Lincoln Park adds new Pre-Law and the Arts Department
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Contact: Larissa Dudkiewicz
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Lincoln Park adds new Pre-Law and the Arts Department
The innovative curriculum will be open for enrollment starting in January
MIDLAND (December 5, 2017) – Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School officials today announced it will add a new department in 2018.
The Pre-Law and the Arts Department at Lincoln Park will be geared toward students seeking to broaden their skills in speaking, writing, and critical-thinking research. Through this innovative curriculum, students will be able to develop talents that will help them succeed in their post-secondary education and beyond.
Under the tutelage of Mia Frank, director of the new Pre-Law and the Arts Department, high school students in grades 9 to 12 will take courses normally taught in the first year of law school and designed to help develop skills needed to succeed in post-secondary legal studies and a wide variety of professions.
“I was really excited to hear about this opportunity. I think that it is a great fit for our school,” Frank said. “Even when I was back in law school, I always imagined myself teaching this type of material to high school students.”
Frank, a Pennsylvania-licensed attorney, holds a law degree from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Law and has several years of experience practicing law. She is also a veteran English teacher at Lincoln Park.
While there is a strong academic aspect to pre-law, Frank said the practice of being a lawyer is an art, and the Lincoln Park program recognizes that. Students giving presentations or engaging in debate use artistic skills and talents, she said.
Courses range from introduction to law and procedure to legal research and writing. Students will also participate in performance-based courses such as trial advocacy, and speech and debate, and broach a variety of topics like intellectual property rights, copyright issues, licensing, and the entertainment industry, all of which affect the visual arts, music and media arts.
“When it comes to speaking and more of the rhetorical arts, as well as competing in mock trial and speech and debate, these are all very much performance based, but there is a strong academic aspect to those, as well, that involves analysis and thinking and writing,” Frank said.
In addition to this program of study, students will take college preparatory courses across the curriculum.
Frank said the pre-law program is receiving plenty of buzz from current students, some of whom are considering a double major. School officials have a target enrollment of about 15 students the first year.
To learn more about the program, the public is encouraged to attend an upcoming enrollment seminar. Enrollment seminars are 6 p.m. Wednesdays, Jan. 31 and Feb. 28 for high school students and Jan. 24 and Feb. 21 for middle school students. The pre-law program is only open to high school students.
