Programs
Academic Program
Collaborative Learning Spaces
A 21st-century education has, at its core, the concept of collaboration where students transfer and apply content and skills from multiple subject areas in order to design, create, and problem solve. Schools are full of artificial divides between subjects, grade levels, and the very spaces in which we gather to learn. Thus designing The Saban IDEAlab and the MediaSpace were speculative endeavors, requiring us as educators and architects to think fundamentally as futurists.
Girls are natural collaborators and they care about beauty, so the impulse to create learning spaces that would enable teachers and students to collaborate across disciplines in an environment that ignited their imaginations was natural for Archer.
MediaSpace
The 21st-century learning environment allows students to work collaboratively and independently in a real-world, professional workspace. The space includes:
- 12 editing bays fully-equipped with industry standard software
- a sound booth for vocal recording
- a soundproof lighting studio equipped with an infinity wall and mechanical backdrops including a green screen
- a 20-seat screening room
- media arts lab for graphic design, film, animation, and digital photography
The space officially opened in January with a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by eight-time Academy Award®-nominated producer, president of Lucasfilm, and Archer Board member Kathy Kennedy, five-time Academy Award®-nominated director and producer, sole principal of The Kennedy/Marshall Company, and Archer Board member Frank Marshall, music producer and four-time Songwriter of the Year winner from The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publisher’s Pop Awards songwriter Martin Sandberg, Archer's Head of School Elizabeth English, and Archer Board member Lauren Fite and her husband, Austin.
The Saban IDEAlab serves as the physical hub of Archer’s Integrated Design & Engineering Arts (IDEA) program, as well as a space for cross-curricular collaboration in all subject matters. Inspired by new research into the value of hands-on technology and makerspaces in education, the IDEAlab program further elevates Archer’s leadership in progressive learning and encourages girls to discover their passions, whether directly in STEM fields or through applying technology within other disciplines.
The facility is equipped with the latest digital prototyping tools including a 3-D printer, laser cutter, gantry mill, and vinyl cutter as well as a full complement of shop and hand tools to support student projects in mechanical design, robotics, computer programming, discrete electronics, prototype building, and more.
The Saban IDEAlab
The Archer School for Girls admits students of any race, color, religion, national and ethnic origin, sexual orientation or other legally protected status to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national and ethnic origin, sexual orientation or other legally protected status in its hiring or in the administration of its educational policies and programs, admissions policies, financial aid programs or other school-administered programs.
The Archer School for Girls’ mission is to educate students in an environment specifically designed for girls. As such, the school will consider any candidate for admission who identifies as a girl. Once admitted to Archer, all students in good academic standing who abide by Archer’s code of conduct and who meet requirements for graduation will be eligible to receive an Archer diploma, regardless of any change in sexual identity or other legally protected status.
