Avenues New York: Private High School Spotlight

High school is a time for leaps and bounds—both academically and personally. As such, it’s critical to learn in an environment where you are not only challenged and encouraged to pursue your intellectual interests but also given the support to innovate, be creative, and grow in skills like critical thinking, empathy, problem-solving, and confidence. If you’re looking for such an experience—one that delivers rigorous, project-based, and interdisciplinary learning alongside a deep focus on character building and cognitive skills—Avenues New York delivers. From one year old through graduation, Avenues’ students are on a transformative academic and personal journey that enables growth beyond their years and equips them to be leaders and changemakers of the future. Hoping to learn more? Keep reading—we’re covering the ins and outs of Avenues New York in today’s blog.

Note: This is a sponsored post written on behalf of Avenues New York. Our site only partners with high schools that bring significant value to students and deliver excellent educational outcomes. The material in this blog is 100% the genuine opinion of College Transitions. 

What is special about Avenues New York?

As the adolescent mental health crisis intensifies, students are in need—now more than ever—of learning environments that can deliver rigorous, skill-building academics without sacrificing their well-being. Fortunately, since first opening its doors in 2012, Avenues New York has been deeply committed to that objective; it shows in their research-backed approach to education that provides a high level of academic and personal support to students.

What does this look like? For starters, Avenues’ 8:1 student-to-faculty ratio (comparable to Ivy League institutions) combined with their unique curriculum enables Avenues to create truly student-centered learning experiences via a range of electives, project-based courses, and signature programs (more on those below). Moreover, in addition to the academic skills you would expect like reading, writing, discussion, and public speaking, Avenues emphasizes the development of skills like creativity, metacognition, critical thinking, and mental agility, all of which can lead to enhanced executive functioning. As such skills become engrained, students develop an increased capacity to tackle new types of challenges and thus experience a greater level of depth in their academic programs.

If there’s anything absolute about today’s rapidly shifting world, it’s that the most successful students will be those who possess a wide variety of skill sets and are able to operate at a high level of critical thinking and problem-solving without sacrificing their own well-being in the process. Accordingly, Avenues students begin building those skills immediately and consistently throughout their time at the school.

How is Avenues’ curriculum structured?

Upper grades students begin with a foundational set of interdisciplinary courses in English, math, the natural sciences, modern languages (Chinese and Spanish are offered), and the arts. Uniquely, wellness and movement classes are also required through tenth grade.

Choice and freedom increase as students move closer to graduation, with nearly 60 electives offered in all major subject areas as well as visual arts, the social sciences, design & engineering, performing arts, and wellness & movement. For example, students can choose from electives like cosmology, data science, philosophy, ethics, business strategy, anthropology, computer science, ceramics, music theory, journalism…the list goes on. Most importantly, advanced-level courses are available across all major subject areas, preparing students for a wide range of postsecondary endeavors.

In addition to the aforementioned foundational and elective courses, Avenues New York students have four special courses that are integrated into their curriculum. As part of Avenues’ interdisciplinary humanities program, students take one World Course each year that covers global and American history, politics, and social issues. To round out the four-course sequence, all students take Senior Seminar, where they collaborate on a group research project and also spearhead an independent research project.

What are Avenues’ signature academic programs?

In addition to their foundational and elective courses, Avenues New York offers five signature academic programs. All signature programs are in-house developed and selective, designed to provide students with yet another level of personalized, rigorous learning. Let’s dive into each track:

• Avenues Institute for Advanced Mathematics—flexible, exceptionally high-level track that provides college-level immersion into pure and applied mathematics. Guided by expert faculty, students examine mathematical breakthroughs from 17,000 BCE to the present day, incorporating cultural and historical perspectives into their analysis.
• The Avenues Humanities Fellowship—opportunity for juniors and seniors to pursue independent humanities projects while receiving leadership training and mentorship
• The Mastery Learning System—selective course of study for 10-12th graders that allows them to work collaboratively on complex, interdisciplinary projects rather than taking traditional classes
• J-Term—annual learning experiences that enable students to develop new knowledge and skills; may take the form of service projects, study abroad, or campus exchange, among others
• Seedbank—startup incubator for 6-12th graders that offers funding, mentorship, prototype support/opportunities, and funding/pitch meeting preparation

No matter where your passion lies–or how advanced your goals or interests are—there is an Avenues signature program track that is designed to support and challenge you.

