East Voyager Academy

East Voyager Academy

www.eastvoyager.org
Serves 150 students in pre-kindergarten to Grade 8

Program Description

East Voyager Academy (EVA), a tuition-free public charter school founded in Charlotte in 2018, is the first Chinese immersion charter school in North Carolina. EVA serves approximately 150 students from Pre-K to Grade 8.

Implementing a 50/50 immersion model, EVA provides instruction in Chinese in Math, Science, and some related arts classes and in English in English Language Arts and Social Studies. Classes in Pre-K to Grade 5 are taught using a two-teacher model, with one teacher teaching Chinese and the other, English.

The school’s mission is to graduate students with English and Chinese bilingual proficiency, strong academics, and awareness of cultural diversity in contexts where Chinese is spoken. Serving in a rural area with diverse communities, EVA is committed to educational equity for every student, so that every student has opportunities not only to learn Chinese language and culture but also to achieve success in academic endeavors in a safe and healthy environment. The EVA team works diligently to help students make progress in achieving their annual growth goals in Math and Reading. After a whole year of virtual learning, EVA opened its doors to welcome students back to in-person learning in the 2021–22 school year and uses an accelerated pacing guide to help students recover from the loss of instructional time during the pandemic. Within only three months, EVA students have achieved 80% progress toward their annual growth goal in Math and 73% in Reading.

School Collaborations

EVA works with local communities and brings more cultural learning experiences to the students. EVA has participated in the Charlotte Asian Culture & Dragon Boat Festival every year since its founding, and won first place in the dragon boat race in 2021. EVA also hosts the Chinese New Year Show every year, which also serves as a showcase to the communities about students' learning outcomes in Chinese language and culture. To increase students' cultural awareness and global citizenship, EVA partners with Anding Elementary School in Taiwan and launches an international pen pal program from September 2021, so that EVA students have opportunities to communicate with peers in Taiwan in real settings. EVA will continue seeking and providing the best learning experiences for students in the future.

Program Contacts

Ms. Renee Mathews
Chief Executive Officer
rmathews@eastvoyager.org

Junlan Li
Chief Academic Officer
jli@eastvoyager.org