Project Liberty

Project Liberty develops employment readiness in our students preparing them for career and life stability after high school. This initiative was inspired by a visit to the Catalyst Program at the Haven Project in Lynn during our Dec 2018 Game of Life Symposium class. 

Students have helped to create a school-based social enterprise incorporating the development of strong foundational employment skills with hard skill acquisition through the production of one or more products or services. We want to enable students to build their skills and abilities around the world of work increasing their success in internships and jobs. Students have had the opportunity to sell the products they have made at a few different fairs in Salem in 2019. 

Adventures

Since the spring of 2015, New Liberty has been going on frequent adventures. We have found that engaging students in different types of learning encourages them to be more curious about the world and more confident in engaging with it. Also we have found that some students thrive in becoming leaders of their peers in settings outside a traditional classroom. For example, some students who are rather disengaged in the classroom become leaders or facilitators in the woods or during physical challenges such as rope climbing or overcoming physical obstacles. Students rise to the challenge of problem solving and then grow to trust each other more in a place like Boda Borg or Project Adventure, hiking a mountain or on a canoe trip.  

This year, we will again be going on adventures on a weekly basis on Wednesdays. Students will reflect on their learning afterwards and gather evidence from these trips to display skills in applicable competencies.  

Advisory 

Advisory is a bit like a homeroom or your home base. Every advisory is run by a few staff members and students stay with their same advisory for most of their time at NLIS. This is an opportunity for students to have a family-like atmosphere at school with a few caring adults to provide extra support and coaching to them. Being in a competency-based school is different and we know that students do well when they have small, personalized experiences that help to support learning and progress through. This home base helps students to set goals for moving through high school in a successful manner. Advisors are in regular contact with parent(s)/guardian(s) to keep them informed on student progress and to help better understand their student. Students have fun and learn social-emotional skills and work on tasks related to employment.

January Graduation

We will once again hold a graduation ceremony in January for students who complete all graduation requirements by December 2021. We are happy to provide this option for students who are close to completing their program of studies and do not want or need to stay an entire year.