What are Avenues’ World Elements?

Throughout all their courses and experiences, students progress through the Avenues World Elements, where they develop academic competencies, hard skills, and soft skills to support them in high school and beyond.

The Avenues World Elements are an extensive set of sixty learning goals and outcomes that span multiple grade levels, and are identical across campuses. They cover Thinking, Character, Well-being, Understanding, Purpose, Interconnectedness, Origins, Nature, Innovation, and Investigation. For example, “Character” elements like confidence, humility, generosity, and trustworthiness are developed both by having a working knowledge of each trait as well as practicing them in leadership and support roles, follow-through on goals and commitments, and interactions with other students.

In addition to the aforementioned Elements, Avenues New York also expects students to engage in a variety of different learning experiences throughout their time at the school. These include:

• Exchange—a form of cooperative discussion
• High-Intensity Practice—Avenues’ method of developing executive function skills
• Immersion—high-quality, intensive language learning experiences
• Inquiry—process through which students expand their knowledge through questioning
• Interdisciplinary Studies—combination of two or more academic disciplines
• Mastery—the formal pursuit of a special interest
• Mentorship—ongoing faculty support & engagement in special initiatives like the Deans Program (more on this below)
• Projects—expose students to the authentic process of problem-solving in the real world
• Service—as part of the curriculum, Upper Grades students often serve as volunteers or interns at local nonprofits or with elected officials/other community leaders
• Study Abroad—includes campus exchange programs and Global Journeys (international experiential learning trips)

What is the community like at Avenues New York?

Avenues strives to foster a diverse and inclusive community that enables students to pursue their passions and interests. Accordingly, students have more than 80 clubs and affinity groups at their fingertips, including those centered on academic interests, social justice, sports, environmental advocacy, music, the fine arts, and robotics, among many others.

For example, in addition to traditional clubs like Model UN and Debate, Avenues offers unique clubs like Arts 4 the Mind (art and mental health), Emergency Medicine Club (offers CPR, AED, and Basic trauma certifications), Financial Literacy Magazine, and The Secret Tea Society (tea sampling club). Don’t see a club you’re interested in? Avenues students are encouraged to create and promote their own clubs in conjunction with a faculty advisor.

Athlete? You’re in luck—Avenues’ has a stellar sports program, with 55% of upper grades students competing on at least one of 17 varsity teams. These include soccer, basketball, lacrosse, tennis, track, fencing, and golf, to name a few.

How are Avenues students supported?

Avenues deans are full-time mentors who take their responsibility to foster social-emotional well-being as well as academic success very seriously. Through Avenues’ deans program, students are assigned one dean in grades 9 and 10 and then another in grades 11 and 12 who guides them through the college admissions process. Moreover, all deans, faculty members, counselors, psychologists, and learning experts at Avenues work together as an integrated team to support each and every student.

What are Avenues’ college admissions highlights?

Over the past eight years, Avenues’ graduates have been admitted into over 200 colleges and universities around the globe. These include highly selective institutions such as NYU (41 students), Northeastern (24), Cornell (21), USC (16), Penn (12), Columbia (12), Parsons School of Design (12), UChicago (11), Stanford (9), Barnard (9), UMich (9), Boston College (9), Brown (7), Wellesley (6), Howard (5), Tufts (5), Duke (4), Harvard (4), WashU (4), and Pomona (3), among many others.

I’m interested in attending Avenues New York. What are my next steps?

If you’re interested in learning more about Avenues, sign up for a virtual or in-person event and reach out to the Avenues admissions team, who can answer questions and help determine if Avenues’ program is the best fit.

Avenues New York — Final Thoughts

At Avenues New York, students benefit from an innovative learning community that is enriched with opportunities for the discovery and pursuit of passions. No matter what your goals are, Avenues’ dedicated faculty goes above and beyond to support you academically, socially, and emotionally as you transform into the type of leader and innovator who is deeply needed in our complicated and ever-changing world.

Looking for additional resources to assist you on your high school journey? If so, you might consider checking out the following:

• 7 Best Places to Study for High School and College Students
• 12 Strategies and Tips to Overcome Test Anxiety
• How to Transfer High Schools
• 11 Life Skills for Teens
• 7 Soft Skills for High School Students
• How to Improve Reading Comprehension
• 10 Ways to Improve Public Speaking Skills
• 100 Examples of Community Service Projects