Welcome to PRYSE Academy 2026!
On the first day of PRYSE Academy, we welcomed 77 students to our 14th year of our flagship summer program. Of these 77 students, 22 were new to ARYSE programming, and as the week continued more new and familiar faces joined us. This year, our students range in age from 10-21 years old and are grouped into 6 different classes, with our youngest students in the pink class and our oldest in the green class.
Members of our staff cohort pose for a photo on the first day of PRYSE Academy 2026.
All of our students, staff, and volunteers met for an orientation so our students could learn about what the next 5 weeks of the summer will look like. Our PRYSE Academy Program Manager, Parag, who is experiencing PRYSE Academy for the first time alongside some of our students, led this orientation and shared about what will be the same from past summers, what is new and different, and introduced himself and the rest of the PRYSE Academy 2026 team. Parag, we are so happy to have you on our team to guide, learn, and share your energy with our students and PRYSE team.
Something that is the same this summer is the classroom structure that was introduced last year with 45 minutes of English literacy instruction and 45 minutes of community building activities. During ESL instruction, our teachers are focused on four components: speaking, listening, reading, and writing, and built lesson plans that include milestone projects for students to see their progress. Thank you to our ESL teachers for this summer Kat Andrews, Michelle Kelly, and Christine Tapu for supporting our students and PRYSE Academy through your teaching!
One of our ESL teachers, Michelle Kelly, reads The House on Mango Street alongside students in our Yellow class.
Something new is the set-up our recreation time, or recess. For the past 4 years, our students would meet on the Cathedral of Learning lawn to play different sports, draw with chalk, jump rope, make bracelets, and play games. This year, we took this fun inside and students have been loving exploring this new space to spend time with their friends and show off their soccer skills! We are so appreciative to Open Field for partnering with us to lead soccer programming during this time, and to Kevin from the University of Pittsburgh for opening up this new space for our students. A special thank you to our volunteers for this summer who manage the set-up and clean-up of recreation time. We appreciate your time and energy!
Students spend the final part of the day in the 5 creative workshops we have for this summer: puppet making with Melannie Taylor from City Theatre, cultural cosmetology with Ayana Toukam, printmaking with Eoin Guidas from the Warhol Museum, Indian cultural dance with Geeta Shirvalkar, and book binding with Toni Berning. Each week on our Instagram and LinkedIn, we will be highlighting one of these workshops. During the first week, we highlighted the puppet making workshop with City Theatre. All of our students will experience each workshop for 1 week allowing for more creative exploration and skill building.
