Frequently Asked Questions
Young Scholars Academy is a virtual village that helps twice-exceptional & differently-wired students to feel seen, nurtured, and happy as heck through strength-based courses, camps, and community!
Frequently Asked Questions
General
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Simple! 4 things:
1- A focus on the positive! We don’t focus on what students aren’t doing, we support what they are and we know the rest will come. We develop strengths, interests, and relationships. We build students up so they can build a better world! And do it with the new friends they make in our program!
2- Passionate, masterful neurodivergent mentors who have walked the walk and can authentically validate and support your child with personal experience and care AND expertise as we all have advanced masters + degrees
3-Content your students care about taught in a way they love! We offer the courses they need to be taking, not the ones they’re required to take.
Come by and see for yourself!
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Young Scholars Academy exists to lead a strength-based revolution in the minds and hearts of those with learning differences. To do away with spending our lives focusing on trying to get better at what we’re not good at and, instead, focus on our strengths, passions, and interests and meet others who are like us.
There are so many differently wired students who are marooned, isolated, and stuck in their zip codes, and not otherwise able to connect with those who get them. They often feel misunderstood… like there's something wrong with them.
Young Scholars Academy was founded as a safe haven and virtual village where students can come together, connect, make friends, and learn the content they crave!
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Young Scholars Academy is a perfect fit for students who are square pegs in round holes.
Our students often have great gaps between their numerical age and their intellectual and social ages. In other words, they have young bodies and older brains. These students often struggle to socialize with similarly-aged peers.
YSA students have great strengths and unique interests in some areas, but seem to struggle everywhere else.
If you know that your child is bright, curious, creative, unconventional, and struggling because the whole entire world just wants to “fix” their deficits, than Young Scholars Academy is for your child.
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Because every hero story has a mentor. Most of the world is not focusing on your hero’s strengths and powers.
Imagine if Superman spent his whole life trying to “fix” his kryptonite allergy. That’s essentially what the fix-it deficit model is doing to our kids.
We exist to help students find meaning and purpose, live strength-based lives, develop their superpowers, find their people, and acquire the tools for success!
YSA is a place where young people are nurtured by loving with expert mentors.
YSA is a place where parents come together, seek expert wisdom from top professionals, and be reassured that there's nothing wrong with their kiddos. Quite the contrary, our students have superpowers!
The only problem is that before they came here, they were simply not in the right setting with the right support.
Our students CAN and DO thrive, make friends and live their best lives when they have the right ingredients!
YSA is THAT place!
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Young Scholars Academy offers Six 8-10 week semesters.
Courses range from 8-30 weeks.
The semesters work as follows:
Fall 1- from August to October
Fall 2- from October to December
Winter- from January to February
Spring 1- from March to April
Spring 1- from May to June
Summer- 10 weeks of summer camps, which run one week at a time from June to August
Offering/Program
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YSA serves students from ages 5 to 18.
We have:
-a kinder group
-an elementary group
-a middle school group
-a high school group
Some courses are even reserved specifically only for seniors getting ready to make the transition to college.
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We defer to parents' judgment in these situations and ask that parents don’t move kids around unless they’re within a year of the age cutoff.
To guide these decisions, we use these two key questions:
1- would your child have positive experiences with regard to interacting with other students in the age range and the content?
2- would other differently wired students also have a positive experience interacting with your kiddo in this age range?
if you feel that your child would be a great fit, and the answer to both of those questions is affirmative, you can simply change your child's age in the enrollment system to get them into the course.
If you're unsure, you can always reach out.
We are here to serve.
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We always say to start with your student’s strengths.
Sit down with your kiddo and read through the different classes that you think they would be interested in.
Have them be the gauge for which class would be the greatest success. If you feel that your child shows more excitement or energy around a specific topic, let's start there because that's what seems to light them up most and that's where we're going to experience our biggest wins.
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We have some families take up to 20 classes per week!
Our average family take 6 classes per week
We recommend starting with a MINIMUM of 3 classes and here’s why:
Picking 2 strength areas with different teachers is a GREAT way for your kiddo to really find their place here
PLUS— when you enroll in any 2 courses, you get a FREE HOMEROOM SOCIAL CLUB CLASS. Just like if you went to a brick-and-mortar school and got a homeroom class, YSA offers Homeroom Social Clubs as the KEY PILLAR of your child’s social life and we do this AT NO EXTRA CHARGE when you enroll in 2 other classes
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YES!
Just like if you went to a brick-and-mortar school and got a homeroom class, YSA offers Homeroom Social Clubs as the KEY PILLAR of your child’s social life and we do this AT NO EXTRA CHARGE!
When you enroll in any 2 courses AND a section of HOMEROOM SOCIAL CLUB, we refund your tuition for this one class!
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All of our programs are 100% virtual. This allows us to bring together the twice-exceptional/neurodivergent students of the world, connect them, and nurture them!
Your child may very well enter a 6-person class with 5 other students from 5 different states/countries! Cool, right?
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We often say the number one role of parents is to get your kiddo to class and we will do the rest =)
The number two is to check in on how it went.
