THE QUEST SPRING I 2014
For families, alumni & friends of Quest Academy
Learning in the Innovation Lab One year ago, we were actively working on the transformation of the Innovation Lab.
C
hoosing color schemes, ordering furniture, cabinets and lighting, ordering equipment, and developing the curricula that our middle school students would experience when they arrived in the fall. Looking back at the year, we are excited about what the students have been able to build and create while at the same time noting what we want to tweak and improve in the following years. Here is a sample of what we have learned from the students throughout the year.
More Them, Less Us Especially in the Computer Science and Design and Engineering trimesters, we have created a framework which allows for students to explore the skill to suit their
IN THIS ISSUE INNOVATION LAB ALUMNI PROFILE THE NIGHT OF ALL KNIGHTS STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS WORLD LANGUAGES
passions rather than having the entire class do the same activity. There are two benefits that have emerged from this approach that visiting educators observed and noted. The first is that the students are more engaged in their projects since they control the path of their own learning. The second benefit is the crosslearning which occurs naturally through the interactions and exchanges between learners within the classroom. This colearning sparks new ideas and pathways to explore from simply inquiring and sharing what they are learning. This shift in classroom culture and mindset has not occurred naturally. In the fall, we had to push students out of their comfort zone. Many students
NEW TRUSTEES
Follow Quest Academy Explore questacademy.org and become familiar with the Parents News & Events section to find current information. Visit teacher pages through the Faculty & Staff Directory. Bookmark the news page—this is where you will find event information, the school calendar, and the Weekly Quest school newsletter. Follow us on:
Continued on page 11
Inspiring & Challenging Gifted Children
2
The Quest - Spring 2014
ALUMNI PROFILE
Meet Nissa Rhee (nee Thompson) Quest Academy Class of ‘98 “The teachers at Quest sparked my interest in history and pushed me to be inquisitive about the world around me. The skills they taught me in research and critical thinking have been valuable in my career as a journalist.” Nissa is a writer working on a book about American veterans who have returned to Vietnam to address the legacies of the 1965-’75 war. After getting her Bachelor’s degree, she worked for several years as a producer on Chicago Public Radio’s Worldview program and traveled with the show to both Mexico and Canada. She and her husband, Michael, then moved to Seoul, South Korea where she worked as a journalist for a variety of news outlets including The Christian Science Monitor and the Korean partner of The International New York Times. In 2011, she was awarded a Rotary Peace Fellowship in recognition of her reporting on conflict issues in Asia and the United States. As part of the fellowship, she earned her Master’s degree in tropical Brisbane, Australia and spent two months in Vietnam working with the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. Nissa and her husband are now back in Chicago where they enjoy spending time with friends and family. William Fremd High School (Class of 2002) Debate team, editor of school newspaper
The Quest is published for families, alumni, and friends of Quest Academy. It is produced by the Office of Institutional Advancement. Head of School Managing Editor Editor and Designer Contributing Writers Photography
Ben Hebebrand Leslie Kovich Sharon Rockhill Ben Hebebrand Arturo Garcia Anne Greenstein Sheryl Peterson Vinnie Vrotny Faculty & Staff
ADDRESS CHANGES Readers who wish to change their mailing address for The Quest should call Laurie DeSimone at 847.202.8035, extension 461 or send an email to laurie.desimone@questacademy.org.
University of Chicago (Class of 2006) Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (Honors) Concentration in International Relations, Human Rights and Creative Writing Rape crisis counselor, museum docent, oral historian Ford Foundation Democracy Fellow, Metcalf Fellow University of Queensland, Australia (Class of 2013) Master’s degree in International Studies Concentration in Peace and Conflict Resolution Rotary Peace Fellow Nissa addressed our current middle school students on Monday, November 11, 2013, Veteran’s Day, and shared her research on American Veterans returning to Vietnam. (See bottom photo) The center photo (left center) is one of the seventh grade groups from 1997.
www.questacademy.org
3
ALUMNI NEWS MEET OUR ALUMNI NIGHT PARTICIPANTS
Left to right: Jack Badalamenti, Neal Overbay, Nikki Gundimeda, Marissa Howe, and Nataile Brottman. Mack Lee joined us via Skype.
