Keep The Pulse on all things USPA! Core Vales in action, Proud Parents, Human Connection in an online school and more!
We are the online school for High Performance Athletes
The Pulse The Newsletter of USPA
October, 2022 o2// Core Values 04// Straight from a USPA Parent 05// USPA by the Numbers 06// Maya Gaudin makes Augusta 08// FLEXIBILITY IS STRENGTH 12// USPA Partners with ROME CITY 14// Student successes 16// USPA RETREAT
USPA Student athlete, Callie Davenport
Welcome from Julie Glusker and the USPA Team
Flexibility Our teachers find, implement and encourage creative, innovative, spontaneous ways to teach and guide student athletes who travel globally and frequently for training and competition - Zoom meetings from airports, chair lifts or golf courses, personalized independent study projects, spontaneous instructional Pronto sessions, customized exams and assessments, and more. Our students have full agency and freedom to do their schoolwork when, how and where they can, need and want - school goes where they go, and their achievements are theirs to lead and ours to support. Human Connection Several USPA students from different places across the country share a passion for reading and books. Our history teacher started a book club on Pronto, and the students ran with it - they love reading and discussing Louis L’amour, Steven King, and many other authors and books with each other - connecting over recommendations, reading, storytelling, and authors they all like! Our college counselor met with a student in Italy who read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and whose grandmother lived in Slovenia during World War II when she was 8 years old. The USPA student had some very meaningful conversations with his grandmother as a result of reading this book. One of our English teachers connected with a student to discuss Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” - and managed to remain optimistic and cheerful after a deep discussion on connections, challenges, and concepts in Poe’s storytelling.
Dear USPA Community,
One aspect I love most about US Performance Academy is how our Core Values inform our daily lives, in sport, school and social arenas, day in and day out. We are guided collectively and individually by our strong principles of Accountability, Excellence, Flexibility, and Human Connection. We are grateful for our faculty and learning coach teams; they have many opportunities to practice these meaningful tenets as we strive to build a relevant and supportive learning community.
We are excited to share some of the ways we see our Core Values in action.
Accountability Our students, teachers, and learning coaches meet frequently each week, willing and able to take responsibility for learning, teaching, and mentoring - and even for failures. They are consistently seeking opportunities for improvement, discussing mistakes, setting goals for progress, and finding solutions for challenges. Excellence USPA students are fiercely committed to success in their passions and pursuits, across school and sport. You will find them standing on the podium, winning races and rounds, choosing from college acceptances, and signing professional contracts, all while excelling academically. These accomplishments require tenacity, focus, character, and equanimity. After viewing one of our teacher’s instructional videos on plagiarism and how to properly use citations, a student sent the English teacher this message: “Respecting other’s work is important, and I’m glad that we are taught to act with integrity and be honest because it is a fundamental part of living in our world and communities”. We think this 10th grader has a pretty good grasp of what excellence means!
Together our USPA team embodies our Core Values by listening intentionally, speaking thoughtfully, respecting diverse ideas, and sharing meaningful perspectives with and for our students and families.
We also happen to love being teachers, coaches, mentors, and colleagues in our quest to provide education that matters. We look forward to a great year!
Julie Glusker and the USPA Team
Julie Glusker
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Straight from a USPA Parent Parents of Student/Athlete David Pyle, Golfer
Real Time. Real Relationships. USPA by the numbers
65 total hours per week of connected time between students and our USPA team
260 total hours per month of connected time between students and our USPA team
2.5 hours per student per week of human connection between students and our USPA team
David is absolutely thriving at USPA. Being able to work at his own pace and also enjoy the sport he works so hard at has been a complete game changer for him.” He has always been a great student, but the long days in a classroom were not always beneficial to him, he would bore easily and sit around waiting for the next thing to do. With USPA he has the ability to set his own pace and really focus on what he is learning.
Our family is not only enjoying the flexibility of the schedule but also the support that comes from everyone at the school. The Team at USPA has been nothing less than amazing. We have the freedom to travel from state to state for golf tournaments which keeps him playing at a high level, while also keeping on top of his school work which is very important to him. USPA has given us the ability to truly put family first while also achieving great academics, and we couldn’t be happier.”
