UAlbany East Campus Welcomes Tech Valley High School

 

ALBANY, N.Y. (March 19, 2009) -- Tech Valley High School will relocate to the University at Albany East Campus in East Greenbush for the fall 2009 semester.

The East Campus location places Tech Valley High School in the heart of one of the region's booming bioscience research and high-tech centers. The School of Public Health serves as the academic anchor of the East Campus, and is an integral component of the University's life sciences initiative. It includes the Cancer Research Center, home to the Gen*NY*Sis Center for Excellence in Cancer Genomics and the Center for Functional Genomics.

Tech Valley High School will occupy 20,000-square-feet of space on the East Campus for its 9th, 10th and 11th grades. The school has been expanding one year at a time since 2007. The final grade class is expected to be added to the new space in the 2010-11 school year. 

Founded in 2007, Tech Valley High School provides students with the skills necessary to be successful in college and in tomorrow's workforce, with a strong emphasis on math, science and technology. Tech Valley High School presently serves 77 students in the freshmen and sophomore classes, who are drawn from 38 schools across Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Schenectady, Schoharie and southern Saratoga counties. As many as 40 new students are expected in the fall. The school is the result of a collaboration with K-12 educators, higher education, business, organized labor, and state and local government. Funding for the school is provided by component school districts, as well as the state and grants from private-sector sources, including the New Technology Foundation.

The school is operated by Capital Region BOCES and Questar III. The East Campus already hosts Questar III's New Visions: Scientific Research & World Health program, which gives high school seniors opportunities to explore various areas of scientific research and public health.

"Our objective from the start was a business-university co-location for Tech Valley High School. We are pleased to secure a long-term location for Tech Valley High School at the University at Albany's East Campus. The BOCES have long admired the university's co-location model and its collaborative culture. The East Campus location will provide our students with an interactive, dynamic environment for hands-on learning with the community's educational, government, and research institutions," said Questar III District Superintendent Jim Baldwin.

"The partnership with the University at Albany is key to Tech Valley High School's growth into the future," said Capital Region BOCES District Superintendent Charles Dedrick. "The university is one of the major research centers in New York State and the potential that creates for our students is just amazing."

"Students retain more of what they learn when it is connected to real world applications. This facility will visually and practically make that distinction more explicit," said Tech Valley Principal Dan Liebert.

"The University at Albany welcomes the students, faculty and staff of Tech Valley High school to our campus community,� said UAlbany Interim President George M. Philip.  "I am confident the research and academic activities of our East Campus will support Tech Valley High School's educational mission and I look forward to collaboration between our institutions."

UAlbany's East Campus facility, home to the University's School of Public Health and state-of-the-art Cancer Research Center, will provide classroom, physical education, library, art, office and laboratory space needed by the school to accommodate the incoming 9th grade class.

"The students of Tech Valley High School are driven to excel in mathematics, science and technology," said UAlbany School of Public Health Dean Philip Nasca. "We look forward to creating a learning environment of shared resources and partnership as they embark on their educational journey and explore the fields of science and public health."

"The faculty of the Cancer Research Center have had the opportunity to work with high school seniors from around the region through the New Visions Program," said Martin Tenniswood, director of UAlbany's Gen*NY*Sis Center for Excellence in Cancer Genomics and the Center for Functional Genomics. "We look forward to the chance to expand these collaborations with the students of Tech Valley High School."

Tech Valley High officials noted that the move is the most cost-efficient of the relocation options for the school. The school is currently located in the former MapInfo building in the Rensselaer Technology Park in Troy.  The addition of the 9th grade would have exceeded the capacity of the school's current location.

The co-location research and innovation model of the East Campus brings together the best of government, industry and academic researchers and technology, creating a mix of established biotechnology companies such as Taconic, start-up ventures, university professors, and government scientists who put a premium on collaborating and advancing science.

Through its partnership with the New York State Department of Health, the UAlbany School of Public Health offers students access to internships at the Health Department, Albany Medical College, and a variety of other public and private health institutions throughout New York.

Tech Valley High School students routinely visit area businesses and governmental agencies, learning from the experts in the field and assigning real world applications to the knowledge they develop in the classroom.

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