Heidi Treu, Co-founder and Executive Director of West Virginia Academy, traveled to our nation’s capital last week to meet with state leaders around the US. Treu attended the Republican Governor’s Association (RGA) Convention with eight other Yass Finalist Awardees. “It is an honor to be included with outstanding school leaders and promote academic freedom to state leaders that truly have the education of the young people in their state at the forefront of their minds.”
Director Treu and her colleagues met briefly with former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and held longer meetings with the current governors of Ohio, Iowa, Mississippi, Tennessee, Nebraska, and Georgia. These states have varying degrees of school choice options. The Yass organization wants to make sure all states have as much academic freedom as possible to better serve families. “We aren’t here to lobby for money, we are here bearing gifts,” said Jeanne Allen, founder of the Center for Education Reform (CER) to each governor.
“West Virginia Academy is innovative in its schedule, where we focus on classical education for four days out of the week; then on Fridays, or experience days, our teachers provide hands-on projects, social emotional training, career exploration, and field trips. We are also focused on helping our scholars become leaders, connecting them to our surrounding community so the students want to stay and lead West Virginia into a brighter future.” West Virginia has seen a yearly declining of 1.3% loss in population since 2020. Through their unique Ambassador program, West Virginia Academy aims to change these trends.
Executive Director Treu discovered that there is much she can offer other states, “With each governor meeting, we offered to go to their state and talk with legislators. The goal is to educate and enlighten leaders to the many ways education can be taught and learners can learn. The more we open the eyes of the leaders, the more academic progress they can make in their state.” Treu wants to be a part of creating the “West Virginia Miracle” and changing the academic trends in WV forever and she's working with educators from all around the country to adopt best practices at West Virginia Academy.
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