“I was logging in to meet with one of my students who was living on her own so she could pursue her passion, ice hockey. I was thinking we were going to review some questions she had in math. The math she was all set with, but she could not figure out why her vacuum was not working. I taught her how to change the filter.”
— April Pyle
David Pyle, Golfer Class of 2028
— Learning Coach, Kaitlyn McEloy
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Congratulations to our Student Athlete, Maya Gaudin won first place (Girls 12-13 years old division) in the Northeast Regional Finals of the Drive Chip & Putt Tournament! Maya now advances and will represent the Northeast Region at the DCP National Finals, which is played at the infamous Augusta Golf Club, during the week of the Masters! The DCP National Finals will be broadcast live on the Golf Channel. Maya’s family and the USPA Community could not be more proud! This is the first time she’s made it all the way to the National Finals. Out of thousands of junior golfers who began this tournament series across all of North America, only 40 girls make it to the National Finals at Augusta. USPA’s MAYA GAUDIN is AUGUSTA BOUND!
“Mom (Cass) was like Eddie Lowery (aka the best caddy ever) on the bag for Maya, keeping her calm, cool and collected throughout the competition. Contrasted to me, who buckled under the pressure, mostly crying behind a tree and making the sign of the cross on each and every one of Maya’s shots.”
– Stephen Gaudin (Maya’s Dad)
Thousands of junior golfers compete throughout the spring, summer and fall in the Drive, Chip and Putt, with only 40 boys and 40 girls qualifying to compete in the national finals at Augusta!
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AT USPA, FLEXIBILITY IS STRENGTH by Edith Morgan, Former Olympic Ski Racer, Writer: Ski Racing
SELF-PACED AND FULLY-SUPPORTED
that you just don’t quite understand,” says Allison. “Whenever that happened, it was a simple Pronto message to a teacher, and we set up a time to talk about it. Usually we talked about it within the hour of encountering the issue.” Compared to her peers, Allison found she devoted more energy to skiing, and less to being stressed about school deadlines. “They were far more worried, and I think it took more of a toll.” Mollin—who foreran the Lake Louise World Cup last year, and ultimately has her sights set on competing at that level— graduated last spring. She is taking a gap year, concentrating on her ski racing on the NorAm speed circuit.
Allison Mollin first heard about USPA from an article in Ski Racing. She was heading into high school and wanted a school that allowed her to stay with her home ski program at Palisades Tahoe. Specifically, she wanted an option that would allow her to access prime morning training. USPA was an ideal solution. It allowed her to train and compete at the highest level, and also to complete courses at her own pace. That meant taking a couple summer courses to lighten her academic load in winter. Even during the fall of her senior year— while taking three AP classes (USPA offers 10) at the same time as Chemistry and Precalculus, and attending early season ski camps—she had ample support and flexibility. “Every now and then you hit units
Pete Smith first conceived of US Performance Academy in response to this question from a frustrated parent: Why does the traditional academic model make you choose between achieving your athletic dreams and getting a good education? That was in 2013, when remote learning and quality education did not coexist in most people’s minds. Smith, an elite sailor turned educator, was intrigued by the possibilities technology offered in revolutionizing education. He envisioned a remote learning model that could leverage technology to increase both flexibility and support to meet the unique needs of highly competitive athletes; a platform to accommodate a wide variety of learning styles and schedules, as well as connection within the school community. Such a school would allow elite athletes to maximize their
athletic and academic potential, while fostering self-awareness, independence and self-advocacy. That vision turned into USPA, a fully accredited, NCAA compliant online school for students in grades 6-12 and post graduate. Today, the academy serves 165 high performance athletes in a wide range of sports, like golf, tennis, sailing, soccer, hockey, paddling and, increasingly, skiing. Post pandemic, some level of remote learning is the new norm. USPA offers not only a comprehensive curriculum and support system, but also a track record of success. Athletes from a wide range of sports have gone on to compete at the Olympic, National Team and NCAA level while also getting into colleges that match their academic and competitive dreams.
