HE3AT

The HE3AT Place-Based Experience

A program from the Superintendent's Office

New Utrecht is one of the Brooklyn schools that offers the unique opportunity for high school students to be involved in the Superintendent’s program, HE3AT, acronym for Healthcare, Energy, Education,Environment, Agriculture, Technology.

The course is offered as an annualized course to Freshmen students who have the chance to stay until the culmination of the program in their Junior year. The curriculum focus varies for each grade level with the goal of having all students develop their soft and hard skills. This while learning about  careers and  problems and solutions across the HE3AT fields. Both 9th and 10th grade HE3AT are classroom based.

The Place based program in the Junior year uses the principles of design thinking and applied entrepreneurship to design solutions to  real world problems.  They spend a school day once a month, at a site outside of the school building learning from a variety of professionals.  Learning is focused on critically thinking about problems impacting students and involves collaboration from peers at different schools.  The HE3AT place-based program is credit-bearing and can potentially provide ‘learn to earn’ opportunities. 

Who are our partner sites last SY 2024-2025?

New Utrecht has successfully matched and placed our students to 7 different sites.  Below is the list of our partners.

• Federal Reserve Bank
• Magnetar
• Maimonides Hospital
• South Brooklyn Health- RBG Hospital
• Adobe
• Terreform
• Brooklyn Borough Hall

Once assigned to the site, students have an opportunity to work with other students from different schools in considering  solutions that may directly impact them, either now or in the future. Current HE3AT students have shared that they “enjoy meeting new people, enjoy hearing from guests about their experiences, enjoy learning very practical skills that will benefit them, and enjoy a welcoming environment which helps keep an open mind to others' ideas”. Additionally, students can strengthen skills in collaboration, reasoning, problem solving, ideation, and communication which are cited by the World Economic Forum as “Top 15 skills for 2025”. The end-of-year showcase highlights and celebrates the work done during the program and student groups can earn prizes in one of three categories (Best Prototype, Most Innovative, and Greatest Social Impact).