Let's Build This Together

This campaign aims to pave the path in PreK-20 education, particularly in STEM and Research, providing a blueprint on how to reengineer education by scaling our proven platform throughout our state and nation.

Let's Build This Together is the first campaign of its kind in the 50-year history of A.D. Henderson University School and FAU High School. The school broke ground in the spring of 2021 to rebuild our outdated facilities and replace them with state-of-the-art laboratories and classrooms embedded with 21st Century technology and resources. We can no longer build the education of tomorrow with the facilities of yesterday. We look forward to our grand opening in August 2022.

Welcome to an era of unprecedented expansion for A.D. Henderson University School and FAU High School as we are leading the national charge in education re-design. Since 1968, we have cultivated a developmental research school model dedicated to innovation, technology, research, and discovery, making great strides for students in South Florida. However, today, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment in education, where the long-term success of our country depends on our public-school system and the quality of learning it can inspire. As an incubator for the STEM workforce and researchers of tomorrow, we are a driving force for social mobility and economic development. Our reimagined campus and tried and proven educational platforms will be the blueprint on how to reshape education in America.

Renderings & media

Phase i

Phase one includes building a two-story, cutting-edge K-8 school and a multi-use athletic complex. Home to The Cane Institute for Advanced Technologies and our FAU High Research Program, activities within the STEM campus will be dedicated to solving some of our most complex societal challenges from cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, to alternative fuel vehicles and curing diseases. Equipped with the latest educational resources and technologies, this extraordinary STEM campus will be diverse in its impact, inspiring and developing students from preschool to Ph.D., providing discovery through high-tech and high-touch learning environments, housing our world-class curricula.

Unleashing the unbridled ambition of our students starts with giving them spaces to be creative — and places to call theirs. Withthis state-of-the-art K-8 building, we can expand and modernize our campus to match our world-class curricula. Our classrooms will be embedded with the latest educational resources and 21^st Century technologies and encourage discovery through high-tech, high-touch learning environments that give our children access to extraordinary opportunities – to learn, play, explore, and grow.

Few places can affirm our passion for inquiry and our imagination better than well prepared, fully-functional teaching laboratories. These facilities will be constructed to bring the school’s science facilities into the 21st century, as well as allow us to impact the future for the next 50 years. The new facility will include state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment for organic and synthetic chemistry, biochemistry, physics, microbiology, immunology, bioinformatics, robotics, alternative fuel and unmanned vehicles.

The Everglades and surrounding natural area are a national treasure. In order to protect this treasure, we must educate generations to come. The best way to do this is to create a lab space that provides multiple opportunities to discover this treasured environment and the lessons learned in the multiple fields of science and research such as plant ecology, population and conservation genetics, environmental geophysics, and biogeography.

Phase ii

Phase two will complete the build out of our innovative, PreK-20 STEM campus – the only of its kind in the world – helping our lab school district reach its goal of becoming the STEM Hub of The South. This second phase includes:

A state-of-the-art STEM Center to house The Cane Institute for Advanced Technologies. This multipurpose STEM facility will include an auditorium, classrooms, laboratories, and maker spaces. The STEM Center will feature robotics, underwater robotics, alternative fuel vehicles, drones, and much more.

A Biodesign Institute. Expanding our Owls Imaging Lab: This one-of-a-kind lab strengthens the basic science and bench-to-bedside knowledge that beget breakthroughs. Expanding its footprint will advance transformative science. A key feature will be the Institute for Biodesign, which will serve as a platform to increase science and mathematics scores and fill a void in middle and high school curriculum. The Institute will capitalize on our state’s thriving biotechnology industry and create a world-class research talent pipeline, right here in Florida.

Advancing teacher development in STEM: Our retrofitted “district” facility will become a partnering branch of The Stiles-Nicholson STEM Teacher Academy. This facility and program will empower educators with the skills and resources they need to become our state and nation’s most effective STEM educators, engaging students in deep thinking and sparking their entrepreneurial spirit.

Phase iii

Phase three will complete the capital campaign. This phase will focus on the arts as we build an innovative Center for Visual and Performing Arts.

Humanity’s heart, soul, passion, and compassion is rooted in the arts. This new center will be the community’s crown jewel for performing arts, lectures, film, and special events. With a digital media production lab, this building will inspire the imagination as ideas come to life through conventional — and unconventional — media, including animatronics, spatial augmented reality, virtual reality, and 3D printing labs. With dedicated space for chorus, dance, and theatre, we can expand our artistic impact on our campus, and our community, while making room for new endeavors, including a television production workshop.

A.D. & Lucy Henderson tribute & School history

On September 16, 1968, A.D. Henderson University School opened its doors to the public as a developmental research laboratory school to enhance instruction and research to improve outcomes for all students throughout the country. The school was made possible through a $1.3 million gift from Mrs. Lucy Henderson in honor of her late husband, Alexander D. Henderson.

For over half a century, the school has been known as one of the best in Boca Raton and South Florida. Capitalizing on A.D. Henderson University School’s success, in 2004, Florida Atlantic University High School was established as a fully immersed early college model. Today, A.D. Henderson University School and Florida Atlantic University High School is recognized as a National Blue and Green Ribbon School and serves as an exemplar for school districts and universities throughout the country.

In 2014, a strategic plan with an extraordinary vision and mission was designed to reimagine and reengineer public education in our state and nation. The Let's Build This Together capital campaign launched in 2017, the first of its kind in school history. The campaign, steeped in the historic generosity of the Henderson family, was embraced by our community.

First to generously give was Dan and Deb Cane. Their transformative, lead gift of $1 million established The Cane Institute for Advanced Technologies , the premier K-12 STEM program in the country. Their leadership and generosity were vital to the success of the campaign. We thank the Cane Family for their gift which served as a catalyst for giving.

Additionally, we express deep gratitude to Fonda and Wayne Huizenga, Jr. Their $1 million gift continues to inspire others to give to this landmark initiative. Finally, we thank all our donors and the Florida Legislature for their unwavering belief and generous support of our mission.

This new campus reflects the dedication of Superintendent Dr. Joel D. Herbst, the Cane Family, the Huizenga Family, the Florida Legislature, our alumni, faculty, staff, and all those that supported Let’s Build This Together .

We thank you all. This is your legacy.

Contact & how to support

FAU’s A.D. Henderson University School and FAU High School have made great strides for our state, and we’re ready to take ambitious steps forward for our country. We start by building a state-of-the-art campus that matches our world-class educational model. We will show partner schools and school districts from across the globe how to build the school of the future and our programs will provide the drastic changes that public education in America demands.

YOU can converge philanthropy with possibility to unbridle this new era of excellence and help us reshape education in our country.

LET’S BUILD THIS TOGETHER.

MICKEY ZITZMANN

Director of External Affairs

A.D. Henderson University School & FAU High School

tel: 310.704.0927

email: mzitzmann@fau.edu