Built for the Whole Student
At Masters Academy International, academics aren’t squeezed between training sessions – they’re an integral part of what hones an elite performer. We’ve designed a curriculum that respects the demands of our athletes while never compromising on intellectual rigor. Each student undertakes challenging, engaging coursework that is grounded in inquiry, invites healthy disagreement and debate, and prioritizes quality over quantity.
MAI’s academic program seeks to preserve balance and well-being for our student-athletes, enabling them to develop not just knowledge, but the skills to thrive in a rapidly changing world. As a result, our students graduate MAI as critical thinkers, skilled communicators, and confident learners who are ready to excel in any arena.
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Our Academic Philosophy
At MAI, enduring and transformative learning happens when students have time to think, space to explore, and support to grow. This belief shapes our academic model, which rests on five core principles:
Quality Over Quantity
Balance & Well-Being
Human Connection
Durable Skills
Future-Ready Thinking
How We Accomplish This: Curriculum and Experience
The balance between athletics and academics is made possible by two things: a clearly defined curriculum and a consistent approach to learning. These are the anchors that create coherence across our program.
Our Intended Curriculum
At MAI, we start with clarity: what we want students to know, understand, and be able to do. This is our intended curriculum—the roadmap for learning that guides every experience in both athletics and academics.
By defining this intentionally, we ensure every student can thrive and every program decision aligns with our vision of the MAI graduate.
Why the Intended Curriculum Matters
A clearly defined intended curriculum enables consistency and quality. It ensures:
Every student has access to the same rigorous learning goals, regardless of teacher or section.
Teachers collaborate around shared expectations and refine their practice together.
Growth is measurable, teaching is adaptive, and students understand the purpose behind their learning.
What Ours Looks Like
Our intended curriculum is built around a refined set of outcomes—clear terminal benchmarks that students strive to achieve. These learning outcomes capture what it means to graduate from MAI: they reflect the balance and mutual reinforcement between athletics and academics that defines our program. We prioritize depth over breadth, allowing students to truly grapple with, understand, and apply outcomes across both domains. The learning outcomes build toward a profile of an MAI graduate.
Champion Mindset
The seamless integration of Fortitude, Sportsmanship, and Strategy.
- Strive with integrity, adapt with intelligence, and grow through challenges.
- Pursue excellence defined by the manner of engagement, not just by victory.
Habits of Excellence
The seamless integration of Readniess, Optimization, Growth, and Organization.
- Develop consistent practices that sustain performance over time.
- Cultivate focus, refinement, and curiosity as tools for ongoing improvement.
Renaissance Skills
The seamless integration of Holistic Performance, Sports Leadership, Communication, and Wisdom.
- Think clearly, act purposefully, and connect authentically.
- Lead ethically while applying insight across mind, body, and expression.
Scientific Foundation
The seamless integration of Foresight, Understanding, Sports Science, and Athlete Science.
- Approach challenges with disciplined inquiry and evidence-based reasoning.
- Bridge theory and practice to understand patterns, causes, and consequences.
Our Schedule: Built for Focus and Flexibility
Traditional schedules often overload students, fragmenting their attention across disparate assignments. At MAI, we prioritize depth over breadth. This is an approach that respects the demands of our athletics while ensuring rigorous intellectual development.
Think of it like training for a sport: athletes practice fundamentals in focused sessions, then apply those skills in game-like situations. Our A/B schedule works the same way. Students build skills, then put them to work solving real problems.
Foundational Skills [“A” Day]
Students attend focused classes in Math, English, Language, and Electives.
Working with content specialists, they develop core academic abilities—reading critically, writing with purpose, and reasoning mathematically. These classes provide the structure for the progressive development of transferable knowledge, skills, concepts, and strategies.
Authentic Application [“B” Day]
Students tackle interdisciplinary projects that blend history, science, art, and design into two integrated courses: Humanities and STEAM.
At MAI, Humanities explores human culture across time through literature, art, music, philosophy, architecture, geography, and Big History, revealing patterns of beauty, conflict, meaning, and moral choice. STEAM is design-led, AI-aware, and oriented toward ethical innovation, engaging students in disciplined inquiry that treats science as a living dialogue between prediction and discovery through modeling, measurement, and dynamics. Co-taught by faculty skilled in inquiry-driven learning, these classes meet in consecutive blocks and mirror how professionals combine disciplines to explore questions and solve problems.
Foundational Skills: Building Academic Strength
Our foundational courses develop core literacies, which are the foundational skills students need to excel in interdisciplinary work. Strong foundational coursework prepares students to conduct research, comprehend professional publications like scientific journals, analyze authentic data, and communicate their ideas with clarity and precision.
Our math sequence prepares all students to reach advanced math courses by junior and senior year—a critical advantage in college admissions and essential for those pursuing degrees in engineering, medicine, or science. Starting with Algebra in middle school, students advance systematically through Geometry, Algebra II, and Trigonometry to Calculus.
Our English program cultivates students as readers and writers through sustained engagement with full-length fiction and nonfiction by diverse authors across multiple genres. Each unit centers on one carefully selected anchor text. Students develop as writers by building one major writing project throughout each unit, creating original compositions that integrate formal written products with other forms of expression. At each grade level, paired classes explore one central theme together, and with teacher guidance, students return to this theme throughout the year, continually reflecting on how their understanding has evolved and deepened through their literary encounters and compositional work.
Language study develops communication skills, cultural awareness, and cognitive flexibility. Students build proficiency as they explore how language shapes identity, community, and global connections.
