Agora 2024

Agora 2024 theme: “Making Connections Between People, Ideas, and Experiences”

During the week of Agora, Nov. 18-22, 2024, junior/senior high school students participated in various activities. The 8th graders will traveled to Washington D.C., and the 11th/12th graders had the opportunity to travel to the Bahamas, Costa Rica, France, Italy, and Spain. The 7th, 9th, and 10th graders had on campus workshops that help build connections.

See the Agora 2024 Workshops

How will these various opportunities enhance our collective experience? How will they encourage us to become lifelong learners? How will they enhance collaboration and empathetic engagement in our community? How will they help to form partnerships that will transform our work and our connections to others and the world?

These are the essential questions that drive our students to become strong leaders and learners, both in and out of the classroom. Agora week is a perfect opportunity to build these connections that support the tradition of excellence that is Ottawa Hills.

We invite each of you to take part in the creation of the Agora experience, to help build it with you at the center, to be a part of shaping your experience and the experiences of future students and community members, to help forge a personal connection between you and this place that will last a lifetime.

Agora: Overview, philosophy, & resources

The 3 Pillars of Agora

It is useful to think of Agora as having three main pillars that uphold the program's goals:

PILLAR I: Grades 7 & 8

The Junior High Experience: Understanding History and our American Legacy

During Agora, students in the 7th Grade will participate in developmentally-appropriate programming and activities designed to help establish and integrate them as citizens of the Junior/ Senior High School.

Meanwhile, students in the 8th Grade travel together via bus to Washington, D.C. They will visit the center of our democracy, see monuments that commemorate our history, and hear the echoes of voices that define what it means to be American. The adventure connects real places and experiences with students’ academic studies while also helping them envision themselves as participants in the nation’s future.

Experiences that build upon the curriculum include visits to the National Holocaust Museum, FDR Memorial and WWII Memorial, Gettysburg, Smithsonian Institute, Library of Congress, Spy Museum, Vietnam Memorial, Iwo Jima Memorial, Korean Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Arlington Cemetery, Washington Monument, and Jefferson Memorial.

PILLAR II: Grades 9 & 10

The Campus Experience: Developing Character and Contributing to our Community

Students in the 9th and 10th Grades during an Agora year will participate in The Campus Experience. While Agora themes will differ every two years, the focus of the experience will be character development, collaboration, and commitment to the broader community.

In the spring prior to Agora, the theme will be announced. Current 8th and 9th Grade students will then be asked to participate in the Agora Student Planning Committee and develop ideas into creative programs. In the past decade, students have organized a variety of exciting, hands-on, and creative projects designed around clear curricular goals and 21st Century skills. Examples include:

Remodeling a house or community facility
Creating runway fashions from recycled materials
Forming a band and recording a CD
Exploring the music, politics, and art of the 1960s
Learning about our bodies, health, and fitness
Experiencing dance
Becoming a journalist and photographer
Making a video documentary
Understanding the “green” movement
Getting back to nature at Camp Miakonda
Using art to make social statements
Starting a restaurant
Training and conditioning for mountaineering
Creating murals for a nonprofit organization
Retro-fitting a tiny house
Connecting with the citizens of Toledo
Learning about religions
Participating in a cooking competition.

The possibilities are endless. Based on students’ interests, weeklong and multi-day experiences will be planned that may include field-trips, hands-on projects, visits with artists and experts, and opportunities to discover lifelong passions.

PILLAR III: Grades 11-12

Upper-Class Opportunities: Becoming Ambassadors and Lifelong Learners on the World Stage

Students in 11th and 12th Grades during an Agora year will participate in one of the following three activities.

Educational travel: Ottawa Hills offers numerous opportunities that may include international and domestic educational trips planned and led by faculty. Travel provides opportunities to practice language skills, to view and understand other cultures, and to think outside one’s own experience. While trip offerings vary each time, some consistent destinations include France, Spain, Costa Rica, and Italy.

Community volunteering opportunities: An important element of Agora is the volunteering spirit. Through volunteering, students can develop a sense of generosity, compassion for others, and a broader understanding of diversity and the human condition. Community volunteering is woven into most of The Campus Experience programs (grades 9 and 10) and often included in educational travel programs as well. Students contribute to the community in their area of interest and are encouraged to connect with community organizations and causes beyond the week of Agora.

Agora interns and student mentors: Students in grades 9 through 12 may choose to serve as assistants and mentors for The Campus Experience program. Participants will work with the Agora coordinator to develop programs, assist faculty in the implementation, and serve as mentors to 9th and 10th Grade students. Interns learn valuable leadership and planning skills while seeing the development of educational programs through the eyes of educators.

The philosophy behind Agora

Agora is a longstanding tradition at the Junior/Senior High School. Named for the Greek marketplace where people would meet to exchange goods and ideas, Agora has always existed to provide a forum for students to experience ideas outside the traditional classroom. During Agora, students are afforded opportunities to travel domestically and internationally on educational faculty-led trips. At home, students participate in experiences that expand the depth and breadth of learning.

Agora is a biennial program that sets Ottawa Hills apart from other public schools. State educational goals and standards are changing and Agora is a way to address those changes. In the real world, the marketplace is now everywhere and nowhere. As our world has changed, Agora has evolved. The program provides our the building and community with an ideal opportunity to maintain our focus on academic achievement and enrich students with skills such as leadership, collaboration, volunteerism, and global perspectives—qualities increasingly in demand in this new marketplace.

In addition to enriching students with 21st century skills and life experiences, Agora provides a forum for the marketing of the district and a showcase of our students as they leave to enter college and the workforce. Agora is no longer confined to a weeklong program: It is now a new way of looking at our commitment to providing students with the best of rigorous academic content coupled with the gift of experience and connection.

While once thought of as the literal marketplace that we might visit on occasion, Agora will now be the term for our overarching efforts to provide our students with an experience that is super-curricular, connected, and tied to a bigger ideal of what it means to be truly educated.

The celebration takes place for one week every other year in November. Depending on grade level, students receive options (see pillar descriptions below) that range from domestic and international travel to local community experiences and program internships.

This week is part of the regular school calendar and students are expected to attend school as they would during any other week. The difference is that the options are greater, the ideas are student-driven, and the focus is on experience. Agora is part of the history of every student at Ottawa Hills.

In This Section