Freedom Friends,

October is going to be an amazing month for Freedom. First, we are holding our annual Freedom Leadership Series with guest speaker Tom R. Grady coming up on October 29th at 12:00 pm, so save the date! Tom will be sharing career reflections from his experience as a State Representative, Florida Department of Education Board Chair, Attorney, and Investor. In regard to the latter, expect some exciting surprise news involving investment and the future with Freedom to be announced during this event.

Second, I would like to share ongoing excitement with Freedom’s semi-finalist win with The Yass Prize 2024 Semifinalist - Yass Prize. As you may have heard, we were recognized as one of the top 25 educational programs out of thousands of applicants across the nation for our innovation in education consistent with the Yass Prize philosophy About - Yass Prize . Mrs. Vaill and I were able to attend the kick-off award ceremony and program on 9/11 at Forbes on 5th and on the top floor of The Freedom Tower in NYC as we shared our program model with the other winners and alumni, while also learning about theirs. It was certainly a career highlight to be affirmed for what we are doing, at such a patriotic and inspiring place representing the United States of America’s indomitable spirit to overcome challenges. I will be attending the next step, a weeklong networking and accelerator program later this month in Miami. This is designed to help us grow Freedom under The Yass Prize umbrella of innovative programs and connections.

And lastly, regarding growth, I am happy to announce we are currently in the process of growing Freedom and adding additional students in new locations. Lee County is our prime target for now, with other places hoped for in the future. With this, our Marketing Director, Lauren Grady, has begun an adventure traveling the USA sharing the beauty and stories of our amazing country with both photos and unique perspectives on what makes America great. Please support this effort by following our new Freedom national Instagram channel @futurewithfreedom • Instagram photos and videos. Also, we have launched a new student-led Instagram we would love for you to follow to get the client perspective and fun factor of our program We Are Freedom (@thetakeonfreedom) • Instagram photos and videos.

Thank you so much for your incredible support and Soar Eagle! 🦅

Chris Marker

Chief Executive Officer / Chief Learning Officer

The Freedom Institute of Collier County

As we reflected on September, we celebrated the vibrant spirit of our school community and the exciting opportunities that unfolded! This month, we had the pleasure of welcoming our first career speaker of the year, Chef Vincenzo, who inspired us with his culinary journey as the owner of five renowned restaurants in Naples. His passion for cooking reminded us of the diverse paths our students could take. We also want to highlight two exceptional Eagles! Frank, a recent graduate, dedicated his summer to SAT prep at Freedom, resulting in an impressive 170-point score improvement, which earned him a 75% Bright Futures scholarship. Similarly, Clare excelled during the same SAT session, achieving a score that secured her 100% Bright Futures funding. Their hard work and determination exemplified the strength of our Freedom community. We celebrated a month filled with growth, inspiration, and pride! Soar, Eagle!

Career

For career class, students continue engaging in thoughtful conversation and activities using Dave Ramsey's Foundations in Career Discovery modules. Students researched job openings in the local area using popular websites such as LinkedIn, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter. Students had to research job qualifications, salaries, hard skills, and soft skills. Furthermore, students have a rough draft resume #1 due by the end of quarter 1. This is the first time many of our students have ever created a resume, so this is an exciting experience! As always, students are working on their ongoing Career Success Plan, learning about their top 3 career choices.

English

For ELA, we are wrapping up our first novel Of Mice and Men. I am SO proud of how thoughtful and insightful the conversations were throughout this book. Students participated in weekly Kahoot games, created character posters, took chapter quizzes, identified themes and figurative language, made predictions, and will conclude the novel study with a final essay sharing their personal perspective about ideas and events that took place.

Test Prep

Our students continue to learn test strategies and tricks, and also learn about the many resources available to them to support test success, including College Prep Genius, Khan Academy Digital SAT Prep courses, and Bluebook practice tests. Some of our students are also studying for the Accuplacer exam, for the opportunity to participate in college dual enrollment courses. We wish all of our students luck!

GED Pathways

Students are playing weekly interactive Kahoot games that include grammar, figurative language, literary devices, etc. In addition, they are reviewing e-mail etiquette and working independently on self-paced grammar and reading and vocab courses via Khan Academy.

