Beskydy Mountain Academy

Beskydy Mountain Academy is a private gymnázium in the Czech Republic. Located in the small town of Frýdlant nad Ostravicí, it draws students from Frýdlant and neighboring towns such as Frenštat, Metylovice, Hukvaldy and Čeladna, from the large city of Ostrava and from more distant towns such as the border town of Třinec. It is currently in its fourth year of operation. The first graduating class completed their maturita exams on May 23rd, 2007.

Faculty

The director of B.M.A. is Mgr. Petr Hermann. He studied at a philosophical faculty and now he teaches Czech language and history. Mgr. Daniel Vybíral, Paul Till, Jonathan Lobel and Mgr. Petr Hermann are the only full-time teachers at BMA, but this school has many other professional teachers and professors who teach part time. Beskydy Mountain Academy is the only gymnázium in Frýdlant which has native speakers. These are Paul Till, Jonathan Lobel and Jõrg Richter. Paul Till and Jonathan Lobel teach the English classes, and Jonathan Lobel also teaches the website class. Jõrg Richter teaches the German classes.

Extra Curricular

BMA offers a variety of extra curricular activities. For example, students have the option to join a weekly football/soccer game. A fairly new tradition is a night of poetry and music, aptly named "Night of Poetry and Music." Many hikes have been organized to interesting locations such as the local ecological farm, an old Hussite church, and even the ruins of an ancient Moravian town.Voluntary prayer groups have met on a weekly basis.

Trips

Every year 3rd year students with good grades fly to the United States of America for 3 months. They go to high schools and they live with American families. This project started in 2006. In that year there were 4 student participants. This year (2007) two girls visited the USA. One boy is going to go there in September.Also in March of this year (2007) American students from Texas came to the school. They had class together in which they saw how the American students live and what they like to do in their free time.

Other trips include al the students. In the winter there is typically a ski course and in the summer there are school field trips - for example to Moravia or Slovakia. These feature hiking, rafting and playing games.

Sometimes teachers take students on interesting excursions (to Uherské Hradiště or Olomouc etc.) The students have visited major central European capitols of industry and commerce such as Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Ostrava, Brno, and the wine country of Eastern Moravia. In 2006 the students took a trip to Mikulov and in June 2007 they went to Slovakia for 6 days.

External links

* [http://gymnaziumbma.cz/ Beskydy Mountain Academy's website]