Total Experience Learning
At its core, Total Experience Learning® is a framework for integrating research-based learning in all disciplines. Total Experience Learning® serves as an educational philosophy rather than strictly a physical program. The foundation of this educational philosophy is involving students in their own education, providing a framework for the students to bring their own creativity and innovation to their work right from the beginning. Total Experience Learning® students are provided with skills-based and authentic learning experiences that improve their research skills as well as literacy, communication and entrepreneurial thinking. First launched at Conrad Weiser High School (2015) as the sole fully functioning high school histology laboratory in the United States, enrollment rose an amazing 817% over five years, quickly outgrowing its facility.
At Albright College
The program’s expansion to Albright College offers continued growth of Total Experience Learning® and offers Berks County families a more-centralized location. Total Experience Learning® uses a scientific research methodology that can be applied to all disciplines. Students are encouraged to create research projects in the biomedical, genetic, environmental, agricultural, biotechnology and materials sciences as well as dance, art, music, the humanities, culinary arts and fashion.
Total Experience Learning® at Albright offers state-of-the-art scientific summer and after-school programming to middle-and high-school students, who learn to function in a high-level scientific research setting while preparing for college and graduate-level research.
Currently, more than 80 organizations are partnering with Total Experience Learning — spanning businesses, scientific industry groups, higher education, professional organizations and foundations.
Summer program, grade 5-12
The Total Experience Learning® summer program is a unique environment with inventive STEAM-based processes across all disciplines. This summer’s program will facilitate student innovation and agency (Student VOICE & CHOICE). Total Experience Learning® facilitators will introduce cutting-edge topics in all disciplines while assisting individual students in personalized project development in each student’s interest area.
We will help students identify their passions and act on them through: problem statement identification, research, testing and prototype development, assessment, iteration and intellectual property protection (if needed).
The Total Experience Learning® philosophy is anchored in providing individual student support for creative, inventive and innovative solution development that relates to current industry needs. Through this development, students learn resiliency, professionalism and networking skills. Total Experience Learning® is a student agency in practice providing opportunities for authentic learning through experiences while improving and refining research skills, literacy, communication skills and entrepreneurial thinking.
Dual Enrollment program
Focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship, the innovative Total Experience Learning® Dual Enrollment program offers opportunities for high school juniors and seniors to earn transferrable college credit and immediately apply what is learned by taking on a concurrent Total Experience Learning research course. > Learn more
Adelle Schade became an instructor at Conrad Weiser High School in 1996. She earned a Bachelor of Science from West Chester University in health and physical education. In 2006, she earned a Master of Education degree from Kutztown University in biology education, and in 2015, she earned a Master of Science degree in microbiology from the Jefferson Graduate School of Biomedical Science, Philadelphia.
Currently, Schade is a doctoral candidate in cell and molecular biology at the University of the Sciences, Philadelphia. Recently, she was named an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics, Penn State College of Medicine and an adjunct faculty member at the University of the Sciences.
Total Experience Learning® at a glance
- Learn advanced industry-level techniques
- Explore a wide variety of academic disciplines
- Get mentored by current Master/Ph.D. level scientists and industry experts
- Attend seminars on cutting-edge topics
- Access state-of-the-art equipment
- Open to students in grades 5-12
- Sessions are every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for five weeks over the summer*
- Flexibility around summer schedules
- Sponsorship for summer fees is available for qualifying students
A minimum of 15 days will be available including seminars focused on:
- Choosing a research topic
- Developing a product/project
- STEAM topics
- Entrepreneurism
- Intellectual Property protection
- Music Industry Studios
- Fashion and Design
- Theatre and Performing Arts
- Research reports and posters
- Materials science
- 3D Bio-printing
- Histology
- Microscopy
- Humanities and Social Science
- Virtual and Augmented Reality
- Any topic you choose!
- Advanced industry-level skills and more!
Summer 2023 – Who, When, Where, How Much?
Reserve your spot today! Only 300 seats are available!
Who can participate in the program?
All students entering grades 5-12 in the 2023-2024 school year.
When is the program?
Summer Program memberships allow students to participate in all Total Experience Learning programming, including:
Tuesday, June 27 to Thursday, July 27, 2023. In-person days will be 9 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, each week*. Student attendance is flexible. A program schedule will be provided and students choose to attend activities that work with their schedule or areas of interest.
*The week of July 4th, programming will be held on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
Where is the program held?
Albright College
1621 N 13th St.
Reading, PA 19604
How much does Total Experience Learning summer membership cost?
$600: first child per family
$500: first child for Albright College employee
$450: For all families, 2nd, 3rd, 4th child, etc.
No refunds will be administered. Please contact Kayla Gordon at kgordon@albright.edu for additional information.
“What disciplines are included in the summer program membership?”
STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics), Mural Painting and Design, Music Production, Fashion/Design, Theatre and Performing Arts, Artificial Intelligence and Computational Design, Computer Science, AR/VR Design, 3D Printing and Bio-printing, Medical Science, Environmental and Watershed Science, Genetics, Sports Physiology, Business and Marketing, Sports Management … and much more!
Summer program flexibility and membership
Filling a need created by the COVID-19 pandemic and already launching across school districts this fall, Solve-It Berks and Solve-It Berks Kids provide free career internship, mentorship and digital curriculum for all Pre-K to 12th grade students and teachers in Berks County.
The collaborative initiatives are offered through a partnership between the Berks County Intermediate Unit’s Career Ready Berks Alliance and Albright College’s Science Research Institute. Bringing the organizations together after recognizing potential difficulty for schools to meet PA Standards in Career Education and Work requirements, Adelle Schade, dean of pre-college and summer programs and director of the Science Research Institute at Albright College says the collaborative initiative is a perfect solution.
“Solve-It Berks (for grades 5-12) and Solve-It Berks Kids (Pre-K-4) were developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” explains Stacy Dunleavy, program administrator for Career Ready Berks at the Berks County Intermediate Unit. Curriculum for the programs will differ by age group.
“With the various restrictions in place, we knew students would not have opportunities to participate in in-person internships, job shadowing or field trips to businesses,” said Dunleavy. “In addition, business and industry representatives would not be able to visit schools in-person. Knowing the importance of these interactions, we developed a way to keep the important work moving forward and available for students.”
Live, online networking, and recorded sessions with career pathway specific professionals will help teachers and students adapt to diverse scheduling needs, and to develop “visionary solution proposals” for business or industry experts. Students will also participate in small group meetings with trained Albright College students.
“Because Solve-It Berks also provides intern experiences and job opportunities for college students, the initiative is a win-win for all involved,” adds Schade.
Michael L. Miller, The Public Art Workshop at Albright
Over the past 20 years, artist Michael L. Miller has coordinated over 50 public art projects through local community organizations. He has developed the “Public Art Workshop,” an elective course that teaches traditional students and underserved youth the importance of public art in our communities, and partnered with the director of the West Reading Community Revitalization Foundation to develop a 30-mural series located one block off the main thoroughfare. Miller wants students to understand exactly how the visual arts can give back to our neighborhoods. Installation days, when students are excused from their regular class work to install a mural or mosaic project, help students connect with local community members and creates a transformation in them from students to contributing members of public art.
Below are “Hope Blossoms,” a mural project in support of those struggling with mental health challenges, and the “Infusion Center Mosaic,” located at the Reading Hospital, and completed by dozens of local community volunteers who came together to transform the space.
NOTE: Please include “Total Experience Learning” in the donation form comments.