Corvus American Academy – a modern, state-of-the-art educational institution in India aims to bridge the gap between world-class education and the best sports has to offer.

We pursue studies to grow our knowledge and give examinations to keep the brain active, but we have to understand, the mind is not the only thing which needs exercising. We need good health as well for which sports is necessary. We constantly train at school, college and work to make sure our minds are functioning to the best possible extent and contributing to the society in the best way they can. In this obsession with the mind, we tend to forget that our bodies deserve equal attention. The sports enthusiast in us, however, lose the battle owing to family pressure and unable to strike the right balance.

"Since my childhood days, I’ve been very passionate about sports. I have played basketball at the national and state level. While growing up, I really felt most of the children think it is difficult to harmonise and balance academics and sports. I was fortunate enough that my family backed me to pursue both. I played all the way through law school. I was a strong believer that you can always balance both," says Kunal Maria, Founder of the Corvus American Academy (CAA).  

Kunal, who has been working in the sports industry in the US for a decade, always wanted to bridge the gap between high-quality education and highly-competitive sporting environment. Thus, he and his wife developed their brainchild, the Corvus American Academy, a modern, state-of-the-art educational institution, established with the singular mission – to impart world-class and holistic education for boys and girls. It will be India's first academic programme designed to create the conducive environment needed to unleash every child’s potential and turn them into Scholar-Athletes.

Corvuss American Academy will be a 45-acre residential academy located near Karjat, Maharashtra. This co-ed academy will offer an American high school academic curriculum called Advanced Placement (AP) which is recognized by all American and International Universities as well as the Indian Education System.  

So what makes CAA different from any other academy?

At the core, CAA's focus will be developing their students’ sporting abilities as well as giving them the tools to excel in the rigorous academic curriculum. "We will provide our students with state-of-the-art facilities and International faculty to ensure that they get the edge to which will help them get into top universities across the world. Not only we will provide high-end academics by bringing the world’s best teachers and academicians, but we will also be collaborating with sports partners around the world, to train grassroots talent in India at a very high level. Combining high level sports and education curriculum make this a unique combination. Such courses do not exist in not only in India but almost in entire South-East Asia," says Kunal.

The idea of the CAA stemmed from the success stories of the Olympians in the US. The US ruled the roost in the Rio Olympics 2016 with a total of 121 medals, of which 46 were gold. It is not surprising that most of the medal-winning athletes are trained in some of the best universities of the country, which is particularly deem as the Ivy League colleges. For Indians, the Ivy leagues schools in the world are popular for their academics, and rightly so. But it is also a fact that these are also big powerhouses for sports development. Joseph Schooling, the swimmer from Singapore who defeated Micheal Phelps in Men’s 100m Butterfly event in Rio 2016 is an alumnus of the University of Texas.

“These colleges have excellent scholarship programmes to pursue sports while getting high-level academic qualifications. The students in the US are training for sports, as well as getting high-quality education and as a result, they are not sacrificing anything. Even if they don’t succeed in sports, they have good academic degrees to rely upon. We want to develop a similar culture in India," says Kunal.

With an equal focus on academics as well as sports, CAA provides a U.S. accredited academic curriculum with international educators and access to unrivalled sports facilities with professional coaching. Its sprawling campus near Mumbai is equipped with international facilities for academic and sports development in a boarding environment giving our Scholar Athletes the atmosphere to become truly global citizens. The academic curricular is designed for students ranging from the age of 11 to 17 which will comprise middle-school and high school curriculum. Besides, the academy houses some of the best sporting facilities in seven different disciplines - cricket, football, squash, tennis, swimming, basketball and track.

“We have tied up with international partners for most of them. We want to bring a cutting edge in terms of methodology to train the kids. All coaches we are bringing have some really great international pedigrees. They have several years of experience in the grassroot level. They have really helpful network to connect the east and the west, which will help them to be in the right colleges in the future. We are promising to give students an environment that can boost their trajectory and give them new a chance to move into a new league,” said Kunal.

After researching on different academic plans across the world, CAA aims to provide the best of the services in the most competitive price in the market. The admissions for its introductory session is expected to start in January 2020. The first batch of students will start their journey in September 2020. “From conditional training, to nutritional needs, SAT preparation, counseling and everything will be taken care by the academy. The students will not have to be shuttled around as everything will be integrated in campus,” adds Kunal.

The ultimate vision of CAA is to offer children the training they need to hone their skills while providing them with the exposure to compete at global levels.