Electives allow students to pursue advanced study and personal interests. We design electives strategically through "stacks"—multi-year sequences in a discipline that let students deepen expertise and build a compelling academic narrative for college applications.
Students might build a stack in the sciences (progressing through Advanced Physics, Chemistry, and Biology), humanities (combining Advanced English with Advanced Government and Politics), or mathematics (advancing through calculus and beyond). Electives are offered both in person and through online providers, ensuring access to courses that match individual student needs, whether that's Linear Algebra, Computer Science, or Economics.
These foundational courses build essential literacies and skills. On "B" days, students put that knowledge to work in interdisciplinary modules where learning comes together across disciplines.
Interdisciplinary Modules: Where Learning Comes Together
Each multi-week module is co-taught by two faculty members, one with a STEAM background, the other with humanities expertise, who collaborate to design and deliver instruction. On “B” days, modules meet for two consecutive academic blocks, giving teachers flexibility to structure time based on the work at hand, whether that’s a hands-on design lab, focused skill-building sessions, or a mix of instruction and independent work.
What Students Do
Students don't just study content in isolation; they use it to expand their knowledge and to problem-solve.
They conduct scientific experiments, research historical contexts, and apply design thinking to solve problems that matter.
For example, students might analyze water quality data while studying environmental policy, or apply physics, design, and innovation from a sports engineering perspective to improve athlete safety and performance.
What Makes Modules Different
These aren't traditional group projects or surface-level activities, students engage in expert-modeled work.
Analyzing ethical dilemmas in sports such as performance-enhancing drugs or sports betting, developing climate action plans for local communities or designing environmentally conscious new sports fields and stadiums for local communities, contributing to city planning for events like the Los Angeles Olympics. All work is intended for a real-world audience, ensuring students’ ideas and solutions have impact beyond the classroom.
Each module culminates in a tangible product or performance that has purpose or an audience beyond the classroom.
Why This Matters
Interdisciplinary modules reveal how ideas connect across disciplines, often deepening understanding by allowing students to view problems from different perspectives and apply knowledge in new and novel situations. Through these experiences, students develop critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills while exploring questions that spark genuine curiosity.
By rotating through multiple modules each year, students stay intellectually engaged and build the adaptable mindset essential for college, careers, and life.
Rigorous coursework and challenging interdisciplinary projects require time to process, revise, and refine. That’s where Academic Studio comes in.
From Foundation to Focus: A Developmental Approach to Student Agency
Our academic program is intentionally designed in two distinct phases that mirror the developmental needs of adolescents and the expectations they’ll face in college.
This progression ensures that when students exercise choice, they do so from a position of strength, equipped with the skills, habits, and confidence to chart their own path forward.
Interdisciplinary modules that teach them to apply knowledge across domains. By experiencing curated connections between disciplines, they develop the cognitive flexibility and integrative thinking needed for advanced work. They learn how to make connections before being asked to make them independently.
The schedule shifts to honor students' readiness for self-direction. While A days continue foundational coursework, B days transition to electives and specialized core courses like Physics or Comparative Government. Having built strong foundational skills and collaborative habits, upperclassmen curate their own educational experiences, pursue specialized interests, and practice the self-directed learning that defines college success.
Student Support
Students need time during the school day to work on assignments, respond to feedback, and collaborate with peers. After a full day of rigorous academics and athletics, completing all coursework at night isn’t realistic or healthy. Academic Studio ensures students can do meaningful work during the school day, leaving evenings free for rest, recovery, and personal pursuits.
Academic Studio
Academic Studio is overseen by a faculty member(s) who provide immediate guidance, collaborate with peers on group projects, or focus independently on individual tasks. This built-in support means students don't struggle alone and creates opportunities for timely, meaningful feedback.
Academic Deans
Deans help students navigate course selection, overcome challenges, and develop essential skills like time management and resilience. They monitor progress, coordinate support across teachers, and serve as the primary link between school and families.
Why It Matters
This academic program with its focus on depth, integrated learning, and personalized support, is designed for all our students. We also recognize that student-athletes face unique scheduling demands, which is why we offer multiple pathways.
Flexibility for Student Athletes
We recognize that student-athletes have unique demands. MAI’s academic program is designed to be flexible, meeting the needs of students in grades 6-PG across individual and team sports. We offer three pathways that maintain academic rigor while adapting to athletic commitments:
Full In-Person
Traditional on-campus model with face-to-face instruction, full athletic immersion, and residential community life. Students receive in-person instruction by MAI faculty across all disciplines with Sports Mastery integrated daily.
Flex/Hybrid
A hybrid system for traveling athletes who need to balance competition schedules with academics. Also, online coursework supports specific circumstances, typically involving advanced or highly specialized electives.
Full Online
Fully remote model for athletes with extensive travel commitments. Students complete coursework through synchronous and asynchronous online instruction with campus visits when schedules allow. When on campus online students participate in community gatherings, Deans meetings, and clubs. All pathways lead to the MAI diploma and NCAA compliance.
Why this matters
Families don't have to choose between academics and athletics. MAI makes both possible. Whether in-person, hybrid, or online, every MAI student experiences the same rigorous curriculum, the same core learning experiences, and the same commitment to their success. Here's what that means.
Start your journey
We’re building something special in New England, and we’d love to tell you more about it. To connect with our founding team at Masters Academy International, please fill out our inquiry form and we’ll be in touch within 24 hours.