Big Ideas

The sleek Innovation Gym at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy’s new Ideas Institute will keep the next generation of technology leaders agile. HOLY TRINITY EPISCOPAL ACADEMY PHOTOS

Holy Trinity’s new institute is building on legacy of innovation

The new broadcast studio, complete with green screen, will be the home of student-run Channel 77 News.

The Cobb family has history with Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy — that’s why they are contributing to its future. Not long after the late Tom Cobb launched his first business venture in 1973, he and wife, Betty, enrolled their two children into what was then called Holy Trinity Episcopal School, where they attended elementary and junior high school. The second generation continued the Holy Trinity tradition, with five of its children graduating from the Melbourne school and two still enrolled. The third generation of Cobbs is already slated to join. 

“Two of our current, college-graduating seniors fully plan to send their children to Holy Trinity, when the time comes,” Betty Cobb said.

Tom Cobb, who passed away in 2017, built a multi-million-dollar corporation out of Makoto’s Restaurant and its legendary salad dressings. In 2019, his family helped to share his philosophy of creative thinking and hard work by creating Holy Trinity’s IDEAS center, a dedicated space at both lower and upper campuses for students to explore project-based learning programs. 

The Cobb donation was the catalyst for the school’s newly announced IDEAS Institute, a $10 million-plus, state-of-the-art academic facility on the grounds of the school’s Pineda Campus. The building, designed to mirror the style, feel and dynamics of a cutting-edge college building, will be the first of its kind for a Space Coast high school. 

The IDEAS Institute — the name is an acronym for innovation, design, entrepreneurship and applied solutions — will provide students with a competitive advantage as they prepare for college. “This expansion will keep Holy Trinity at the forefront of instruction, emerging curriculum and outcomes-based education,” said Janis Pamiljans, a Holy Trinity parent and the chair of the school’s board of trustees. 

It’s a dream setup for students and educators alike — a 30,000-square-foot, two-story building with advanced technologies and spatial freedom for students to learn and create, independently or collaboratively. “Like an artist’s studio or an engineer’s laboratory, this dynamic facility will inspire exploration and experimentation,” said Elizabeth Miller, Holy Trinity’s head of school. “It will be a canvas for decisions, after lively discussion and collaboration.”

Expected to open by the fall of 2025, Holy Trinity’s Ideas Institute represents a $10 million-plus commitment for a state-of-the-art facility designed to mirror the style, feel and dynamics of a cutting-edge college building.

PRO TOOLS

A professional-quality broadcast studio will provide real-life training for students interested in a broadcasting career.

Expected to open in the fall of 2025, the IDEAS Institute will consist of eight dedicated spaces, designed to reflect students’ interests. In the Innovation Gym and Robotics Workshop, they will be able to interactively create, build, test and compete in robotics and engineering. The gym features a student-centered “makerspace,” with cutting-edge technology and a full-sized robotics field, where students can design and test prototypes.

The Design Center and Broadcast Studio is for Holy Trinity’s journalism and graphic design students. It will be the home of student-run Channel 77 News, The Growl student magazine and the award-winning Tigrium yearbook. Educator Jim Hale has taught journalism, broadcast and newspaper for two decades. He can’t wait for the IDEAS Institute. 

“For 20 years, we have asked our outstanding and award-winning newspaper and broadcast students to make do with a regular classroom not designed for the tasks,” he said. “We currently use my teacher’s desk as a makeshift anchor desk for the broadcast, with a room full of students who must sit quietly while we film. Our [current] space does not compare well with the nearby public schools. The Design Center, with a broadcast suite, will allow us to provide our journalism students with the professional-level work environment and the learning experience they deserve.”

Theater, speech, debate, mock trial and moot trial classes will have their own dedicated Presentation Space, which also can be configured to host clubs, guest speakers and events for up to 100 people. The College and Academic Advising Suite will triple the space currently used by school counselors to assist students with curriculum planning, college and career exploration, and more. The Student Success Center will provide designated spaces for tutoring, testing and counseling, as well as collaboration with peers and faculty.

The top-notch facilities at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy’s new Ideas Institute include a Collaboration and Presentation Space, which can be configured to host clubs, guest speakers and events for up to 100 persons.

COLLABORATION

The Ideas Institute will be located on the Pineda Campus of Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy.

The IDEAS Institute will house 15 active-learning classrooms, eight of which will be state-of-the-art mathematics classrooms. There will also be a Student Commons for gathering, studying and relaxing before or after class, plus in-between spaces and workshops to showcase student work, and encourage communication and collaboration. 

In the lead gift phase of the capital campaign, more than $7 million has been committed through private donations. The school’s board of trustees has voted to proceed with the public phase of the campaign. Depend-ing on the additional fundraising and board approval, groundbreaking is anticipated no later than the spring of this year. The new building is a bold move for the school, just two years after the successful completion of the $5.5 million capital campaign that delivered the new Tiger Athletic Complex and renovated the school’s football field and track. 

Through the years, Holy Trinity has challenged education’s status quo by asserting that how students learn is just as important as what they learn. The IDEAS Institute continues to build upon that legacy. “It will be a place where students will grow to be creators and curators with teachers as their mentors,” Miller said.

A RICH HISTORY

It was 1957. West Side Story and The Music Man were the newest musicals on Broadway. Leave it to Beaver had just premiered on CBS. Toyota started to export vehicles into the U.S. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik and with it, the Space Age.

In Melbourne, Father Alex Boyer and members of the congregation of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church opened a school on Peachtree Street in Melbourne. While the physical plant was modest, the school’s goal was ambitious — educate the whole child, academically, physically, socially, emotionally and spiritually. The school opened with 90 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. 

Forty years later, in 1997, Holy Trinity purchased 40 acres of land in the Suntree area and embarked on a $6 million capital campaign to construct an Upper School. The Pineda Campus opened in 2000 with grades seven to nine — and the intent to add a class each year, until it had a complete high school program. The first graduates from Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy were the Class of 2002.

With a $1.6 million donation from local philanthropists Ed and Cheryl Scott, the school was able to open the Scott Center for Worship and the Performing Arts in 2005. The venue not only serves the student community but has become a go-to for local cultural organizations, such as the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra.

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