Bricolage Academy

Mission 

Bricolage Academy’s mission is to advance educational equity by preparing students from diverse backgrounds to be innovators who change the world.

Bricolage Academy is a nonselective, open enrollment charter school in New Orleans.

This year, Bricolage is serving 700 students in pre-K through sixth grade. Bricolage is chartered to grow one grade at a time to serve at least 1,000 students in grades pre-K through 12th.   

Overview

In short, Bricolage exists to advance educational equity by creating innovators. 

At Bricolage, students from neighborhoods across our city – crossing traditional lines of difference of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, achievement level, to life experience (55% students of color, 50% economically disadvantaged students) – learn and create alongside one another. 

Our students take responsibility for their own learning, they engage in rich dialogue with their teachers, and they work together to apply their knowledge to solve tough problems. 

In pursuit of educational equity, Bricolage seeks to do what no other public, open enrollment school in New Orleans has done before: close achievement gaps within its ethnically and socio-economically diverse student population (55% students of color, 50% economically disadvantaged students). We believe that ensuring equally high outcomes for all students requires students of all backgrounds to be educated together.

Our focus on innovation is forward-looking. Bricolage defines innovation as creative problem solving and changemaking, and we embed it in our model. Specifically, all of our students participate in a co-curricular innovation class focused on critical thinking, problem solving, design thinking, engineering and science, Innovator’s Workshop. Over the next three years, our innovation co-curricular will expand significantly and deliberately until it is woven throughout our students’ entire academic experience, particularly in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We are in the midst of transitioning our Innovation Program from a “place” where students retreat during the school day to an experience that informs the way they learn and interact. 

Give the gift of education

Big changes in education don’t happen overnight, and they don’t happen at all without the help from our generous community. 

Bricolage has many needs, and we are reaching out to the community for donations of time, labor, and financial resources. All general operating contributions go directly into the current school year’s budget, so your contribution can help fund everything that happens at Bricolage. Each gift will benefit every student every year by bridging the gap between public funding and the actual cost of providing an innovative, high quality and equitable education. Contributions to Bricolage support:

• Our talented and dedicated faculty
• Special Education Services
• Academic and Social & Emotional Intervention Services 
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiatives
• Professional Development
• Innovation Programming
• City-Wide Transportation 
• An exceptional campus and facilities
• Student Technology
• Materials and supplies
• and More. 

Give the gift of education today and support Bricolage. 

Together we will continue to clarify and expand the foundational elements of Bricolage’s model that allow us to pave the challenging, rewarding, and uncharted road toward educational equity.

If you have any questions about your donation or how you can best donate your time, talent or dollars, please contact Holly Robbins Hermes at hhermes@bricolagenola.org.