 The Academy provides young people with a broad view of the world and of their place in it as active and thoughtful citizens. We encourage students to explore many avenues of learning and intend to prepare them with solid academic and practical skills for whatever personal and professional paths they may choose. Our academic program integrates cultural, informational and technological literacy so that graduates may enter top colleges and universities worldwide. No subject is taught as an isolated discipline. The curriculum invites students to recognize salient differences and significant relations among major academic disciplines. Students are required to master skills, facts, and theories. They also explore the ethical and interpretive dimensions of knowledge, history, art and science.
BIA has a special arrangement with the University of Bridgeport (UB) which allows qualified high school students to take two academic and/or elective university courses each semester during their junior and senior years. Students receive both high school and college credit for these classes and gain the benefit of having both challenging classes and a head start in college.
BIA, through a special arrangement with UB, is also able to offer its students the use of Wheeler Recreation Center, the Marina Dining Hall, Wahlstrom Library, where the students can get academic help, the Student Center, and other campus venues.
Modern technology offers our high school students instant access to enormous amounts of information, communication and knowledge. BIA recognizes the greater need for internal character skills for making moral judgments, prioritizing, developing integrity, making good career choices, learning to serve and developing healthy relationships with other students and teachers. Academic courses and extra-curricular activities are geared toward the development of such life skills. Community service is a required component of each student's academic plan to graduate high school.
Students will be expected to gain fundamental understanding or "literacy" in every major academic area:
- English Language Literature and Composition: A BIA student will graduate the Academy with a high level of reading, writing, listening and speaking skills; be familiar with both world and American literature; and have the confidence to communicate in a variety of public and private situations.
- Second Language Acquisition: Every BIA students will graduate the Academy confident of the ability to communicate in a second language in all four skill areas.
- Technology: A BIA student will graduate the Academy with a fundamental mastery of computer skills and their integration into every academic area; of research skills; and the awareness of how technology is continuing to develop and its career applications.
- American and World Cultures: A BIA student will graduate the Academy with fundamental knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the American historical and cultural experience and of the cultures of the world. BIA students should understand the impact and significance of geography, transportation, economics, communications, politics, and culture.
- Mathematics: A BIA student will graduate the Academy after mastering both basic and advanced mathematics and understanding the role and application of mathematics in business, engineering, technology, design, the arts and everyday life.
- Science: A BIA student will graduate the Academy understanding the world we live in from a scientific perspective focusing on the major experimental sciences but addressing our responsibility to care for our environment and use prudently our natural resources.
- Physical Education and Health: A BIA student will graduate the Academy with a well-rounded experience of team and individual sports and martial arts; an awareness of the importance of good physical and mental health, physical fitness, and exercise; and an appreciation for the value of a healthy and moral lifestyle as a foundation for personal and familial happiness
- The Arts: A BIA studnent will graduate the Academy with aesthetic literacy, understanding and appreciating music, dance, drama, and other forms of art. Today media arts-film, video and multimedia areas-have added additional areas of development. This is an important area for students to explore.
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