One student, one teacher—with so many lessons to be learned from one another. This is what the classrooms at Fusion Academy are like. The accredited private school for grades 6-12 is distinctive in the most essential ways, and has recently found a home in our city.
Hosting classes at its newest campus on East 52nd Street since just last month, Fusion Academy will be moving to a permanent location on Park Avenue and 31st Street this January. There are 16 kids enrolled at Fusion in Manhattan and enrollment is currently open.
Educational opportunities abound in Manhattan, but there’s nothing else quite like the recently opened Fusion. Started over twenty years ago by educator Michelle Rose Gilman, Fusion began with a group of six students in need of a more hands-on approach to learning. After losing funding at their Solana Beach, CA, school, Gilman took the students into her home-turned-classroom and the idea for Fusion was born.
Here’s the scoop: Taking a decidedly non-traditional approach to middle and high school education, Fusion is all about doing what’s right for each individual student. The one-to-one ratio means personalized attention, customized lessons, and flexible schedules—not to mention creative engagement, a challenging yet informal environment, and learning through conversation.
Students who succeed at the academy fall along a broad spectrum: gifted students, those with emotional, social, or learning disabilities, and kids in need of flexible scheduling. The student body is as diverse as our wonderful city itself. What’s more, the school is unlike all others in its category, with a state-of-the-art recording studio (for future Broadway performers and rock stars no doubt), areas for practicing yoga (the calming exercise of choice for so many city-dwellers), and homework cafes where students dig deep into their course material in the company of their peers, and teachers can jump in at any time for extra help.
Given the seemingly endless education options we have at our fingertips, when something new and truly special comes along, we tend to sit up and take notice.
For more information, visit fusionacademy.com—and keep an eye out for our feature on Fusion Academy in a 2013 issue of New York Family!
