After School Activities
The Philadelphia Youth Chess Challenge:
Chess Club
After School Activities Partnership: The Philadelphia Youth Chess Challenge allowed students of our PVA Chess Club to participate in 20 free chess events 2014-15 school year alone. Our Chess Club organizer was our PVA Student Ambassador, Jacob Simmons (See his blog posts here). In 2015-16 school year, we will be expanding our programming to include both a Scrabble and Drama Club.
The Yearbook Club
2014-15 school year is the first year to launch The Yearbook Club. Similar to the Chess Club, The Yearbook Club is another extra curricular program where it provides ways for students to interact with the school. We hope that we can expand the committee in 2015-16 school year and add new exciting content. (To purchase or view 2014-2015 Yearbook, click here)
Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts:
Art Outreach
Our Art Outreach program expanded in 2014 and it brings a much needed “hands-on” art experience to our Virtual students through 6 unique one-day art engagement events. Under the direction of the Art Educators from PaFA, PVA students created books, collages and their own custom made prints. Each outreach event was partnered with a subsequent tour of the PaFA museum the following week to allow student’s a break from their laptops. (View one of their many events here)
Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts:
Student Docent Program
In 2014-15 school year, we also launched our Student Docent program through PaFA. It allowed a small group of our Juniors and Seniors to attend a special 6 week training program at the museum. In this program, our students learned all the necessary leadership, public speaking and group engagement skills necessary to lead group tours throughout the Art Museum. This program culminated our Student Docents group to lead a group of PVA middle school students on a 45-minute museum tour.
Opera Philadelphia:
The Sounds of Learning Program
The Sounds of Learning program provided a unique educational experience for a select group of our students in all the unique aspects of the Opera as an art form. PVA students completed a 6-week long workshop course that culminated in a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Don Carlo.” In 2015-16 school year, we are planning on expanding our number of performance opportunities for students to attend.
Pennsylvania Ballet Company:
The Accent on Dance Program
The Accent on Dance Program allowed our students to be educated on the beauty of the ballet and attend four dress-rehearsal performances throughout the year. In 2015-2016 school year, we are confident to expand this program to have art educators from the Ballet come to the drop-in centers to provide in-house workshops before some of these performances.
Community College of Philadelphia
CCP held college information sessions throughout the year and spoke to the students about their post graduation expectations offering guidance and support. Next year, we will have students in an Advance at College dual enrollment program in which eligible students will take college level courses through CCP in order to experience a college level environment. Successful students will be receiving credit towards their official college transcript. We also plan on establishing a summer Upward Bound cohort for SY 2015-16
Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance:
The Stamp Pass Program
The Stamp Pass Program once again allowed our students free access to 15 museums and attractions throughout the city in order to add culture to their menu of leisure activities. In 2014-2015 school year, we had STAMP representatives at our beginning of the year orientation sessions in order to register current and incoming students on the spot and to speak to students about incredible cultural and art experiences available to them here in Philadelphia.
SAT Study Group
Our very own Teaching Advisor Ms. Nadira Presley created an SAT Study Program to help students prepare for their upcoming college admittance exams. The program provided each student with Princeton Review’s “Cracking the SAT” book that contains 5 full length practice tests and provides proven test taking strategies.
Study Buddy Tutoring
PVA once again partnered with the Study Buddy Tutoring Program to offer every student at PVA his or her own one-to-one student tutor for homework help. Each student receives their own login to the access their powerful online homework help program that responds to our students needs through peer to peer learning. Through this program our students are able to get online homework assistance 7 days a week, Sunday-Thursday 3:30-12PM, Friday from 3:30-9PM and Saturday 1-3PM.
iCouldBe Mentoring Program 2015-16
We are pleased to announce that we have created an online mentoring opportunity through a partnership with the iCouldBe program. This one-to-one e-mentoring program that is fully online and through community based partnerships will provide our sophomore students with a mentor to help them work through a program to develop academic, college and career goals.
We also host Prom, Senior Mixer, Graduation ceremony, Senior Portrait, 8th Grade Move Up Day, many more exciting events!