Our School

We work for a school built and run by an organization called Mission Haiti, which is based out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Our Mission and school [and in turn the village where we live] is located in Petite Riviere, Haiti. 

Background Basics

We just finished our first year of school at JAK Academy. It's a French and English immersion school at its core. This means that all curriculum material is taught in both French and English. Each classroom has two teachers- one Haitian teacher, and one North American teacher. The Haitian teacher is responsible for teaching the curriculum in French during the first half of the week, and the North American teacher is responsible for teaching the same curriculum material in English during the last half of the week. Our curriculum is based on American school standards, but is also mixed with Haitian culture.



School Structure

The 2015-2016 school year consisted of only three classes- Preschool, Pre-Kindergarten, and Kindergarten. This was very intentional, as we are immersing students in a completely new educational culture, and want them to grow up in this new culture from as young of an age as possible. Every year, the school will add one new grade as students move up, until the school reaches Grade 12. Eventually JAK Academy will have students from Preschool to Grade 12.
Our school property consists of two classroom wings- a Preschool to Grade 6 wing, and on the opposite side of the property, a Grade 7-12 wing. The Preschool to Grade 6 wing is complete, and the Grade 7-12 wing will hopefully be completed within the next year or two. We also have a kitchen and cafeteria, and are working on building a cement pad for sports such as basketball and soccer, and a playground on the schoolyard.



Environment and Culture

One of the goals of this school is to raise students up in a completely different school culture from what they are used to. JAK Academy is different from nearly every school that you will find in Haiti- from our curriculum and the teaching methods we use, to our school structure, to the way we discipline our students. It's nothing new to those of us having gone to school in North America, but it's something that is completely new to Haitians. 
Everything we teach is from an inherently Christian perspective. This means that our academic content is taught from a Christian point-of-view, and it also means that as teachers, we equally prioritize our students' character and spiritual development as well. Our goal is to raise up students who will leave our school and be equipped as Christian leaders to go and make a difference in their homes and communities.





School Sponsorship

Every student that attends JAK Academy is, or will be, sponsored. Parents are required to pay a sum for their child to attend our school as well. This is to ensure that parents feel a responsibility to take part in their child's education, to know what's going on, to become part of the parent community, and to make helping their child with schoolwork a priority. Sponsoring a student at our school costs only $35 a month. This provides the student with a backpack, school supplies and a pair of shoes before school starts, their school uniform, all their school books for the year, and two meals at school everyday. We have so many students who still need to be sponsored- please, please prayerfully consider sponsoring a child. As teachers at this school, we see the difference it's making for our students every single day, and can tell you that every penny is providing learning opportunities for these students that they would not have otherwise. 


If you have questions about the school, or are interested in sponsoring a student, you can contact Mission Haiti at info@mission-haiti.org, or feel free to email us, and we will help you in any way we can!

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