Our Mission
To provide an educational and career opportunity for junior and high school students, ages 13 to 21, who are out of school without having earned a diploma, and/or who have decided they cannot succeed in a regular high school setting after attempting to do so.
- THE TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY accepts students regardless of prior identified or unidentified learning problems.
- THE TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY accepts students who have been expelled from school unless they are deemed to be dangerous to other students and staff.
- THE TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY serves students who need all high school credits or as few as one.
- THE TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY develops productive citizens.
- THE TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY develops individuals which are capable of performing meaningful tasks in the real world.
- THE TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY helps students become proficient at performing the tasks they will encounter when they graduate.
- THE TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY requires students to perform meaningful tasks that replicate real world challenges to see if students are capable of doing so.
- THE TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY accepts students ages 13 to 21.
- THE TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY wants to help students learn to succeed so that they can return to their local schools when that is possible. Every year some students do return and succeed at their base schools. Most expelled students are readmitted to their schools.
- THE TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY emphasizes and teaches work skills as well as academic skills. All students are required to work in the community at a paid or unpaid internship position. Technology skills are emphasized because these are young people who have often not had the opportunity to get into technology classes.
- THE TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY also emphasizes the importance of becoming contributing citizens of the community. Students have the opportunity to interact with members of the business community, elected officials, and members of community organizations.
There are many students each year expelled from Prince William County Schools, Manassas Schools, and Manassas Park Schools as well as neighboring systems. There are also a number of students who wander away from high school without having graduated because they have given up and believe they cannot succeed. These students are often unable to function successfully in the community because they do not have the academic skills, career skills, or social skills to function independently. Many of them also lack a sufficient adult support system to help them get through the rough times in their lives. They are highly in danger of becoming young adults who resort to illegal activities in order to get by from day to day. Some become homeless before they reach age 21. Some become dependent on public funding for their daily existence. A number of these young adults have dependent youngsters and they cannot provide their children with a stable home life with satisfactory parenting and financial support.
Despite their adolescent problems, it is much easier and more financially feasible to give these young people the assistance that they need while they are under 21 years of age. A year or two of educational and career assistance for a young person now can mean preventing many years of public financial assistance for an adult later in life. A year or two of assistance can also help that young people make the decision to become an asset to the community rather than a liability.
Every young person who is given another chance for success, and who finds that he/she can succeed, is a young person who is likely to be able to give back to community rather than taking from the community. Every young person who succeeds is also much more likely to be able to successfully parent children who can succeed in the community.
Over the past 21 years the Technology Academy has demonstrated that young people are often seeking another chance for success and they can succeed when given small group instruction, support and encouragement from an entire community, and when they experience success in an internship position.
