Enrichment & Athletics
North Star students participate in rigorous and structured enrichment programs during the school year.
Students in all grades participated in a wide variety of enrichment activities. These activities serve to help students become well-rounded individuals and to better prepare them for college life. From kindergarten to twelfth grade, students have options in the arts and athletics that allow them to develop their skills in these areas as well as learn about potential new interests. These programs are all supported by North Star staff to ensure they are of the highest quality. In addition, North Star Academy strongly encourages secondary students to attend competitive summer programs to gain comfort in new communities and build their skills outside of the classroom.
To learn about enrichment opportunities beyond North Star Academy, please visit our Summer Programs Database.
In 2009, North Star Academy had the great fortune to build a partnership with the Claudio Reyna Foundation. The partnership now includes the US Soccer Foundation and has allowed over 150 North Star students to participate in rigorous training with professional trainers throughout the year. In 2010, our middle school teams went head-to-head in the league finals and the downtown team carried home the trophy as the league champions. Watch the video above to find out more about the partnership.
In 2010, North Star Academy launched its partnership with Legal Outreach. Legal Outreach uses law to inspire and prepare students to perform at the highest academic levels. Legal Outreach uses innovative law curricula to engage urban students, inspire them to set collegiate and professional goals, and build academic skills. Relying heavily on its many partners, Legal Outreach provides law instruction, teacher training, law institutes, and a comprehensive College Bound program with extraordinary success rates. In its pilot year, Legal Outreach is currently working with the sixth grade class at the downtown campus on a “Law and Social Problems” class as well as an after school mock trial program.
Other after school programs of focus at North Star include:
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Basketball: Throughout middle and high school, North Star Academy campuses offer competitive girls’ and boys’ basketball teams. Over the course of the last two years, North Star has seen three teams make it to the league semi-finals and our downtown middle schools girls’ team won the league championships in 2009.
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Karate: Since 2008, North Star Academy Vailsburg Elementary School has built a partnership with a local karate school run by Eddie Brown. Eddie and his teachers now instruct over 100 K-4th grade scholars five days per week at all three of our elementary schools. Over 15 of our scholars competed in a national championship and won honors in 2010.
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Step: The art of step has been highly popular at North Star Academy. Over the last five years, North Star has expanded its teams to include each campus and ensure the program is of the highest quality. Our steppers have performed across New York and New Jersey and at multiple cultural performances for our school.
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Theater: Throughout the elementary, middle, and high schools, North Star students shine on stage. Each elementary class performs a wonderful end-of-year musical production and the middle and high school students select performers to do annual shows. Performances have included “The Three Little Pigs Learn Responsibility”, “The Giver”, and “Fame”.
North Star also offers the following enrichment programs at one or more of its campuses:
- Cheerleading
- Chamber Choir
- Community Service
- Fine Arts
- Flag Football
- Journalism
- Speech
- Student Government
- Yearbook
Over the course of the summer, we are honored to have our students gain important life experiences at these summer programs:
- All Stars
- Brantwood Camp
- Brown University
- Camp Speers
- Experiment in International Living
- Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth
- Lead for Diversity
- Montclair State University
- NJ LEEP
- Rutgers University