Yearbook Club

I am SO excited about this year's yearbook club! After our first meeting together in September, I knew I had an amazing and creative group of students to work with. We created a collaborative document that listed all of the wonderful ideas and improvements we'd like to see in the 24-25 yearbook. Students are tasked with taking and organizing photos and then dividing and conquering to work on pages to make our yearbook come to life! I am looking forward to our next meeting where we will really dive into creating pages in Canva.

U.S. History

We are currently working through Chapter 4 of Land of Hope, "A War, a Nation and a Wound". Our founding fathers are setting the foundation for the government we have today.

TRIVIA: Ask your student who was the principal architect of the constitution?

Consumerism 1

We have wrapped up Budgeting: Chapter 2.

Students have learned tips and trick to live a debt-free life.

Consumerism 2

Students have been working through their own personal spending habits.

We will be creating a budget based on what they spend.

Biology

Over the past month we have been focusing on Charles Darwin and the concepts of "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest". After learning about how Pocket Mice adapted to a natural disaster, we simulated a bird mutation experiment and analyzed data to decide which environment the birds would survive, flourish, or become extinct. Students are now digging deeper into ecosystems, trophic pyramids and transfers of energy within the pyramid with more projects and labs on the horizon.

English

Students have been engaged in various critical thinking activities as they read and discussed Of Mice and Men. Motifs, character analysis, themes, symbolism, and figurative language were just a few of the concepts tackled throughout the book. A Socratic Seminar and essay are in progress now as we complete culminating activities and share our points of view with regards to the events in the novel.

Culinary Club

Week 1 in the books! Students created stuffed bread rings with meatballs to enjoy. They did an amazing job and are ready to create this at home as they personalize it with their favorite fillings for breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert! October's club will focus on seasonal treats with a guest helper!

Algebra Regular & Honors

Students finished up solving equations and inequalities and just started all things functions.

Algebra 1A

Students have been reviewing order of operations and simplifying expressions to prepare them for solving equations this month.

Geometry Regular & Honors

Students finished up the units on Geometry & Coordinate Plane Basics and started working on Parallel Lines & Transversals. Honors students are getting familiar with geometric proofs, as well.

Test Prep

Students have been honing their skills through Khan Academy and working on SAT or GED content and questions in class.

Key Club

We selected our charter officers and submitted our petition to charter our new club! The Kiwanis Club of Naples-On-The-Gulf was generous enough to pay our chartering fee to Kiwanis International. Members have started brainstorming ways to help out our community and are excited to start giving back. Be on the lookout for information regarding out Chartering Ceremony.

Please see the flyer attached below and save the date for Tuesday, October 29th, 2024 at 12:00 pm.

Congratulations to one of Freedom's juniors - Eire Layton!!! We are so proud of her success and love to see it! Keep up the good work!!!

A huge thank you to local chef Vincenzo Betulia for being our first career guest speaker of the year. He presented to our students about the culinary field, entrepreneurship, and overall career experiences. He is also the father of three of our students: Paolo, Luca, and GianFranco. Feel free to check out his Naples restaurants at the link below. We were so happy to have our students learn from him. He also made delicious Italian food for everyone to enjoy for lunch. DELICIOUS!

Our students are attending a field trip on Thursday, October 3rd to see the Reagan movie! This educational experience is designed to give our students valuable insights into the historical context, political philosophy, personal life, and cultural impact of Ronald Reagan's presidency. We look forward to seeing it as a program, and a huge thank you to Paragon Pavilion theater for providing us with a group discount and for hosting Freedom for a private viewing. We appreciate you!

Our clubs are going strong! We love having this enrichment opportunity for students on Fridays. Please check out the photos below to get a behind-the-scenes look at Friday clubs!

Freedom has limited enrollment availability for the 2024-2025 school year. Building tours are still available and we would love to show you around our Freedom facility. Tours are Monday - Friday and we are flexible with the times. Please call (239) 427-1776 to speak with a staff member today! We look forward to seeing you.

If you are interested in being a sponsor in any way, shape, or form, please reach out to us! We'd love to form partnerships!

Email: info@freedominstitute.net

Website: www.freedominstitute.net
Location: 2706 Horseshoe Drive S, Naples, FL, USA
Phone: 239-427-1776
Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/thefreedominstituteofcolliercounty/
Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/freedomcollier/