Jack Badalamenti, ‘13 Jack just completed his freshman year at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights. His favorite class was Honors Biology and took AP Human Geography. Jack was involved in show choir, concert choir, scholastic bowl, chamber orchestra, and was first chair of their concert orchestra. At this time, Jack is giving the most consideration to majoring in engineering and biology, while he isn’t sure what college he’d like to attend. Nikki Gundimeda, ‘12 Nikki just completed her sophomore year at Fremd High School. Her favorite classes were AP United States History and Fashion II. She took AP World History last year, the only AP course available to freshman. This year, she took AP United States History and every other course she took was at the Honor’s level. Nikki was involved in Student Council, Fashion Club, played soccer with a travel organization as well as with Fremd (Nikki was recently awarded Most Valuable Defensive Player and named captain of the team). She was also a Viking Ambassador to help transfer students adjust to student life at Fremd and recently admitted into the National Honors Society. Nikki is especially interested in attending a private east coast college like Brown University or Georgetown University and plans to pursue either marketing or political strategy. She also plans to apply for a merit scholarship. Her current GPA is 4.7.
Marissa Howe, ‘12 Marissa just completed her sophomore year at Woodlands Academy, a private, Catholic girls high school in Lake Forest. Her favorite classes included Chorus class and Modern European History. Marissa was in two choirs, the Model United Nations and did a documentary on Clarence Darrow this year titled “Clarence Darrow: In Defense of All.” She entered the documentary to the Illinois History Fair and was awarded 3rd place at the state level. She also received the Clarence Darrow award from the Chicago Metro History Fair. The award is sponsored by the Clarence Darrow Commemorative Committee. Although she is unsure where she’d like to attend college, she is exploring majors, including Political Science, International Relations, Film, and possibly something involving Journalism. She plans to apply for scholarships, but doesn’t know what types just yet. Natalie Brottman, ‘10 Natalie just completed her senior year at Buffalo Grove High School. She enjoyed all of her classes, however AP Environmental Science, AP Literature and Composition, and AP French (of course) were her favorites, while she also took AP Calculus AB. Natalie is highly involved in Mrs. Negus’ Red Rose Children’s Choir of Lake County, as she is in the Bella Rosa High School Choir, Chamber Choir Revival a cappella group, and (new this year) handbell choir. She was also a singer/leader for both Christmas Choir and Vocal Valentine’s, and helped with teaching/ conducting a team of younger singers in the Vocal Valentine’s Choir. She went with Red Rose to Spain in the summer of 2012, and will be singing in Ireland this summer. She also performed in the extremely prestigious regional American Choral Directors Association Conference in Cincinnati in February. In school, she sang in her school’s Concert Choir and Chamber Choir, was a tutor in the Literacy Lab, a French Club officer, President of the Buffalo Grove Book Club, a member of the BG Environmental Club and has been a junior varsity member of the girls’ golf team all four years. Natalie was a second-year member of National Honor Society and a third-year member of French Honor Society. Additional honors include a 9th place national ranking for her score on the Level 3 National French Contest Test, being an AP Scholar with Distinction, and a National Merit Commended Scholar.
