Empowering students for a brighter future.
Supporting education and innovation.
At Vail Performance Academy, we believe today’s bright, capable student-athletes deserve more than a one-size-fits-all education. Our mission is to break free from the limits of traditional classrooms by delivering experiential, project-based learning anchored by passionate local teachers, hands-on industry experts, and inspiring global mentors. By blending academic and athletic rigor with real-world exploration, we empower students to turn knowledge into action, preparing them not just for exams, but for life.
Our Approach: Personalized, Purpose-Driven, and Mentored by Experts
Vail Performance Academy is a full-time, NCAA-eligible private micro-school built for elite student-athletes in grades 9–12. Our program is designed to break the mold of traditional education by combining rigorous academics with real-world application, expert mentorship, and global service.
Students complete a full slate of NCAA-approved core courses, ensuring eligibility for collegiate athletics, alongside a robust menu of experiential electives. Each course is built around a unique instructional model that includes:
A dedicated local teacher providing foundational instruction
An industry expert offering hands-on perspective
A world-class mentor guiding big-picture thinking
Project-based final deliverables that reflect real-world impact
Immersive off-campus experiences tied directly to course content
Traditional, A-F grading system
Our flexible quarter-based schedule allows students to choose any three of four 11-week terms, creating space for training, travel, or seasonal competition. Students may also opt into a summer quarter for acceleration, extended mentorship, or service work.
Whether designing a business pitch, building a nonprofit program, or producing a research project, students learn through doing—with guidance from CEOs, Olympians, scientists, artists, and innovators. These mentor-driven electives bring relevance, challenge, and inspiration into every learning experience.
Every student participates in international service trips and ongoing domestic experiential learning. Past work has included supporting stateless Haitian immigrants in the Bahamas, offering a powerful platform for leadership, empathy, and global citizenship.
Solving Global Challenges
At Vail Performance Academy, our mission is to equip students to lead with purpose by engaging in real-world experiences that build empathy, compassion, and critical thinking. Through immersive, hands-on learning, students don’t just study the world, they step into it. This year, 12 of our students worked directly with Haitian immigrants in the Bahamas, applying their learning to support communities in need while gaining a deeper understanding of global responsibility.
A Community of Experts
At Vail Performance Academy, students don’t just learn from teachers, they learn alongside experts. Every three weeks, our students engage in immersive, project-based courses designed and co-taught by passionate educators and world-class mentors from across industries. From CEOs and Olympians to scientists, artists, and nonprofit leaders, these mentors bring global perspective, cutting-edge insight, and real-world relevance into the classroom.
“the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and as a people.”
A Nation at Risk (1983)
Why a Micro School?
The current American public education model was highly-effective at supporting society through the industrial age but is now tired and sclerotic. For example, the current hiring conditions among public schools have led to large deficits in the number and quality of available educator candidates, and students reporting low engagement, low relevancy and low hope, and colleges are reporting that kids are less and less prepared for academia
“Sam is the best teacher I’ve ever had. He talks up to people rather than down. He encourages doing the right thing simply for the sake of doing so. He is hilarious, overwhelmingly positive, and humbly tenacious.”
— Owen Grimmer
