Morgridge Academy | One of a Kind
I love Morgridge Academy because it helps me with my allergies and helps me go to school in a safe environment. Morgridge Academy is a fun school because we have a lot of great teachers. It's small, and I get to know everybody. Everyone's so inspiring. I really like it at this school.
My favorite thing about this school is everything [Music]
Morgridge Academy is a kindergarten through eighth grade school. We are located on the campus of National Jewish Health, and we serve students that have chronic illnesses, it can be anything from asthma to diabetes, cystic fibrosis, or severe food allergies.
One thing I love about my school is that I get to see my friends every day.
The Morgridge mission is to serve a child in all ways, so we're looking at them educationally we're looking at the medically physically social emotionally and what we're trying to do is bring in innovative instruction to really engage them and help them be able to solve the problems of this new century [Music]
Morgridge Academy is truly One of a Kind it's the only kind of school that's on a medical campus in the nation. I don't know if there are a lot of places where you're going to see an 85 percent or higher percentage of the kids here having some sort of chronic illness.
My favorite thing about Morgridge Academy is the nurses.
Nurses are constantly in the classrooms, helping kids with breathing issues checking food allergies kids here because of the environment that we've been able to create, and they aren't singled out because of their chronic illnesses.
Working here for me is a way to help ensure that our kids do get educational equity and medical equity. We're able to really individualize our instruction and focus on those gaps that students have experienced from missing so much school.
My favorite thing about Morgridge Academy is the curriculum, and it's very easy to learn here. PBL is problem-based learning; we approach all of our learning through the lens of a problem.
It's nice in that it takes you out of a textbook to build critical thinking skills and solve problems. The question was, "How do we raise awareness of Morgridge Academy?" They talked about video production and developed all different types of solutions for how we can get our name out there in the community.
This story of our school, Morgridge Academy.
I can see that they're better problem solvers, and I'm helping them learn skills to be successful citizens in our society.
My favorite thing about Morgridge Academy is that we play games in the pool and the gym.
A lot of our kids that have asthma have found that in typical schools they can't participate in PE. We really work with kids on teaching them how to pre-treat and how to be proactive about their medical needs. All of our kids fully participate in all of our physical activities.
Morgridge Academy is one of a kind because of all of the people who support it. Two-thirds of our budget is straight for philanthropy. If we didn't have the donations, we would basically not be able to serve our kids. The people who are donating the money are the ones that are enabling us to help get these kids through everything they're going through and become productive members of our society.
What I love about school is reading in the library; it's my favorite. I think so. This summer we were able to go through and remodel of our entire building, all the walls, ceilings, and floors. We have an actual library that's one big open space. It's really become like a community center of our school. It's more cheerful, it's more open, it's more welcoming, and the kids love it. Morgridge Academy to me, when I hear those words, feels like such a place of family. We have a lot of alumni who come back, and every single one of them says, "You guys prepared me for high school. You've prepared me to take care of my own illness. You prepared me for life."
The students we serve are one of a kind. They're funny, they're intelligent, they're goofy, and they're adorable. The kids bring me so much joy every day because they are goofy they're adorable the kids bring me so much joy every day because they are so resilient they've dealt with a lot of trauma in their past all of this chronic illness which can be a downer and they always come in with joy which is really important that we let them know that hey we do recognize your worth we recognize your value we recognize you are our tomorrow and we're able to support you we're going to feed into you we're going to help you grow and that makes a difference. They know that they're cared about, that they're loved, they know that they matter [Music]