Age-specific for our youngest kiddos: We ask that you stay with them, off camera, to support them during the class.
With any of our students, f you feel resistance at home, be a detective- figure out why.
It’s helpful to look for opportunities to connect the learning in the course with your student’s goals, desired outcomes, or open questions.
We aim to make the learning relevant to their journey, rather than something that they have to do.
Finally, we ask that you always share any insights with us so we can better serve your family!
Mentors
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We call our educators mentors because they are truly that!
All of the mentors in our virtual village serve as village elders who can guide your hero on their journey.
Our passionate, masterful neurodivergent mentors have walked the walk and can authentically validate and support your child with personal experience, care, AND expertise as we all have advanced masters + degrees
As you know, you can say something until you’re bleu in the face and a good mentor can say it once and it breaks through to your kiddo!
Every educator in our village is a resident expert, who has been recommended by our current families as a “top one-percenter” in terms of changing their student’s lives.
These experts are also mostly neurodivergent themselves and parents of neurodivergent children, many of whom are homeschool parents.
The combination of our mentors being recommended to us, living the experience of being neurodivergent themselves, and being neurodivergent parents who homeschool on top of that is amazing!
All of our mentors have decades of experience AND complete our development course and professional development program (that we call our indoctrination program) which helps them to develop their strengths and talents so that they can better help develop the strengths and talents of our kiddos.
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Young Scholars Academy does not offer grades.
We believe that grading is often a part of the broader problem in the education system.
We DO offer support, progress update emails, and other feedback, in both our class and the support through communications sent home to parents.
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Young Scholars Academy is able to ensure our students thrive in the virtual space for one giant reason:
our students often struggle with a tremendous amount of change all at the same time.
The virtual space not only enables them to dip their toes into something that might otherwise scare them.
Being virtual means they can do new things in an accepting online space while the physical room that they’re in is a constant.
The only thing changing is what's happening on the screen.
For example, a student who has stage fright. They might be open to taking the virtual theater class in the comfort of their own home.
Not to mention so many of our students have different stimulating sensitivities, whether it be a sensitivity to noises, lights, etc.
Giving them the ability to learn from an environment that they can control (home) AND connect to students that they would never otherwise connect with is a key ingredient.
Another one is the fact that our students are no longer limited by their zip codes.
Young Scholars Academy currently serves students in almost 40 different states and almost 20 different countries!
Bringing together kiddos who are otherwise marooned and isolated allows us to all come together and learn in our virtual village!
Admissions
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Please don’t confuse reactive “distance learning” and virtual enrichment programming. After all, a student who is completely fried from a boring zoom class is often quick to pick up a tablet or phone, right?
Our courses are not at all the same animal =)
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Young Scholars Academy courses range in price.
They vary from $39 to $75 per session.
Courses can be paid for all at once, with a deposit, or on a monthly schedule.
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THIS IS A SATISFACTION GUARANTEE, so your child must attend the class in question to qualify.
If you’re not 100% IN LOVE with your courses, here are your options:
1- 8-Week Courses Refund requests must be received up to 24 hours after the first course begins to do one of the following options:
Payment plan or Paid in full- 3 options: transfer to another course of the same price, get a 100% refund credit toward a future class, or get a 75% money-back to the original payment method.
2- 16+ Week CoursesThe deposit made at the time of enrollment is non-refundable. Cancellation options are:
Payment plan- Cancellation requests received up to 24 hours after the first course begins will stop any future payments. Any cancellation requests beyond that require a 30-day notice to stop the membership/billing.
Paid in full- Cancellation requests require a 30-day notice. The remaining balance at the end of the 30-day cancellation period can be used to transfer to another class or be converted to credit toward a future class.
Please read the description of each course before enrolling.
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We do! We have 3 kinds:
1- Word of mouth: GET UNLIMITED $35 COURSE/CAMP CREDITS!
We know that the best way to reach new families is word of mouth.
❇️ At checkout you will get a CUSTOM LINK that you can share with families
❇️ YOU GET A $35 CREDIT TOWARD MORE/FUTURE YSA CAMPS/COURSES every time a NEW family enrolls with your link!
❇️ Families who use your custom link WILL GET 10% off their 1st course at YSA!
❇️ THERE IS NO LIMIT on how many times you can use this with new families!
2- Homeroom Social Club 100% off- When the same student enrolls in 2 courses AND Homeroom Social Club you will automatically discount 100% of the tuition for Homeroom Social Club.
3- Multi-Camp: When you enroll in 3 or more summer camps in the same week, you will receive 10% off of all summer camps!
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Yes, Young Scholars Academy semester-long courses can be paid with a 33% deposit and then 2 other installments of 33% will be made before the halfway point of the semester.
Additionally, longer courses can be billed monthly. These monthly courses do require a non-refundable deposit.
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Young Scholars Academy does not require a formal diagnosis.
We often say if you are here, you are in the right place.
Students who have great strengths and seem to struggle are the students we serve. Whether a student:
-has been formally diagnosed as twice exceptional
-has been self-diagnoses/believed to be
-is gifted and a parent is looking for acceleration, and more in depth and complex learning.
