Pillars of IASA
Excellence, Leadership and Community Service.
The original goals for IASA, articulated by co-founder Bob Asher at the cornerstone ceremony held on June 27, 1989, were Excellence, Leadership and Community Service. To this day, we remain resolutely focused upon these goals.
Founder Robert H. Asher (center) at the cornerstone ceremony.
Each student is directed into a life of thoughtfulness and community involvement.
Excellence in all things.
IASA students are challenged to excel in everything they undertake, to make the pursuit of excellence a lifetime avocation. Aspiring to excellence in all things is demanding and rigorous, but it is an essential component of life at IASA, and a trademark of our school’s alumni.
Developing accomplished leaders.
How do you create leaders? Give them responsibility and opportunities to lead at every turn. IASA students learn by doing, with encouraging support and guidance from committed faculty. The lessons in leadership students absorb during their three years at IASA provide a sturdy foundation for the scientific, academic, business, government and cultural positions to which they ascend as adults.
Service to others.
The Crown Community Service Program (CCSP) may be the most important pillar for IASA students; it is the glue that binds the three together. These high-ability young people are voracious learners and highly productive. It is natural that they may focus attention on their own efforts, sometimes to the exclusion of their role in the community. Service to the community improves our students’ ability to relate to others and helps them become better human beings.
Since the inception of the school, IASA students perform community service every week throughout their education. Our goal is to direct each student into a life of thoughtfulness and involvement in their community.
The CCSP is a serious activity for each student. The staff searches for new and challenging opportunities in which the students have the ability to make a real contribution to people in need. Each year, IASA students work with approximately 30 organizations.
Our commitment to community service sets IASA students down the path to happier lives. New research on brain chemistry indicates that increasing the capacity for compassion activates the circuitry for happiness. Making service to others a lifetime pursuit richly rewards those who give as well as those who receive.