Current Programs
Our Day Program
Reverend Phoenix Barnes teaches participants African-American history in our African-American Studies course. © 2017 Vincent Gray Academy. All Rights Reserved.
Our day program offers those who were unsuccessful in the traditional high school setting the opportunity to earn a high school diploma by taking classes, tuition-free. The expenses incurred include instructor salaries, computers, workbooks, textbooks, and supplies.
Program participants can attend Vincent Gray tuition-free only because of the help of our donors. When our participants join their previous high school transcripts are evaluated and they are placed into the classes they need to graduate. Participants' reading and mathematics grade levels are determined and our reading instructor creates an improvement plan to ensure they will graduate and be successful after leaving. Our participants typically increase 2.3 levels in reading per semester.
Participants attend extended day classes Monday through Thursday, with Friday and the weekend reserved so they can work to support themselves and their families.
Community Gardening Initiative & Special Projects
Program participants in our community garden. Where they learn to grow all sorts of vegetables. Once a year we harvest our bounty and eat amazing, home grown salads together. © 2017 Vincent Gray Academy. All Rights Reserved.
Another funding priority is special projects. This includes our community garden initiative described above but also includes projects like replacing HVACs, security improvements, and expansion projects.
While these are not incorporated in our budget, these projects make a major impact. One recent project was putting windows in some of our classrooms, where their previously were none. Another was installing security cameras to protect our students and staff.
Whenever a project comes up our supporters are always happy to help. Recently, we began converting some of our unused store room space into a new classroom and two offices.
STEM and Vocation Program
Our Cardinals Care Computer Lab. Donated through the generosity of Cardinals Care, the Saint Louis Cardinals Major League Baseball Team's Community Foundation. © 2017 Vincent Gray Academy. All Rights Reserved.
Our STEM and Vocation Program is designed to promote interest among our 100-percent African-American participant population in the sciences, and most importantly, in the high-demand fields of the trades, computer science, and engineering.
Computers and equipment are a big part of our operations here at Vincent Gray. Technology and the STEM fields are growing and more and more school resources are required to fund the advancements. Vincent Gray is leading the charge on this with our two computer labs. Our Cardinals Care computer lab hosts the very latest in computing technology. This allows our participants to get the skills they need to succeed in the classroom and the workplace.
Our school is completing a new technology classroom that will allow our participants to gain an important understanding of how things work. Learning how to repair and fix things is often the first step towards any career in technology. This classroom will introduce participants to learning how to take thing apart and put them back together again, to repair household items and learn important engineering skills as a way to encourage them to pursue careers in STEM.