Hello, my name is Tom Rudmik and I am the Founder and CEO of Master’s Academy and College. At Master’s, we have been on an incredible journey over the past 21 years.
In 1997, Master’s Academy Educational Society, a non-profit charity, was founded in the province of Alberta, which subsequently led to the launching of Master’s Academy & College, which at the time was a private Christian school.
Master’s was founded as a research and development school with the vision of developing Profound Learning, a 21st century model of education that would elevate the learning of all students as well as prepare students to be Future Ready. When we started in 1997, two core beliefs drove our development; the first was the belief that all students are gifted, and second, that the system was the primary cause of performance variation in schools and not the people. Naturally, when we combined these two beliefs, the conclusion was that we needed to develop a new system of education that would leave behind the factory model of learning that had dominated the educational landscape and quite frankly still does. Profound Learning has emerged as a comprehensive model of education that incorporates discoveries from neuro, cognitive and behavioural sciences, as well as educational practices developed at Master’s by its faculty and R&D team. Today, Profound Learning is being shared and practiced by early adopter schools around the world.
In 2008, Master’s Academy & College joined the Palliser Regional School District as a alternative Christian school. The School Act allows public school districts to offer alternative programs based on religion or a unique learning model.
In September 2017, Master’s Society and the Palliser Regional District signed a new revised agreement recognizing Profound Learning as the underlying premise for our alternative program. In addition, it was agreed that Master’s Society is both the owner and developer of the Profound Learning model and will work closely with the principals and teachers of Master’s, and the leadership of Palliser district in the implementation of Profound Learning. With this in mind it is important that all our key stakeholders share a common understanding of Profound Learning.
Master’s Society has invested significantly in the development of Profound Learning over the past 21 years. I have the privilege of leading the Society R&D team which includes,
- Doreen Grey, who helped launch Master’s Academy as our pioneer principal and has provided stellar leadership to our Profound Learning R&D initiatives over the past two decades,
- Cindy Backstrom, a pioneer teacher and developer of Profound Learning teacher practices,
- Jeff Graham, a developer of our Imaginal Design programs and most recently taking on the role of Advancement Director,
- Charlie Park, our lead software developer and a key contributor to the development of the Geenius Learning Platform; a groundbreaking technology designed specifically to support and elevate Profound Learning in the classroom,
- Andy Rudmik, leads the Geenius LTS development team and is the President and CTO of one of our partners, Imaginal Education USA.
Recently, Master’s launched its new website, and with this blog we are now launching “Master’s Blog”. The purpose of the new Master’s Blog will be to inform and educate parents and key stakeholders on Profound Learning, to build a sense of community and belonging, and to promote the Master’s Imaginal brand in Calgary.
There are misconceptions about Master’s and Profound Learning and the best way to overcome these is to communicate regularly with our key stakeholders. For example, how many parents actually know that over the years 90% of our high school graduates go on to the universities of their choice and over 95% have qualified for the Alexander Rutherford Scholarship. We have been told that our high school is one of the best kept secrets in Calgary, well we need to change that.
Doreen Grey, Cindy Backstrom and others will blog about Profound Learning at both the Academy and the College. Jeff Graham’s blogging focus will be on community development and exploring what it means to become Imaginal, and I will continue to inform parents on our vision and mission. Our blogging initiative is supported by our creative department lead by David Crisp, Alexander McInnes and Mitchell Toth, and Rachel Primeau will co-ordinate our social media initiatives.
We look forward to sharing the uniqueness of who we are at Master’s in the weeks, months, and years to come.
Finally, I would like to express my deep appreciation to our faculty and principals for another great year at Master’s Academy & College. Thank you for your heart-felt dedication and commitment to our mission and vision. A special thanks to Peter Muller who announced his retirement from our College principalship, you have left a lasting impact on the lives of our students and faculty with your caring and professional leadership.
To Paul Graham, our COO and our operational support team, which includes our finance, building, maintenance, HR, food services, M.E.S.P., and IT departments, thank you for your outstanding dedication to excellence at Master’s.
Thank you to Doreen Grey and the rest of our R&D team for your tireless pursuit of breakthroughs in education and the ongoing development of Profound Learning.
Thank you to our board of directors, which we call the Servant Council, for providing governance leadership to the vision of Master’s Society.
And finally, to you, our parents, thank you for your ongoing support and funding of our mission and vision, without you none of this would be possible.
May you all have a wonderful summer break and we look forward to sharing further in the weeks and months to come with our Master’s Blog.
2 thoughts on “Our Profound Learning Journey”
Thank you for sharing this vision with us.
We are so blessed to be working with your school in Lagos, wishing you great success as you continue your Profound Learning journey.