While visiting Cambodia in 2005, Daniel and Karen Pritzker were struck by the country’s considerable educational needs. Soon after their return to the United States, the idea was born for the Jay Pritzker Academy; its mission is dedicated to educating academically talented and motivated students from low income families in Siem Reap, to maximize their potential and their ability to build a better future for themselves, their families and their country. They envisaged JPA as an international standard school capable of preparing bright Cambodian children for entry into universities in the United States and other developed countries.
Daniel and Karen Pritzker founded the Jay Pritzker Academy in 2006 to be a Pre-K through 12 school based on the highest international educational standards, to serve bright Cambodian children from impoverished families in the Siem Reap area. Part of this model was originated by a school in the United States also supported by Dan and Karen. Providence St. Mel serves a predominantly African-American community in the city of Chicago and also dedicates its efforts to educating its students for entry into top tier universities in the United States. It is within this model of high student expectations, a rigorous curriculum, and a sense of accountability for its staff that Jay Pritzker Academy was born.
Mark Fox and Lisa Arthur were appointed to start the school. Mark and Lisa arrived in Cambodia in August 2006. They quickly identified three threats to students’ success: near total lack of English, low background knowledge and poor prior education. They decided to tackle the first of these threats right away with an intensive English program. By November 2006 teachers had been hired, a kitchen built and classrooms shared with local schools. JPA was feeding and educating over two hundred students per day. Over the next two years the kitchen served nearly 100 000 meals, before being donated to the children’s center where it was built. Enrollment in the intensive English program exceeded three hundred students in 2007. JPA’s first two years were spent in classrooms at local Cambodian schools with part time classes in English while students continued to attend local schools. This program was successful because it improved students’ English and provided them with nutritious food each day. However, it takes more than English to get into university, so plans proceeded for a purpose-built campus for students to be educated full time, following a comprehensive curriculum. In December 2007, a site was selected near Tachet village about 16km outside Siem Reap. A Cambodia based contractor was appointed to design and build the campus in collaboration with JPA’s management team. Site preparation began in January 2008 and the campus was operational by September 2008. Since then it has been in operation continuously, never missing a day of school even during tropical storm Ketsana.
The opening of the Tachet campus was a major development in JPA’s history allowing us to move beyond teaching English language and begin full time education. We now have a beautiful, world class facility providing a wonderful learning and teaching environment. We have a professionally run canteen, a library, school transport and over forty support staff attending to supplies, gardens, security and cleaning. We have a place where the JPA vision can be realized. We recruit competent foreign and Cambodian teachers to provide the high standards of education that JPA students need. School year 2008-2009 saw one hundred and fifty students enrolled in KG and Grades Two, Four, Six and Eight and a further ninety students completed their part time ESL tuition.
We continued to build on the success at Tachet in school year 2009-2010. We concluded our ESL program and enrolled all students into our full day curriculum. Students numbered over two hundred and fifty from KG through Grade Ten. That year also saw the introduction of the JPA “KG Selection Tool”; a non-linguistic testing process that allows JPA to select the brightest children from our area and provides the basis for all JPA enrollments.
In 2011-2012, Jay Pritzker Academy will continue its growth and provide a safe and stimulating place to learn with the addition of a new high school wing with two science labs and the addition of a Pre-Kindergarten program. Mr. Hedi Belkaoui, a former Providence St. Mel teacher and a member of the leadership team of Providence Englewood Charter School, has been selected to be the Principal of Jay Pritzker Academy. We believe that with these new additions, Jay Pritzker Academy will continue to soar, raise student performance, and create JPA graduates that will attend prestigious colleges and universities in the United States and beyond.