Winter Springs High School welcomes two new programs – Bear Academy and International Baccalaureate Diploma- to the 2016-17 school year. With two new additions, WSHS is striving toward more success for both the students and staff.

The Bear Academy is a first year program here at WSHS, aiming to start ninth graders off on a positive path and instill in them principles they can use not only throughout their high school careers, but for the rest of their lives as well.

Bear is actually an acronym, which stands for Believe, Engage, Achieve, and Reflect. Students who are apart of Bear Academy share teachers for most, if not all core subjects. The Bear Academy was created by teachers of WSHS who thought a different approach to teaching ninth graders would be effective.

Once hired in January of 2016, Assistant Principal, Kristi Draus began working with teachers to develop the Bear Academy. According to Draus, statistics show that many ninth graders who lack a strong foundation their freshman year, struggle throughout the rest of high school, ultimately decreasing their chances of graduating.

“Instead of us waiting [until] junior and senior year to start focusing on whether or not students will graduate, we’re like why don’t we backtrack way up and start in ninth grade,” said Draus.

So far, students, teachers, and parents, are all loving the new program. Parents have expressed nothing but positivity and appreciation of the program thus far. Because many of the students share the same teachers for their core classes, it allows teachers to more intimately collaborate and create a more effective and personal program for the students.

In total, 11 teachers work together with a total of 145 students, where each student shares an English, Math, Science, and a few electives. One of the most essential classes to the program is Freshmen Seminar, where students receive the majority of their coaching and mentoring.

“The idea is to start them out just in freshman year and kind of just see how it goes,” stated Draus. “However, I have two things that are sort of hanging out there [that] I’d like to address toward the end of the year. Either one, figure out if there are still kids that could benefit from a Freshmen Seminar type class in tenth grade. Or, I would really like for all ninth graders to have a Freshman Seminar.”

It is quite apparent that if all freshmen were issued a Freshman Seminar course, they would not all be able to share a cohort of teachers, but there is a possibility of them all sharing the common elective course.

The goal of Bear Academy is essentially to give ninth graders a positive introduction into high school and give them tools that will ensure their success despite what odds they may face.

As far as the IB Diploma program goes, WSHS has this year joined the many schools across the world that offer the vigorous course.  The IB Diploma program highlights analytical thinking, research problem solving, world languages, the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, digital communications,  and global leadership, and requires that students maintain a minimum of a 3.0 grade point average.

The IB Diploma program is a four-year program. Students who wish to join must apply before beginning the end of the eighth grade year, and hope to be accepted.

With this new program beginning at WSHS, the school is additionally launching an IB club, exclusively for IB Diploma students. Beginning August 22, 2016, students apart of the program will be able to meet for an hour after school and receive extra academic help.

New programs initiate new success for WSHS. The students and staff both, are all looking forward to the great things that are to come from the Bear Academy and IB Diploma program.