Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy

Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy (BELA), an all-girls high school opened in 2017, aims to provide a rich education in science and technology to young women in and around Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.  

The school is the brainchild of Nicia Fullwood, the school’s founding principal, and Shannon Riley, a social worker. Inspired by their work advising and counseling girls through CAS’ Carrera Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program, the school’s founders  “hope to inspire and lead young women to make an impact in their communities,” they told DNAinfo.

BELA is equipped with a FUSE studio, which is a technology lab designed by Northwestern University to offer interactive STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) lessons. Students may work alone or in groups and are free to move at their own pace in these studios, building robots, designing software programs and working with 3-D printers.  

Students up to the challenge may participate in the International Baccalaureate Advanced Studies Program, which is an internationally recognized and highly rigorous program that emphasizes rich class discussions and lots of research and writing.

All BELA students study Latin and take an SAT preparation class.

BELA uses a “restorative justice” approach to discipline that minimizes suspensions and promotes positive behavior through conversation, reflection and corrective action.

ADMISSIONS: By lottery. (Isabel Corpus, web reports, July 2018)