Connection & Adventure Our middle school students began the school year with an exciting trip to Candlelight Ranch, where they had the opportunity to build relationships, challenge themselves, and reflect on the kind of community they want to create together this year. Over the course of three days, students participated in activities designed to develop...
Dr. Karyn Hopper Rayburn begins her first year as Head of School at AJA and her 27th year in education. She holds a PhD in linguistics and a master’s degree in literature, speaks three languages, and is proudly a Hoosier, a Vol, and a Longhorn. Throughout her career, Karyn has been guided by a deep...
How can we take care of plants and animals? That was the driving question behind AJA’s first graders’ project-based learning unit — and they answered it in a big way. Over the course of this PBL, students dove deep into the natural world. They explored life cycles (birds, frogs, butterflies), studied animal classification, investigated what...
Beloved former AJA teacher, returning to AJA to teach middle school science and engineering. Kathleen Rosenmann’s return to Austin Jewish Academy marks both a homecoming and an exciting new chapter for the school’s science and engineering programs. A longtime member of the AJA community—as both an educator and parent—Kathleen brings with her decades of experience...
Get to Know AJA’s Incoming HOS Austin Jewish Academy is pleased to welcome Karyn Rayburn as our incoming Head of School, beginning in the 2026–2027 academic year. With more than a decade of leadership experience at Trinity Episcopal School of Austin, along with a background in both higher education and K–8 classrooms, Karyn brings a...
Middle school students recently took their understanding of the circulatory system to the next level through an engaging Project Lead The Way (PLTW) Engineering activity that brought science and design together in a hands-on way. As students learned about the heart and blood vessels in science class, they simultaneously applied those concepts in engineering by...
