's workforce. Juniors and seniors at Atlantis study in one of five innovative Career Academies: STEM; Health, Med-Tech and Sports Medicine; Arts, Culture & Design; Business and Entrepreneurship; and Teacher Development. The last one may come as a surprise, but it should not. The world will always need great teachers, but this country is facing a critical teacher shortage. "Unfortunately, in many parts of the country there isn’t a strong financial incentive to become a teacher. Young people [...]

Alekzandr Hirschmann joins Atlantis after a nearly 30-year career in the corporate world. He has experience in operations, sales & marketing and management, eventually becoming CEO of a multi-million dollar manufacturing company with customers around the globe. He will lead the STEM Academy classes for 11th and 12th grade students this year. When not teaching at Atlantis, he serves as a business advisor and coaches entrepreneurs on all aspects of their businesses. Why did you decide to start teaching at this point in your career? Atlantis approached me with this amazing opportunity. While I am new to the academic profession, I [...]