Our Mission

The Reliance Academy prepares students to understand, contribute to, and succeed in a rapidly changing society, thus making the world a better and more just place. We will ensure that our students develop both the skills that a sound education provides and the competencies essential for success and leadership in the emerging creative economy. We will also lead in generating practical and theoretical knowledge that enables people to better understand our world and improve conditions for local and global communities.

Our Vision

We are and will be a university where design and social research drive approaches to studying issues of our time, such as democracy, urbanization, technological change, economic empowerment, sustainability, migration, and globalization. We will be the preeminent intellectual and creative center for effective engagement in a world that increasingly demands better-designed objects, communication, systems, and organizations to meet social needs. Our vision aligns with shifts in the global economy, society, and environment, which animates our mission and our values:

1. Creativity, innovation, and a desire to challenge the status quo will affect what and how we teach and the intellectual ambitions of the university itself.
2. Social engagement should orient students' academic experiences to help them become critically engaged citizens, dedicated to solving problems and contributing to the public good.
3. The New School must embrace these principles and innovate to address shifts in the global economy, society, and environment that require individuals to grapple with complex problems, pursue more fluid and flexible career pathways, and collaboratively create change.

We will fulfill our mission by extending The New School's legacy as a nontraditional university and community, nimble and responsive to change, that: Our vision aligns with shifts in the global economy, society, and environment, which animates our mission and our values:

1. Focuses on and engages with critical contemporary issues .
2. Prioritizes humanity and culture in designing systems and environments to improve the human condition, an approach that draws on design thinking and the liberal, creative, and performing arts.
3. Places collaborative, project-based learning at the center of the educational experiencehange.