Natalie will attend St. Olaf College. She is considering majoring in French, Literature education or something in Environmental Science. She will be participating in the Great Conversations program her freshman and sophomore year, which is a five-course track exploring the history and development of Western thought (religion and philosophy) through the reading of literature and other texts in a small discussion-based environment. Her non-weighted GPA is a 5.0; weighted is 5.50 and she received a 32 on her ACTs. Mack Lee, ‘10 Mack just completed his senior year at the Illinois Math & Science Academy (IMSA). The class he enjoyed most was MultiVariable Calculus. IMSA does not offer AP courses although some classes are geared towards the AP such as Statistics which Mack took. He has also taken AP Chemistry and AP Calculus B/C. Mack was involved in many extracurricular activities, including Varsity Basketball, Math Team, DiY/Guides Editor for the Acronym (School Newspaper) and Writing Center tutor. Mack will attend Princeton in the fall and plans to major in Computer Science before going to medical school. He received a 35 on his ACT and his GPA is 3.9. Neal Overbay, ‘10 Neal just completed his senior year at Crystal Lake South High School (CLS). He most enjoyed choir, Virtual Enterprise International (a class that simulates international business with other VEI classes around the world), and AP Psychology. Last year, he received an honors score on AP Physics, AP Calculus, AP Language and Composition, and AP US History. His sophomore year he took AP French. This year, he was enrolled in AP Music Theory and AP Psychology. Neal has been the worship leader at his youth group weekly, and he leads worship at his church once a month. He has been heavily involved in the fine arts, including being in the Madrigal Choir since his sophomore year. In addition to choir, he spends his free time doing theatre. In fact, he was in his 10th show at CLS, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really
Alumi News - Continued on page 10
Please drop us a note to let us know where you are and what you are doing. Email us at alumni@questacademy.org
4 4
The Quest - Spring 2014 The Quest - Spring 2014
The Night of All Knights
Right: Michael & Dasha Bukhalo Far Right: Canary Chia and Victoria Di Iorio Below: Auction Co-Chairs Bijal Patel and Canary Chia
Above: Erin Miller ‘13 and Meghan Roberti ‘13 Left Above: Erin O’Brien-Kellar and Miwa Gardi Left: Ted Larkowski, Vail Romeyn and Leslie Kovich Below: Joyce Kim and Trustee William Markey
Above: Sara Sexton, Kara White, and Carl Siemianowski Left Above: Randy Cichon, Jeremy Marmer, Trustee George Reichl, and Sheryl Peterson Left: Jodie Johnson, Liz Dickerson ‘07, and Patti Posdal
Over $260,000 was raised on Saturday, March 1.
www.questacademy.org www.questacademy.org
Above: Bijal and Sanjay Patel Above Center Top: Steven Scheerer, Jennifer Basden, Beth and Jay Ford Above Center Bottom: Lorena Diaz, Bijal and Sanjay Patel, and Adolfo Diaz
Above: Mike and Lauren Zuccaro
Left: Trustee Sue and Steve Eckstein
Below: Laura and Trustee Gregg George
Above Left: Lava Pokala, Vamsi Ravuri, Carl Siemianowski, Susan and James Chung
Left: Lisa and Scott Vrablik
Far Left: Chair of the Board Chris and Karen Dickerson
55
6 6
The Quest - Spring 2014 The Quest - Spring 2014
The Night of All Knights
Right: Canary Chia and Trustee Carly O’Brien Far Right: Meaghan ‘13 and Anne Roberti Below: Dancing the night away!
Above: Ed and Meredith Park
Far Left: Kim and Trustee David Benjamin
Left: Ken and Carla Schuette
Right: Alison Ortony, Andrea Dotoli, Michaela Jurewicz ‘12, and Deanna Armentrout
Left: Joy Dawson and Head of School Ben Hebebrand
www.questacademy.org
Photo Booth Fun
Once again thank you to our generous sponsors.
Grand Sponsors
King Sponsor Squire Sponsors
Dior Builders First American Bank Flood Brothers Kroeschell Engineering, Inc. Omega Demolition Corporation Hetal Shah & Kartik Ganeshan
Duke Sponsor
Knight Sponsors
Corkill Insurance Agency, Inc.
Care Sheet Metal & Roofing, Inc. Christopher Glass & Aluminum, Inc. Oliver Kim & Bretta Warren-Kim
Electronic Bidding Sponsors
Live Band Sponsor
Altman Dermatology Associates Midwest Molding, Inc. HomeSmart Connect Real Estate
The Sunderlin Family
Wine Pull Sponsor
The Kellar-O’Brien Family
7
8
The Quest - Spring 2014
Volunteer of the Year Cathy Reichl has been a tireless volunteer for Quest since her daughter Sarah enrolled Cathy has beenof a tireless several year ago. She has served asReichl Vice President the Parent School Association, has volunteer for Quest since her dedicated numerous hours in the library, including coordinating and training library daughter several volunteers, volunteered in the auctionSarah office,enrolled as a room parent, a buddy family, she even yearup-to-date ago. She has as more. Vice keeps our lobby bulletin board and served so much President of the Parent School Per Angie Carr, Quest Librarian, “She is always willing to help. She does a lot behind Association, has dedicated the scenes and she’s very humble about it.” And from Cindy Larsen, Quest First Grade numerous hours in the library, Teacher, Cathy is a kind, quiet and enthusiastic volunteer. She is always ready to pitch in including coordinating and training at a moment’s notice and serve our school community in those ways that are not always library volunteers, volunteered in highly visible or even recognized. If I could, I would triple nominate Cathy.” the auction office, as a room parent, Needless to say, Cathy is an inspiration to many and akeeps tireless a buddy family, she even ouradvocate for Quest Academy. We are so pleased and proud to present her as the 2014 Volunteer of the Year.