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CONNECTION IS KEY
coaches and parents. USPA students interact with teachers as needed, as well as learning coaches who meet with each student weekly. They can also participate in optional study sessions with peers. Parents have access to their students’ progress as well as teachers and learning coaches. “This is such a collaborative effort,” says McGillicuddy. The result is more kids learning in a way and at a pace that works for them, and fewer kids slipping through the cracks.
“Every diagnosis has assets and liabilities,” says McGillicuddy. She explains that some things schools try to remediate—ADHD, for example—may be the very things that make an individual excel athletically. The success of GOAL led to BOOST, a student development program available to any student—enrolled in USPA or elsewhere— who is seeking additional learning support. The concept of proactively meeting the needs of all learners permeates the USPA community, including teachers, learning The very flexibility that facilitates impressive athletic accomplishments also naturally brings along invaluable experiential learning. Smith explains, “What most college admissions directors are really interested in is the idea that we’re building the skills that kids typically have to learn and build in their freshman year.” EDUCATION FOR LIFE
model with instructional videos and a virtual class meeting. USPA’s 70 core and elective courses are a combination of direct instruction, videos, interactive learning tools, discussion-based assessments and collaborative learning opportunities. Strategically embedded checks ensure that students are understanding material along the way. Julie Glusker calls it, “a learning system that empowers students with real-time, actionable content and data, enabling easy monitoring of progress and achievement.”
For remote learning to work, it also has to offer ample support because flexibility, while liberating, can also become overwhelming. Smith explains: “If you don’t have multiple touchpoints that are supporting students in different ways, the wheels can come off.” USPA’s remote learning model is a far cry from the correspondence courses of yore, with mail-in assignments and minimal feedback; or the folder of worksheets that typically end up in a sorry heap on the car floor; or even the “upside-down” learning
In addition to individual athletes, USPA partners with sports organizations in the States and abroad. Among them are: Italy- based International Ski Racing Academy (ISRA); HPC Racing Austria; and recently APEX2100 in France. USPA also partners with Arizona State University to allow qualifying juniors and seniors to earn college credit and USPA credit simultaneously.
EMBRACING NEURODIVERSITY
increasing population of neurodivergent students. Her “neurodiversity-affirming” approach includes the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, whereby putting accommodations in place for people who need them benefits everyone. “My approach with GOAL,” says McGillicuddy, “is let’s take what works for our neurodivergent students and offer those same options to all of our students.” GOAL offers four levels of individualized support in everything from emotional regulation skills to executive functioning, to specific content areas with learning specialists, to life skills.
Another challenge for every school, and particularly sports academies with limited staff, is supporting students who are “neurodivergent.” Says Smith, “Everybody learns differently whether you’re labeled neurodivergent or neurotypical.” Rather than label kids, USPA helps them develop skills and tools that allow them to work best with their learning style. Carrie McGillicuddy is USPA’s Director of Student Development and Counseling. McGillicuddy designed a program called Guided Opportunities for Achievement and Learning (GOAL) aimed at helping an
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USPA Partners with ROME CITY
“This partnership with US Performance Academy will benefit many student- athletes across the world. Both Rome City Institute and USPA strongly believe that education and sports play an important role in the growth of young people, and it is our duty to make sure that they have the right tools to succeed both academically and athletically. By joining forces, we offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play sports in Italy while going to school.” As the official education partner to Rome City Institute, we will make it possible for student-athletes from around the world to study, train and compete at the highest level while living in the heart of Rome.
Gianluca Bottoni, Director Rome City Institute
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Student Success
Lev Grinberg USPA Student Athlete, Lev Grinberg won the Summer Prize at the Golf Belgium final event of the year!
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USPA retreat TEAM USPA caught up together in New London, NH for the very first USPA retreat!
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Random Bits & Pieces
Want a USPA Sticker? Email megan.burch@ gouspa.org your mailing address, and we will get one right out to you!
Did you know? we have a USPA Book Club! What are student athletes are reading: Maya Gaudin: Fairy Tale by Stephen King Gracie Workman: Thistlefoot by Genna Rose Nethercott Ivan Williams: Jubal Sackett by Louis L’ amour
#GoUSPA
www.gouspa.org /USPerformanceAcademy
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