EPIC Academy is a CPS Level 1+ neighborhood charter high school that opened fall of 2009 in the South Chicago community with the mission to inspire and equip every student to build a path to college and career success. We embrace the challenge of public education - to develop every student’s resolve to reach his or her full potential regardless of the odds. EPIC Academy serves one of the most challenged student demographics in Chicago: 96% Free/reduced lunch, 25% Students with IEPs, 15% English Language Learners, with the average 9th grader entering on the 4th grade academic level. The prevailing area expectation is graduate high school and get a job. We view these "obstacles" as opportunities to build on our students' assets. EPIC Academy has 3 Goals for every student: 1. Be prepared for college. 2. Develop college bound beliefs & behaviors. 3. Graduate from college. To achieve these goals we inspire students to imagine their future, provide belief-altering experiences that broaden their vision of what is possible, and build students’ academic skill sets to achieve attain their goals. Our results speak for themselves: - Top 10% CPS HS in ACT growth - out-performing nearly all CPS selective enrollment schools - Top 25% CPS HS in College Enrollment - out-performing the average college enrollment of other area schools by 26 percentage points - 33% of EPIC Seniors earn college credit before graduation - $9.4M in college scholarships from the last graduating class EPIC Philosophy We believe post-secondary education is the equalizer for life options and long term happiness. Our students are capable of graduating from their best value higher educational institution. It’s our work to ensure that we dare each student to imagine an ambitious future vision and then expect and coach the hard work and skills required to realize it.