The Strategic Planning Process
Two years ago the Board of Trustees initiated a strategic planning process to help guide the continued success of Quest Academy. As part of this process, we reflected on the Quest community's many accomplishments, including the West Campus that enhances our athletic and academic space, the Innovation Lab, Chromebooks and other technology tools, and the individual success of our students and alumni across so many disciplines. During this process we asked: How will gifted education be delivered in 2020, and how shall Quest excel in that moment? To help answer this, we have been working with faculty, administration, our Head of School, volunteer parents, and external resources. The results and recommendations were presented to the Board of Trustees in May. We look forward to sharing this plan with you and incorporating it with the forthcoming Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS) accreditation process. If you have any questions, or interest in participating, please contact Ben Hebebrand or any trustee.
www.questacademy.org
Languages
Vamos a aprender español.
As Quest Academy prepares to switch its world language instruction from French to Spanish, we thought it wise to review the school’s reasoning. The predominant reason we switched can best be summed up by “opportunity.” The Spanish language is spoken as the primary language in 15% of U.S. households with some demographics showing higher percentages in several urban centers, including Chicago. The Pew Research Center projects there will be 39 to 43 million speakers (defined as persons five years of age or older) of Spanish by the year 2020 in the US. This implies that students will have increased opportunity to “practice” or “try” this language in various real-life contexts close to home. It also implies that we as a school may have greater access to hiring personnel fluent in both English and Spanish, giving our school the opportunity to expose our students to Spanish speaking faculty and staff who could interact with our students in Spanish outside the Spanish classroom.
There has been some discussion as to which language is more challenging – French or Spanish. The Foreign Service Institute has classified both languages as “easy,” indicating that it takes on average up to 600 hours of classroom instruction to attain a level of proficiency. Both Spanish and French present challenges to native speakers of English, as each language includes use of gender, extensive verb conjugations (both languages feature irregular verbs), and the use of the subjunctive mood (unlike the indicative mood that expresses a fact, the subjunctive expresses a possibility). In terms of vocabulary, both languages are Romance languages, largely derived from Latin. According to Wikipedia, the five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish (386 million), Portuguese (216 million), French (75 million), Italian (60 million), and Romanian (25 million). Worldwide, there are sources indicating up to 400 million native speakers of Spanish as compared to up to 80 million native speakers of French. Having said that, French enjoys an edge in terms of the number of countries in which French is spoken – 60 countries as compared to the 46 countries in which Spanish is spoken. In summary, we believe the switch to the Spanish language will be beneficial for our students – previous family surveys had also indicated a significant preference for Spanish. The study of Chinese, classified as “difficult” by the Foreign Service Institute, will become optional for our middle school students two times a week during their Flex periods; additionally, we will offer after-school classes in both Chinese and French. The use of the Middlebury Interactive Language software will be a great support in those endeavors as well.
The first such examples are the hiring of a bilingual Pre-School Assistant Teacher Ms. Anais Tabor and the appointment of Mr. Arturo Garcia as both Lower School Spanish and Technology Teacher. The opportunity created is that in the pre-school, Ms. Tabor may reinforce Spanish not just during class but also during daily routines such as greetings, lining up, enjoying lunch, or playing on the playground. Similarly, Mr. Garcia may well expose our students to the most common Spanish technology vocabulary in his role as Technology teacher. Teaching students another language in a natural context approximates an immersion method. We will invest in efforts to train our faculty in the Spanish language, encouraging them to apply common expressions in their classrooms – a subject such as Physical Education may reinforce well another language acquisition pedagogy called “Total Physical Response,” whereby a teacher asks students in the target (Spanish) language to perform various physical tasks such as “Jump,” “Move Right, Move Left,” or “Shake your Feet.” One other opportunity for our students will be the 2014/15 introduction of the Middlebury Interactive Language software, a web-based software application that allows students to interact both in “speaking (pronouncing)” and “clicking.” This software will be available to students during their classes here at Quest Academy, and certainly also at home, where other members of the family will also be able to participate.
