Overview
Nobel Academy is a U.S.-based, independent educational research and training institute with a campus based at Harvard Square. Founded by a group of former researchers from Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia, the academy strives to cultivate next-generation leaders with Chinese backgrounds in various disciplines.
As a testbed for future educational reform, we admit only a very few students aged 15 to 20 each year to facilitate advanced, smart curriculum development. Since we are small, we have very strict guidelines for our admissions process. Students who come to our academy are generally selected from a wide variety of schools all over the world on a highly competitive basis. We only take the very best students for academic and character training.
We provide blended instruction for our students via a high-quality online learning model along with on-site coaching. Typical subjects studied in steps at Nobel include English, mathematics, modern foreign languages, and natural sciences. While we don’t offer AP classes, we have a course-share program with Harvard. Two-thirds of courses are taught online and students are usually required to come to Harvard to take two undergraduate-level courses for their last year of high school in order to graduate from our academy. We impart to them full academic and character training through a pilot program designed by some distinguished scholars in the educational field at Harvard and Columbia. At the same time, we facilitate a Western-style learning mechanism which provides them with excellent preparation for college studies in the U.S.
History
In 2004, we opened a little window in Beijing by founding Capstone Academy and started to bring qualified students onboard for educational research and practice. In 2015, we moved Capstone Academy into Cambridge and renamed it as Nobel Academy. We selected exceptional students from many top high schools across China and taught them with our renovated curriculum. These students might not have been considered unusual in their own schools based upon Chinese standards and those of the Western world, but they were unusual in our eyes. They might not have been the top students from an academic perspective, but they were tops in potential both academically and spiritually. To re-engineer the educational system in China, we approached the challenge in two ways. The first was to renovate the curriculum (the software part) by developing a knowledge-based, self-motivated, interactive learning platform; the second was to revamp teaching methods (the hardware part) by developing an intelligent auto tutor to assist students in self-learning. Throughout the whole curriculum, we strengthened our teaching philosophy by emphasizing self-motivation and self-discipline, which are critical for effective education. We believe that these qualities are the most important building blocks for a rewarding future.
We pay great attention to strengthening students’ characters. We believe that people’s ability may get them to the top, but it takes character to keep them there. Thus, building a healthy personal character is the main theme of our entire teaching processes at Nobel. What we have done is to repair the major defects in the current Chinese education system and re-engineer it to convert the existing test-oriented system into a competence-oriented one which finally yields the great harvest—allowing many otherwise lame students to walk freely through effective character-building programs.
We also give considerable attention to building students’ leadership skills. We believe that leadership is about serving. We position ourselves as servants to others, as each individual relies on services from others to survive on this planet. To become a leading servant, personal competence, ethics, and vision are the most important elements which contribute to building a successful and valuable life. We have a profound understanding of human nature. We don’t care too much about whether our students can make A’s, B’s, or C’s academically; we are far more interested in a student’s spirit than that student’s performance. We firmly believe that, if a person adopts the right spirit, performance levels will take care of themselves. Therefore, we impart to our students the underlying strength of character that gives them the necessary energy and decision-making ability to live their lives productively by strengthening them with internal power through instilling the right spirit in their inner selves. “Only a righteous man can do a righteous job.” That is what we always tell our students. Personal integrity and honesty are the most precious assets of our lives and the best protection from being attacked by that which is evil.
Nobel Academy strives to help young people achieve their potential not only intellectually but also artistically and morally so that they may lead responsible and purpose-driven lives. Therefore, we guide students not just in mastering skills and acquiring knowledge but also in thinking critically, creatively, and independently. We defend educational diversity by encouraging people with various backgrounds and beliefs to understand and respect one another. At the same time, we seek to promote a balance of leadership, cooperation, and service together with a deeper awareness of the global community and the natural world. We advocate truth and love and always remind students of our altruistic principles: We are born not for the benefit of ourselves but to be a blessing for the world. This obligation challenges us in mind, body, and spirit both to see interests beyond ourselves for common growth and to go beyond the familiar, to remain committed to developing what is best in ourselves and in others for both those others and ourselves.
Mission
Being a parent today is hard. Everyone has different opinion on how to raise our children. Nobel Academy aims to advise parents regarding child rearing, especially building effective communication system with teenage children, based on scientific research evidence. There is no standard manual that you can follow to raise a healthy, intelligent and happy child. Often as parents, we fall back on responding to our children in the way that our parents responded to us. Yet, often, such responses don’t work well with our children. Our mission is to help parents make informed, educated and conscious choices in how to parent their children.
Research
Nobel Academy is a research institute based in Cambridge, MA to conduct comprehensive educational research and curriculum development aiming to educate parents about new research findings and development in child development from K-Adolescence.
Specifically, we utilize research findings in cognitive science, child psychology, social psychology and neuro science to inform parent’s decision making about their children’s up brining. We help parents understand how children’s beliefs about themselves, their own intelligence, their parents, and their behaviors change over time and how parents’ actions and verbal communications can impact their growth negatively and positively. Most importantly, how to develop a healthy relationship with your children so they have a solid emotional and cognitive foundation to live a productive and powerful life.
