Student Life
Embracing a Growth Mindset and Instilling Values for Long-Term Success
Character Education
Caring, Respect, Responsibility, and Honesty
Cultivating students of character is a high priority throughout our organization. At the Primary level, students engage in character-building activities in areas of our core values: caring, respect, responsibility, and honesty. As scholars develop and advance, we continue our focus on the core values and add nuances of character development such as self-advocacy, communication, community awareness and engagement, and honoring their heritage.
Students participate in advisory groups—small, teacher-led communities that focus on academic growth and lessons in core values. Students also have Community Circle where they come together as a grade level to apply those core value lessons to their everyday interactions. Peer mentorships are also established at the middle school level, which partner struggling students with positive mentors. All of these efforts contribute to our goal of recognizing our students as individuals and empowering them to take ownership of their development and destiny.
Civic Service Learning
Learn How to Positively Impact Your Community
Foundation Academy’s Service Learning Program begins on day one of high school. We believe when our students are provided with opportunities to serve, they see themselves as change makers in their own community. All students at Foundation Academy Collegiate complete a significant number community service hours in keeping with the school’s expectations over the course of their four years.
Freshmen and sophomores attend community events and are exposed to local volunteer opportunities. During their junior year, students enroll in Civic Service Learning: a project-based learning experience that pushes students to investigate their identity and communities, identify the root causes of issues impacting their community, and develop creative solutions to these problems.
Students collaborate in teams to create thoughtfully-planned service projects, work with community partners, and write grant proposals. Our students pitch their proposed project to a panel of donors and implement their projects with the panel's guidance. Throughout the semester, students engage in deep reflections and develop the tools needed to become ambassadors for justice at our school and within our community.
Athletics
Grit, Teamwork, and School Pride
Student athletes are students first. When their academics are in good standing, students have the opportunity to join numerous teams that our organization offers—both on-site and through city partnerships. In our athletics program, we emphasize that healthy competition is a good thing: it fosters sportsmanship, grit, teamwork, and school pride.
We offer middle school boys & girls soccer, boys & girls basketball, and cheerleading. We also have high school boys & girls soccer teams, cheerleading, boys basketball, and girls volleyball. We partner with Trenton Public Schools for track, wrestling, and football, and over the summer, students can participate in tennis through our partnership with the New Jersey Tennis League.
Socials & Trips
Work Hard, Play Hard
Our students work hard every single day. When we think about enhancing their enrichment outside of the classroom, we seek ways to broaden their experiences within and beyond Trenton’s city limits through intentional experiences.
We focus on enhancing learning with exposure to other settings such as Broadway musicals, the Franklin Institute, college tours, Medieval Times, and, in some cases, trips to other states or even abroad. We also want our students to have chances to unwind and just be kids. Socials, dances, bowling, and snow-tubing are just a few examples of how our students have fun throughout the year.