The invitation to attend the Summer Academy during the summer of 2016 wasn't exactly one that Ja'Lyn Magbie wanted as a rising ninth grader. "I wanted to spend the summer hanging out with my friends," she admits.

Still, she accepted the invite and says she's glad she did. "[Summer Academy] has made me open to different things and experiences that I never would have seen myself doing," Ja'Lyn, now a rising sophmore, says. She's back again this year, this time considerably more willing.

Shaker's Summer Academy, now in its sixth year, is offered to rising minority ninth and tenth graders with a GPA of 2.5 or below. The program runs from 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m., for six weeks and splits the days: mornings for academics and afternoons for personal enrichment. The Shaker Foundation and the Class of 1950-51 donated the original funds to begin the program in 2012 before turning the it over to the District last summer.

The first week of Summer Academy, Ja'Lyn and her peers spent the afternoons at the iCan Bike Camp, a program at Notre Dame College that teaches children with physical and cognitive disabilities how to ride bikes without training wheels. The next week, the rising tenth graders met a videographer who will help them recreate a music video, scene by scene. The students also visited the Rid All Green Partnership (an urban farm in Cleveland) and the University of Akron. Rising ninth graders will spend an overnight at Hiram College.

High School Assistant Principal Ramsey Inman says the Summer Academy has been a success since it began. "It combines small group instruction to help kids prepare academically with personal growth activities that bring in our IB traits," he said. "It really addresses the whole student."