Compass Academy

Hello Friends, Family, and Community Members,

I am reaching out to share with you the work I do as a science teacher in southwest Denver. This will be my third year teaching at Compass Academy and I am excited to continue providing robust experiential learning for our students.

Compass Academy is a bilingual public charter school in Southwest Denver where 98% of students receive free or reduced lunch, 65% of our students are multilingual learners, and 18% of our population are served through our Diverse Learner department supporting their IEPs. It is our belief that all students, regardless of their background deserve meaningful and exciting learning opportunities.

Despite living close to world-class mountains, the large majority of our students have limited experiences with snow and board sports, which we are aiming to change this year by implementing a program called Gone Boarding. Gone Boarding is a cross-curricular program that includes engineering, mathematics, industrial design, marketing, business, and physical education through the lens of project-based learning. Currently, 25 schools across the country have adopted the Gone Boarding program and they are entering their 12th year in classrooms. Compass Academy would be the first Gone Boarding school in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Region.

At Compass Academy, middle school students will be exposed to board design for the first time. Students will design their very own skateboard and snowboard and take their products to the street or mountain for real-life application, through support from the Chill Foundation. Our hope in implementing this program at Compass Academy is to support students through the design process and to be able to apply these skills to future educational experiences and life outside of the classroom. Students will practice the engineering design process by identifying problems, planning solutions, testing their ideas, collecting data, and revising for improvement. This curriculum will continue to support their academic journey for years to come, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Additionally, we are hoping to expose our community to the adventurous world of board sports and provide the gift of learning lifelong skills.

My goal as a future Gone Boarding educator is to share the stoke* with young people and I am asking for your support in doing so. Donations of any amount will go towards curriculum training and access and the workshop materials necessary to provide this learning experience.

If you are interested in donating you can donate here at our GoFundMe page. If you are a business seeking a tax-deductible donation or would like to donate directly to Compass Academy, please reach out to me directly. Should you choose to support our community, we would love to update you on our students’ work via our school Facebook page. Thank you for taking the time to read about our project!

Sincerely,

Mare Rajk

*Share the stoke= share the excitement and exhilaration that comes with adventurous activities like skateboarding and snowboarding.