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Articles
April 14, 2026
The welcoming applause and cries of “you got this!” faded. She checked her notes and took a breath. “Hi, judges. My name is Jayonna, and my product idea is the Moodmesh Mirror.” In February, scholars across our...
Articles
April 14, 2026
“I made trail mix with chocolate in it.” That was Jermaine’s highlight of the year. It was clear that the time he spent with friends, trying something new, and having a space to enjoy it together...
Articles
February 27, 2026
It started with a simple challenge: line up by birth month without speaking. For our scholars from Roxboro Middle School in Cleveland Heights, that small prompt quickly turned into strategizing, laughing, and a few dramatic hand...
Articles
February 27, 2026
Rebekah Hou, a student at the Cleveland Institute of Music, played a short piece on her harp. “Wow, that’s beautiful,” said an elementary scholar from Anton Grdina. “Where does the sound come from in the harp?” asked...
Articles
February 27, 2026
“A–P–A–R–T–M–E–N–T.” A pause. “That is correct!” A grin spread across the scholar’s face as she returned to her seat. Later, still beaming, she shared, “I learned how to spell the word apartment!” Across every Open Doors Academy program this...
Articles
February 27, 2026
The first draft of a college essay is just a beginning. Strong writing is a process that requires reflection, revision, and trusted feedback. For many of our high school scholars, that process unfolded inside Taft’s downtown...
Articles
February 26, 2026
“Education makes you a good person.” That was the title of Tarris’s poem. Tarris, a fifth-grade scholar at our Orchard STEM program in Cleveland, wrote the poem in response to his coordinators asking: “what does education...
Articles
February 26, 2026
Kids respond to sights, sounds, movement, and touch in different ways. Thanks to Westfield, Bank of America, and the Fund for Our Economic Future, scholars in Lima, Mansfield, Sandusky, Firelands, and across Northeast Ohio now have...
Articles
January 20, 2026
Scholars’ faces lit up as they opened their brand-new ODA sweatshirts – a simple gift that brought big smiles and even bigger ODA pride. That excitement carried through the night on December 11, 2025, when...
Articles
January 20, 2026
This past December, Open Doors Academy was honored to receive the 2025 Isaiah Award for Human Relations from the American Jewish Committee (AJC) of Cleveland. For more than 55 years, AJC Cleveland's Isaiah Award has recognized...
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