Enrollment remains open for the new International Business Academy at Worthington Kilbourne High School.

Worthington's newest alternative school will hold a potluck and kickoff meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 20 in room 209 at Worthington Kilbourne High School for incoming students and their parents.

During the meeting, representatives from Columbus State Community College will talk about opportunities for students to earn dual enrollment credit, said director and business teacher Susan Kucharek.

The International Business Academy will open with just eight freshmen this fall.

"We believe the reason we didn't reach our goal of 25 students this year was because of the lateness of registration for the academy," Kucharek said. "The academy was not approved until the day before spring break, which was almost six weeks after students had already registered for classes.

"We are extremely pleased with the quality of the students who enrolled, as they all have a genuine interest in business as a career and are excellent students academically, taking a challenging slate of courses this year," she said.

Enrollment will remain open until the school reaches its limit of 25 students, Kucharek said.

"We hope we will be able to attract several more students for this year through positive word of mouth," she said.

The International Business Academy is a four-year career academy that will provide "a rigorous and relevant interdisciplinary curriculum in the areas of business, culture, language and technology, along with the core academic areas of English, mathematics and social studies," according to the abstract.

The school includes internship opportunities during junior year and a senior capstone course in which students develop a business-related project.

Kucharek said the goals of the kickoff meeting are to let parents and students know what to expect for the first year as well as address all questions and concerns.

"With the potluck preceding the actual meeting, everyone will have a chance to meet and get to know each other before the start of school," she said.

Parents will get an overview of the freshman year at the academy, including curriculum and cultural experiences such as activities planned with the Columbus Chinese School and Columbus Japanese School as well as career activities such as field trips and job shadowing, Kucharek said.

Academy students can earn six quarter hours of transcripted college credit at a reduced cost through an enrollment partnership the school recently finalized with Columbus State, Kucharek said.

Teachers involved in the planning of the school include Silvia Berry, Spanish; Kim Gunter, math; Jenell Hebert, business; Yehong Liao, English as Second Language; Dave Miller, English; Maureen Mugavin, Spanish; Andy Prince, Spanish; Julianna Rowsey, career mentorship; and Kristy Smith, guidance.

"We hope to have additional teachers involved in the academy this year and in future years by inviting teachers who have academy students in their classes to join us," Kucharek said.

Kucharek said she is excited about the opening of the new school.

"The real excitement is that we were given the freedom to dream about what we wanted our school to look like in the future based on what is best for our kids," she said. "We designed this academy to capitalize on several of the main high school reform efforts across the country, and we have research that backs up the design.

"The enthusiasm of the students, as well as the support we have received from the business community, has been very positive," she said. "As educators, we know that students learn best by hands-on experiences, and we are looking forward to the opportunities students will have to apply their knowledge in meaningful ways using 21st-century skills."

Anything new takes a while to "catch on," Kucharek said.

"We believe once students and parents have a chance to see all the opportunities available to students in the academy, they will want to be involved themselves if they are planning a career in business or want to explore the possibility," she said. "We will begin accepting applications for next year's incoming freshmen in December. Students at middle school will be receiving information well before then and current freshmen can see their guidance counselor to find out more about the academy."