From new sports to a new vision and new leadership, change is creating opportunities for students in Fayette County. Among those changes is a rise in educational options outside of the already established public schools and private schools, like the LIFE Academy, Trinity, and The Campus.

These new schools are based in Trilith and they take a nontraditional approach to education. The Town at Trilith is a new community next to Trilith Studios, previously named Pinewood Studios, that is known for its city center and innovation.

The newest of these innovative schools is the Utopian Academy for the Arts, which will open this fall. The Utopian Academy is a charter school with an arts and production focus to motivate kids who do not have an interest in traditional learning. The school was founded in Clayton County. After working with the Story Arts Collective in Trilith, it is now being expanded to Fayette County.

Students involved in the Story Arts Collective are given a lesson in storytelling in certain careers and then are expected to showcase what they learned in a video and share it with the other students in their course. One of the upcoming lessons is on marketing and how elevator pitches are the marketing equivalent of storytelling. The purpose of this is to show how important it is to have the proper storytelling skills in any career. 

“As [Trilith founders] started the Trilith community over there, one of the things they wanted to do is identify a school that could help them to start building local talent in the film and video production area,” Utopian Academy Headmaster Caleb Land said.

The Utopian Academy will start by opening the sixth grade this fall and will expand to high school from there. The plan is to have a direct pipeline of students who can go straight into the film industry in Trilith. This also gives the students who are interested in the field a chance to already be connected to the industry.

Another school that has been around for about five years in Trilith is the Forest School. This is a private school that takes an interesting approach on education. 

Teachers are referred to as guides at this school due to the student-led learning. Students do not have grades. They learn based on mastery, and travel outside of school is encouraged. 

Last year, Headmaster Tyler Thigpen took some students on a field trip to go hiking in Peru, and the upperclassmen of this year went to Boston to look at MIT and Harvard. The school’s mission is to help everyone in attendance, including teachers, find their calling.

“Whether it’s a learner, whether it’s a guide, which is our word for teacher, whether it’s a parent,” Thigpen said. “We are trying to help our community find their purpose and pursue their purpose.”

Students also have apprenticeships where they have to find an internship in an area of interest of theirs as well as quests. Quests are real life learning projects that last 4-7 weeks based on a theme of a real career. 

While these schools have faced some criticism related to the impact they may have on the creative resources for Fayette County public school students, the Story Arts Collective brings the opportunity of collaboration.

The Forest School, the Utopian Academy, and Community for Creativity, which is Fayette County’s creative arts program, are all involved in this collective.  All of these schools bring a unique perspective as well as unique opportunities for today’s learners.