In 2011, Big Sky High School took a risk and created the Health Science Academy, better known as HSA. This academy allowed high school students interested in medicine and health to focus on developing their knowledge and skills as they moved forward toward college.
Now, after 12 years of the HSA academy and “its success,” says Principal Jennifer Courtney, Big Sky has three academies and is working to become a full academy school.
“I would say, four or five years ago, we saw that pendulum swing the other way. And it has become one of the most rigorous programs we have in the building,” Courtney said about HSA and its success with students.
In a recent interview, Courtney said Big Sky pursued the idea of having an academy to help students at risk of not graduating. Administrators felt that because some students weren’t interested in their general classes, they were less likely to get the grades needed to graduate.
Also, the past Big Sky school administrators thought it would be beneficial for students that don’t have the best home life to be cohorted, and for students whose parents can’t help support their child for college since academies provide lots of real-world experience that looks good on a college application.
Overall, Courtney said past and current administrators feel like academies help students get scholarships and better grades because they allow them to take classes that they are interested in.
“The academies help students get prepared for college and give them courses that they are interested in,” says Courtney, who started at Big Sky the first year of the HSA.
Since then, Courtney has worked to have Big Sky become a full academy school, which means that every kid that comes to Big Sky has to sign up for an academy and stick with it for all four years.
As of the 2024-25 school year, Big Sky has three academies: Human Public Services (HPS; formerly HSA), the Media & Business Academy (MBA), and the Architecture, Construction, Manufacturing, and Engineering Academy (ACME). There was going to be one more academy that focused on animals and agriculture, “but plans fell through,” Courtney said.
If this fourth academy existed, Big Sky would have turned into a full academy school.
The MBA is the second oldest academy at Big Sky, and has been around for two years. MBA students will take courses from freshman to senior year learning about marketing, digital design, photography, and hospitality and tourism, according to the school website.
Alicia Angell has been working at Big Sky for four years and teaches Integrated Science I and Integrated Science II for MBA students. She is one of the first teachers to teach in the MBA, and thinks that academies are beneficial because students get the same teachers and are around the same students that are interested in the same things that they are.
“Bringing things into our curriculums that highlight the academy interests that they have, I think it keeps kids more engaged,” Angell said about the benefits of working with the same teachers in the academy.
Similar to the MBA, HPS academy students take courses to learn about what they are interested in related to human health and well-being, like biomedical science, human body systems, and biomedical innovations. These students get to split in their junior year to go into either medical-related classes or to take more education and child development classes.
Zach Murphy is the Principles of Biomedical Science teacher for freshmen in the HPS academy, and he thinks that academies are beneficial because they give students a better understanding on what they want to do with their life after high school.
Murphy says the biggest change from HSA to HPS is the different teachers he is working with. And while he sees the benefits, he also talked about having mixed emotions about a full academy school, noting, “not every student from age 14 to 18 knows what they want to do, and that is ok.”
ACME is the newest academy at Big Sky, and it focuses more on engineering, welding, architecture, and construction.
Regardless of what academy Big Sky students join, all academy students get to job shadow, earn certifications within certain job fields, and go on field trips with their academy classes. Courtney says these opportunities allow Big Sky students to transition right into a career if they want to as soon as they graduate high school.
“The new academies pour into high demand, high wage, high skilled jobs in Missoula, in Montana, and then across the nation,” Courtney said.
