• What are Parkside Academies?

    The Academy program is an afterschool enrichment opportunity focused around our FOUR PILLARS; STEM, Social Emotional Learning, Leadership, and Career Exploration. All Academies are hands-on, highly engaging, and free to our students. All students in grades kindergarten through 5th grade have the opportunity to attend.

    Academies meet 1-2 days a week after school, Monday through Friday, depending on the program. Students can participate in multiple Academies throughout the year.  Students start Academies after school at 2:50 p.m. with a free hot meal and are dismissed for the day at 4:20 p.m. 

    Afterschool Academies are a chance for students to expand on and put into practice the skills they learn during the regular school day. Activities can include launching film canister rockets while controlling multiple variables (Physics Academy), maintaining a garden where students plant, care for, and harvest a variety of plants (Environmental Academy), to building a life sized functional get-a-way car for Little Red Riding Hood using building equipment (Rigamajig Academy). 

    All of our Academies have been created by Parkside teachers for Parkside students.

    Why we need Academies

    Many of our students go home to houses without an adult there waiting for them. Food insecurity is wide spread; for some of our students, the majority of their meals come from school.  Each day that we can get our students to stay afterschool, it is an opportunity to feed them, for them to be surrounded by adults who love them, all while they continue to learn, grow, and explore. 

    Impact

    Academies are designed to be flexible, based on student and teacher needs and interests. Last year, our Academies impacted more than 350 students. Most attended multiple sessions, some came to ALL sessions! That is more than half of our students who stayed after school a few days a week throughout the school year.

    What Parkside Academies are not?

    Academies are not:

    • Sit and get

    • Worksheet based

    • Babysitting

    • Fee based

    • Like any other afterschool program offered in the Collier County