Renewed for Knowledge in the Image of the Creator
The newly chartered St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy, located in the vibrant and culturally diverse neighborhood in Astoria, is proud to be opening its doors to Learn, Serve, Lead, and Succeed during this 2017-18 academic year.
The academy is deeply motivated to exist in a caring community that is firmly committed to its mission of developing a way of life rooted in Christ and a Catholic vision that provides inspiration and identity to all its members.
This desire has led the academy partners to choose and embrace the chosen 2017-18 theme ~ to Put on the New Self, which is being Renewed for Knowledge in the Image of its Creator ~ which represents the resolve to move forward in a newly formed academy with a strong sense of purpose of who we can be ~ educators who look toward a future filled with optimism, hope, and confidence for the wonderful children we are privileged to teach.
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy in Astoria strives to be an academy of avid learners and socially conscious individuals who have a personal commitment to serve others through programs that encourage visible faith in action.
The academy goal of Success For All inspires the development of a curriculum that supports students’ strengths to help them maximize their full potential. By modeling and instilling commitment, passion and perseverance, the academy believes students can succeed. Through progressive instructional practices and a solid work ethic, the academy supports Carol Dweck’s idea of a growth mindset that suggests children’s basic intellectual abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. Children need to believe they can boost their academic achievement level with a motivational perspective and the resilience to follow through to a set goal with determination and tenacity. At St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy, the goal is to convince students that they can succeed, and support them in the fundamental and essential learning process that requires.
Students are engaged in cognitively challenging tasks in order to gain mastery and proficiency of required skills necessary for success in postsecondary education and in the global arena. A rapidly changing world requires students to be creative, innovative, inventive, artistic, tech-savvy, and resourceful; therefore, academy programs are designed to educate the whole child in academia, STEM, and the arts. Knowing that the spiritual, emotional, and social well-being of each child in the academy’s care is essential to each child’s growth and is, therefore, reflected in every aspect of each child’s educational journey.
In “An Affair of the Heart” by Patricia Jordan, it states that “one winter morning in 1208, St. Francis of Assisi heard the words of the Gospel not only with his ears, but with his heart, and it changed his life forever.”
It is the mission of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy in Astoria to model the academy’s patron saint as it seeks to form, inform, and transform students in the Image of our Creator, to reach their hearts, so that their lives and the lives of all those they touch will be better.
