Lauren Martin Grade 10
Last year on Wednesday, August 5th, I was just one of the nervous freshman among 99 other boys & girls. We were stepping into not only a brand new school, but a brand new future and way of life. It wasn’t going be listening to a teacher all day anymore, writing essays every week, or doing math until we die; It was going to be real world problems..real life.
Owensboro Innovation Academy is a part of the NTN (New Tech Network) and it is the only school of its kind in Kentucky. Everyday life at the academy is like college, minus the lecturing part. Our teachers are not teachers, they are facilitators. They don’t teach us, they learn with us. When it comes to projects, us students do all the research and all of the work and most of the time you will find us in groups.
We partner up with the community and sometimes even international communities, create businesses, and so much more. My first year there was amazing, and as a sophomore now I still love it (most of the time). My 2019 class is the inaugural class of OIA and by being that, we made history. I took the chance and decided to go to OIA because of the opportunities it gives me such as, more medical-focused classes, early college, and getting to meet new people. Since I have been going to the academy, I’ve gotten to meet and give tours to Kentucky’s 61st Governor Steve Beshear, over 10 people from the Bill Gates Foundation, NKU, and so much more.
Our projects are always linked to something in the community, which I absolutely love. One of the biggest projects I did with another partner was create an app called SafeAlert. The app was designed to help people who couldn’t dial 911 during an emergency. For example, if a woman felt as if she was being followed, she could open the app and hold down a button until she was safe again. Once she lets go of the button, if she doesn’t type in the password she set when signing up, it will automatically call 911 and send her location to them. After many tests, we finally got our product to work and were very happy with it!
Last year I didn’t take any classes at Senior High although it was and still is my home high school, but this year I wanted to be more involved. Now that we have freshmen and sophomores, I felt as if I needed a break from going there all day-everyday, so I decided to take classes at OHS. Now that I am, i absolutely love being able to go to the Academy while being a part of Owensboro High.