About 63,000 adults in Washington D.C.—10% of the area’s adult population—lack high school diplomas. And these are the adults whom the Goodwill Excel Center, this market’s first adult charter high school, hopes to bring back to the educational fold.
Goodwill Industries of Greater Washington opened its first Excel Center in August inside a two-level, 21,500-sf basement space on G Street near the Old Executive Building. Goodwill received 2,055 applications for the 325 seats available. Three quarters of the students in its first class are women, and the ages of the students range from 26 to 39 years old. Seventy percent live in Wards 7 and 8, among D.C.’s poorest.
The D.C. school models itself after the first Excel Center in Indianapolis, which opened in 2010. There are now 11 Excel Centers in central Indiana, as well as in Memphis, Austin, Little Rock, Ark., and South Bend, Ind.
Catherine Meloy, CEO of Goodwill of Greater Washington, says her branch saw the need for an Excel Center after learning that many of the 2,000 applicants for jobs at D.C.’s Marriott Marquis hotel were turned away because their hadn’t graduated from high school. Several others who had a diploma weren’t hired because they couldn’t pass Marriott’s reading and math tests.
The Goodwill Excel Center operates five eight-week terms annually, and estimates it will take most students about two years to complete their education and earn a diploma. Meloy says that some of curricula are dual credited with a local college, and graduates will be credentialed in one of five industries: hospitality, security, healthcare, technology, or energy/utilities.
Beth Buffington, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C, Studio Principal with Little Community Group—which provided interior architecture, sustainable design, and brand communication and design services—recalls that the space Goodwill found for its first Excel Center left a lot to be desired.
“We referred to it as the ‘Minotaur Space,’ ” she says. “The carpets and walls were brown, some of the columns were sloping. It was a tired location. We wanted it to be more open and transparent.”
Little upgraded the artificial lighting, and managed to bring in some natural light, too. It made the finishes lighter, and injected “a hip, business look,” says Buffington, which opened up the walls and ceilings of the basement. Classrooms and learning areas support collaboration. And the layout allows teachers and mentors to be visible and accessible to the students at all times.
The school offers childcare services. And Little worked in graphics and biophilia that sup port Goodwill’s mission to the community.
The Goodwill Excel Center is tuition free, and city’s Office for School Education provides per-pupil financing, a percentage of which helped pay for the renovation. Goodwill Industries kicked in some money, and the group worked with a D.C.-based REIT to get a tenant allowance. The school also has corporate sponsors that include Capitol One and SunTrust.
Meloy says the goal is to have five Excel Centers in the D.C. area, and expects the second school to open by 2018. “The first was meant to be replicable so there would be branding and a consistent color tone,” she says.
Related Stories
| Nov 20, 2012
PC Construction completes Juniper Hall at Champlain College
Juniper Hall is on track for LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
| Nov 11, 2012
Greenbuild 2012 Report: Higher Education
More and more colleges and universities see sustainainably designed buildings as a given
| Oct 4, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Awards Gold Winner: Wake Forest Biotech Place, Winston-Salem, N.C.
Reconstruction centered on Building 91.1, a historic (1937) five-story former machine shop, with its distinctive façade of glass blocks, many of which were damaged. The Building Team repointed, relocated, or replaced 65,869 glass blocks.
| Sep 7, 2012
Net-zero energy pioneers on the el-hi frontier
Getting to net-zero is not easy, but the promise of eliminating energy bills and using state-of-the-art technology as a learning lab can make a compelling case to reach for net-zero.
| Aug 30, 2012
John S Clark Co. completes teaching lab at UNC Wilmington
Three-story building provides offices, classrooms, and labs.
| Aug 15, 2012
Skanska to build the Beacon High School in New York City
The Beacon High School will be located in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan.
| Aug 7, 2012
Shedding light on the arts
Renovating Pietro Belluschi’s Juilliard School opens the once-cloistered institution to its Upper West Side community.
| Jul 25, 2012
KBE Building renovates UConn dining hall
Construction for McMahon Dining Hall will be completed in September 2012.
| Jul 20, 2012
2012 Giants 300 Special Report
Ranking the leading firms in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction.
| Jul 16, 2012
Business school goes for maximum vision, transparency, and safety with fire rated glass
Architects were able to create a 2-hour exit enclosure/stairwell that provided vision and maximum fire safety using fire rated glazing that seamlessly matched the look of other non-rated glazing systems.
