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Education

2014-2015 Blackboard Award Honoree: Central Queens Academy Charter School

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Editor’s note: To read a long-form story with profiles of all 15 2014-2015 Blackboard Awards honorees, click HERE!

Executive Director Suyin So. Photo by Andrew Schwartz
Executive Director Suyin So. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

CENTRAL QUEENS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: SUYIN SO
PRINCIPAL: ASHISH KAPADIA
5-7 (5-8 In Fall 2015)
55-30 Junction Boulevard, Elmhurst & 88-24 Myrtle Avenue, Glendale
centralqueensacademy.org
AWARD: RISING STAR

Describe your school’s core educational philosophy.

Central Queens Academy’s educational philosophy is to provide a warm, safe environment where we personalize the academic, social, and emotional learning for our highly diverse scholars so that they are prepared with the content knowledge and skills to succeed in high school, college, and beyond. CQA opened in 2012 with a focus on English Language Learners as the first charter school to serve New York City’s most diverse neighborhoods in Queens.

Tell us about a few of the school’s achievements or distinguishing programs.

Our school is proud to have helped many of our scholars who entered middle school below grade level become proficient in English and mathematics. We credit the great work of our entire school community, particularly our teaching staff and many founding members of CQA’s team.

What’s new?

CQA just opened a second, beautiful campus for our 7th graders. It will hold grades 7-8 next school year. We are also beginning to plan out and explore CQA High School!

What do you love about your school? What do you see as its biggest challenges?

CQA scholars are wonderful. They inspire all of us to work as hard as we can every day to be the best educators and role models we can be. They are eager to learn, help each other, and become great people. To be of service to this group of scholars and families is a privilege. Our school’s biggest challenge is that there are not enough hours in the day! Another challenge that we face is communicating effectively with families and caregivers in a multi-lingual environment. CQA’s students speak more than 20 home languages, and we welcome this as a wonderful challenge in bringing everyone together in support of our students.

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