Sixth grade students had an opportunity to use Middlebury Interactive Lanuage software during the 2013-14 school year.
9
10 The Quest - Spring 2014
New Trustees David
Sue
George
Deepika
Benjamin
Eckstein
Reichl
Duggirala-
Sue is a Sourcing
George is new to the
Miglani
Manager for Ascension
Board this year. He
Health Information
serves as Sr. Vice
Services, a subsidiary of
President of Morgan
David is a Managing Director of Market Growth Partners. In that role, he works with small companies or divisions helping them grow using innovative market and revenue engine approaches. He holds a BA in Economics & Mathematics from Grinnell College and an MBA in Finance and Marketing from University of Chicago (Booth). He has served on Quest’s Marketing Advisory Committee and volunteered with the Cub Scouts. He and his wife Kim have three children attending Quest.
Ascension Health. She is a subject matter expert
Stanley as a financial advisor and lead partner.
for Infrastructure Services, Operations, Strategy,
He holds undergraduate and graduate school
Financial Analytics, and lead strategic sourcing of IT
degrees from DePaul University. He and his
and software contracts. She has served on Quest’s
wife Cathy have one child at Quest Academy.
Marketing Advisory Committee and volunteered as a
They have spent many hours volunteering at
room parent and Cub Scout leader. She holds a BA
Quest. He also currently serves as Director of his
in Business Administration from DePaul University
homeowners association board, responsible for
and is currently earning an MBA with Lake Forest
recruiting new board members.
Graduate School of Management. She’s also furthering her education of both the Spanish and
Deepika is the Vice President of Engineering at SPINS, managing their product development and engineering functions. She holds a Masters degree in Engineering from Rutgers University in New Jersey and a Bachelors in Engineering from Nagpur University in India. Her prior volunteer experiences at Quest include being room parent and the annual auction. In her free time, Deepika enjoys cooking, reading and traveling. She and her husband Rahul are residents of Arlington Heights and have one child who attends Quest Academy.
French languages. Sue and her husband Steve have two sons at Quest Academy.
Alumi News - Continued from page 3
Trying.” Lastly, he was recently inducted as a member of the National Honor Society. Neal will attend the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and double major in Marketing and Management with a minor in Music. His GPA is a 3.995 on a 4.0 scale and he received a 34 on his ACT.
OTHER NEWS: Annie (Schuette) Johnson, ‘99 Annie and her husband Wes are proud to announce the birth of their first child, Josiah Johnson. He was born March 8, 2014. Selena Groh, ‘11 Selena just completed her junior year at Buffalo Grove High School. She took the ACT in December and achieved a composite score of 36! Selena was also selected as one of only 15 teenagers from throughout the country to be in the Jeopardy Teen Tournament that will be airing for two weeks, from July 21 to August 1. Be sure to tune in!
Sarah Farbman, ‘07 Sarah recently finished up her semester abroad in France. You can read about her adventure in her entertaining blog here: http://farbmans.blogspot.com/ Alex Messner, ‘07 Alex was named “Athlete of the Week” for Harper College as she played on the Harper College Hawks Volleyball team this year. Austin McKee, ‘08 Austin received the North Central College Presidential Scholarship and the Naumann-Gamertsfelder Japanese Scholarship for his present (junior) year of study. He is spending the year studying Japanese language and culture at Nagoya Gakuin University, Nagoya, Japan. Reese Bomberger, ‘08 Reese just completed his sophomore year at Stonehill College in Easton, MA where he is majoring in marketing and minoring in economics. He and 17 other Stonehill students travelled to Wheeling, W.Va. for Stonehill’s Alternative Spring Break Program and helped out at a community garden and greenhouse, restocked food pantries at local churches and volunteered at a retirement home. Gabriela Carrillo, ‘08 Gabi just completed her sophomore year at Berklee College of Music
in Boston. She recently wrote a new song, “(I Can See Me) Lovin’ You” that just hit over 1,000 plays. Listen to it and her other songs here: https://soundcloud.com/gabriela-carrillo/i-cansee-me-lovin-you Natalie Brottman, Sarah Kats and Max Farbman, ‘10 Natalie, Sarah and Max were honored at the National Merit Scholar Breakfast. They were 3 of 17 honorees and represented the entire Quest class of 2010 at Buffalo Grove High School. Two are National Merit Commended Scholars and one is a National Merit Semifinalist. Jonathon Lugthart, ‘12 Jonny just completed his sophomore at year Stevenson High School. He and two of his classmates received an Honorable Mention for their video, “Je parle,” created for the American Association of Teachers of French’s National French Week Video Contest. Colin Groh, ‘13 Colin was named “All Tournament” twice in January, placing 4th out of over 300 Sophomores/Freshman at the last two National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT) Scholastic Bowl tournaments.