Your student will thrive here!
Our model of strength-based talent-focused enrichment learning works for everyone!
It just happens to work exceptionally well for our exceptional students who require this kind of learning.
Parents/Community
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The best way to learn what your kiddo is learning in class is to ask them at the dinner table about how amazing their courses, friendships and mentors are.
We know that some students will be forthright with sharing and others might be a bit more reserved.
Working with this population as long as we have, we know that some students can show up and have the best class of their lives, at dinner, when you ask them about their day, they will say that class was “good”.
To solve this problem. Young Scholars Academy sends:
1- regular updates about classes
2- AT LEAST one personalized progress update email each semester
3- google classrooms that have materials, resources, and updates (not all classes do this)
4-newsletters to update families with the exciting coursework that's happening in all of the classes and three,
5-Semesterly Student Showcase where students can showcase all the amazing learning projects, friendships, etc, that are happening inside each class for the whole community to see.
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Depending on a student's age, parents can be incredibly hands off. We do ask for our kinder students, for the parents to be present during the class but off camera always. For our elementary and early middle school students. Parents can sometimes be close to email for support during class. We will message if need be and for our older students. Parents do not need to be involved at all. The goal that Young Scholars Academy is learning that students are so excited about that they're reminding you about class, not the other way around.
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Beyond the satisfaction of watching your child find their people, make friends, learn content, they love, and thrive, you get some amazing personal benefits, too!
YSA Hosts bi-weekly events for parents with TOP experts in the field!
Recent events have included: Seth Perler, Debbie Reber, Dr. Susan Baum, Julie Skolnick, Dr. Matt Zakreski, Sarah Ward, Dr. Mike Postma, Sophia Elliott, Dr. Karen Wilson, and TONS MORE!Parents are key players in our village and get BOATLOADS of extra support and community, too!
Curriculum
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One of our founding principles is offering the coolest, most relevant, most interesting content that our students would look up after school, and , instead, offer it IN SCHOOL with a mentor with like-minded friends.
Young Scholars Academy was originally founded with the intent to offer 21st-century university-level courses to 21st-century younger kids who crave them.
Students should not have to wait until school is over so that they can be successful in spite of their education.
At Young Scholars Academy, we want students to be successful because of their education.
If you have attended a university, you may remember that the coolest courses often come in the later years. A 400-level class is almost always more interesting than a 101.
Most people would rather take the history of women in the world wars than history 101 any day!
Young Scholars Academy seeks to banish age requirements for those school courses.
Why not have a World War One and World War Two weaponry class, but for nine-year-olds?
ALSO, we create courses based on what our families want!
We survey our families regularly and ask what gaps they're seeing in their own children's education. When we spot a trend and have enough interest if we see enough gaps opening up and our mentors are experts in those fields, then we combine the two and formulate classes based on what our families and our village.
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They can!
Advanced Placement (AP) Courses are Collegeboard Approved! When your student completes these courses we issue your child an official letter from the Collegeboard saying that YSA has an approved AP program and that your child has completed it. These can be added to your child’s transcript!
Homeschoolers 90+ percent of colleges, INCLUDING HARVARD, MIT, Pomona, and many others are now accepting homeschool transcripts.
Your homeschool families can combine our course write-up and semester progress update email and create a legitimate transcript!
Homeschool Charters- We’re an approved vendor with nearly 10 Charterschools who fund our courses and put them on transcripts!
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Young Scholars Academy does not have “homework”.
Most courses have optional extended enrichment opportunities where, if a student would like, they can do an extra exploration or delving into content that they're exploring.
We are very much a Challenge by Choice Program. If a student wants no outside work between the classes, they are totally welcome to do that.
If they would like to come to class and then do extra work because they love what they’re learning, they are totally welcome to do that.
*The only classes that do have required work each week are some of the year-round college prep courses, like AP courses & Adulting and Thriving.
*Some STEAM short-term classes like robotics and engineering have a bit of work, too.
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The average Young Scholars Academy class is about 55 minutes per week—although they range from 45-85 minutes.
Our live courses require that students be present on screen during the class for that amount of time.
Remember, not all screen time is the same, just like not all in-person activities are the same!
Note- Some classes will have extension opportunities, meaning there are opportunities to do additional work on, or sometimes, off-screen, outside of the class. These are mostly optional and simply exist for extended enrichment.
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The YSA Self-Paced courses are courses that your child takes on their own time. Upon enrolling, you will receive a Google classroom where your kiddo can INSTANTLY dive into their interest areas! THE COOLEST PART- each week, our mentors check student work and comments and write individual comments back to your child!
The self-paced courses exist for two main reasons:
-Number one, to help students who would like to take an upcoming course that has prerequisites. For example, in debate or Young and Thriving- the executive function course, if a student wants to take level two and it's starting soon, they can grab the level one self-paced course, quickly catch up, and then join the live cohort.
-Reason two, for students who might be in a timezone where Young Scholars Academy live classes simply don't work. It's a fantastic opportunity for children in this category to take these courses self-paced, and still get support from teachers through comments on Google Classroom and real time help. But do it in a schedule that makes the most sense for them.
