Starting in middle school and gaining momentum in upper school, the Institutes at Perkiomen encourage students to generate novel ideas based on their interests and then put them into action. Through introductory coursework, cross-listed classes, field trips, and a culminating capstone project, students weave together knowledge and practice as they confidently discover new things. Working with on-campus mentors and real-world professionals, students are guided through their experiences but have ultimate agency over the process. The Institute diploma distinction option gives participants a potential differentiation in the college admissions process.
Entrepreneur Institute
DIRECTOR: ERIC FREY
Aspiring innovators can become actual innovators in the Entrepreneur Institute. With the guidance and support of faculty and successful entrepreneurs, students are empowered to create value for a better world. As they develop a product, service, and/or business, students learn the necessary risks and failures that line the path to success as they build, evaluate, and adjust to find what suits them best.
Medical Institute
DIRECTOR: JEFFREY RODGERS
Middle and high school students are uncovering who they want to be and what they want to do. The Medical Institute provides them with a place to experience the medical field from a variety of perspectives and dynamic intersections, depending on their interests. The Institute has a spectrum of possibilities from clinical procedures to research, from physiology to psychology, and the learning environment extends beyond the classroom into the hospitals and laboratories of our industry partners.
Artificial Intelligence Institute
DIRECTOR: ALLISON RODGERS
The Artificial Intelligence Institute is full of experiences and projects that spark students’ natural curiosities and allow them to tinker, investigate, and invest in ideas that will prepare them for careers that have not yet been invented. As students explore and interact with emerging technologies, they learn how technology can enhance the future while also considering its ethical implications.
Design Institute
DIRECTOR: LOUISY ROEST
Creativity is a mindset that can inform any aspect of a student’s passions. By participating in the Design Institute, students gain an understanding of creative design as a way of thinking and approaching a concept. Then, they propel into action and put it to the test. Students can explore how quality design impacts the development of a tangible product like a clothing line or how design is applied to an experience-based challenge such as changing a system for a patient navigating healthcare.
Perkiomen’s cutting-edge Institutes truly embody the school’s motto Solvitur Vivendo: It is solved by living. Students explore their passions by digging into projects, engaging with real-world problems, and pushing through unforeseen barriers as they investigate future career paths.
RECENT PROJECTS
Farm Automation
Four students collaborated on a project across the Artificial Intelligence, Entrepreneur, and Medical Institutes. Their goal was to create an automated system that would water, adjust pH levels, and add nutrients to the school’s indoor farm.
Athletic Apparel
Jake Boyln ’24 founded QTR5, an apparel company that uses NIL deals to market and create products for the public to purchase.
Railbike
Tommy Saeger ’24 is working with a local non-profit to electrify a railbike, making this scenic recreational activity ADA accessible.
Community Partners
Boeing
Comcast Corporation
Medtronic
Merck
MillerKnoll
St. Luke’s University Health Network
Tower Farms
University of Delaware, Horn Entrepreneurship
“The Institutes’ learning model focuses on developing our students’ capacity for iterative thinking—a valuable process that teaches students to be ready and willing to fail as they work to continuously improve a concept, design, or product.”
-JEFFREY RODGERS, PH.D. Institutes Department Chair