www.questacademy.org 11
Innovation Lab - Continued from page 1
initially struggled with the notion that they had to find their ideas rather than being handed one, that there was not a common end product, or that we would not answer their question, “is this good enough?� Students were uncomfortable with the notion that this class was about their learning rather than our teaching. Now in the spring, they have adjusted to this culture shift and we have watched numerous students soar now that they have been given the freedom to define their own path.
Flexible + Adaptive = Explosion of Possibilities The new lighting, new color palate, and new furniture have changed the mood and functionality of the space. Students now routinely come into the classroom and either set up the tables, group them together to create team workspaces, or move them aside depending on whether they are wanting to film on the green screen, use Makey Makeys, work on design projects, or continue on a programming project. Simply reclaiming an area
defined for teacher use and not having the FIRST Lego Robotics table dominate the central learning area has allowed the space to be better utilized. We have also created our own project boards where ideas can be sketched, created, and saved for later use. These ideas also spark new creative notions in other students for their own projects. With all of the furniture on wheels, except the computer workstations and laser cutter, we are able to expand making and building beyond the Innovation Lab and we now move equipment and tools into the Middle School Commons or an individual classroom for specific projects. The flexibility afforded by this type of design allow for creativity and innovation to occur anywhere and everywhere creating a culture and mindset around invention and tinkering rather instead of students feeling that this type of work has to be done in one specialized and defined space.
Students Breaking Barriers The tools and culture that has been established in the Innovation Lab has allowed students to break through barriers and begin to build and create new and wonderful projects. We have had sixth graders designing and prototyping new furniture mash-ups, combining the functionality of two different pieces of furniture like a table and a bed using the laser cutter and 3d printer. Students have created controllers using Legos and coins, recycled and repurposed joysticks, mini hockey sticks, and gummi worms for programs they have programmed themselves. We have seen students etch and print gifts for siblings, parents, and grandparents. Students have created projects designed to raise awareness of topics surrounding digital citizenship. Parts have been designed and cut for a tower garden for service learning. Math manipulatives have been designed in Minecraft and printed for use in the classroom. Custom designed play-doh cutters have been printed for Koalas and Otters based upon their current units of study. Choral binders now display vinyl-cut Quest Q’s. We have eighth graders building robots that will teach Otters, Koalas, Manatees, and Dolphins the basics of programming. We are just beginning to scratch the surface and understand what may be possible. We are excited to see what the future holds.
12 The Quest - Spring 2014
Office of Institutional Advancement
Quest Academy Inspiring & Challenging Gifted Children
500 North Benton Palatine, Illinois 60067 847.202.8035
CALENDAR OF EVENTS July Jul 20 | Sun All School Family Pool Party, 6:00 - 8:30 pm
August Aug 22 | FRI New Family Orientation 10:00 am Open Classrooms 10:30 am Aug 23 | SAT Preschool & Pre-Kindergarten Open Classrooms 10:00-11:00 am Aug 25 | MON First Day of School Lower School Welcome Coffee 8:30-9:30 am Aug 26 | TUE Middle School Welcome Coffee 8:30-9:30 am
September Sep 14 | SUN All School Welcome Back Picnic, West Campus, 12:30-3:00 pm
Summer All School Family Pool Party Sunday, July 20, 6:00-8:30 pm Schaumburg Park District Waterworks Indoor Pool 505 North Springinsguth Road Join us for a summer family gathering at the Schaumburg Park District Waterworks indoor pool. There is no charge for this event. All family members are welcome to attend, meet new students and their families too!
THE QUEST ACADEMY MISSION Quest Academy provides gifted children with a challenging curriculum and a nurturing environment. Our program emphasizes sound character along with scholarship and creativity in both the academics and the arts. The Quest community values the individuality of each child and encourages each to strive for personal excellence.