AUGUSTA, Ga. () – The W. Rodger Giles Institute of Inquiry at Augusta Preparatory Day School celebrated one year of learning for students with a Birthday Party and the unveiling of a Strategic Plan and discussion on the next steps for the school. When it opened a year ago, the institute was billed as a way to prepare students for  the Fourth Industrial Revolution – including high-speed Internet, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and the workplaces of the future.

We spoke with Head of Schools Eric Hedinger who told us that he was excited for the celebration even though this has been a challenging year after Hurricane Helene. “I’m a thought leader that does not live with a negative mindset in fact I’m very optimistic. So, when that happened, I was the one of the first to campus, one of the first to break out a chainsaw and to help open up our campus and community.” Hedinger said.

He says the school went into the Fall exploring project-based learning and design thinking amongst the faculty at Prep. “These are really smart ways to approach education, and so we did different professional developments and really wanted to grow the mindset in lower, middle and upper school to those topics.”

During the party, Hedinger gave a speech where he outlined the Strategic Plan for Augusta Prep which highlighted three main goals. One is to make the Giles Institute of Inquiry a lighthouse for the community. “I openly say to the community we welcome you to our campus. If this can be a space for you to bring your company to do thinking and be curious and it’s an objective space, partner with me. In that same vein my students want to see what professions are in the community. And that’s a wonderful partnership when we can reciprocate on that.” said Hedinger.

He also says Augusta Prep wants to continue building state-of-the-art facilities through their Annual Fund and campaigns. He said, “The facilities need to be pre-eminent, because we are a pre-eminent school.” Lastly, Hedinger wants to continue to attract the most innovative and creative teachers in our area. “The right teachers who care for students and have a student-centered mindset. Who really have that structure of clear goals for classrooms and want our learners to fail, but fail with a way to get up and learn from that with a growth mindset.”

Last year Augusta Prep was ranked as one of the top ten private schools in the state of Georgia.