A Note from the Founder

Growing up, I witnessed Wikipedia on a laptop replace Encarta on a desktop replace WorldBook encyclopedias on a bookshelf. I’ve never known a world that wasn’t changing. And neither will today’s high school students.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t know what the future will hold. We live in a world that rewards people who can navigate ambiguity, tell persuasive stories, make good decisions, and collaborate effectively. Yet, these skills are too rarely taught in schools. 

A belief I share with all of our teachers and curriculum developers is that these skills are so integral to personal success and collective progress that we should give every high school student the opportunity to learn them. 

We also owe it to the next generation to educate them about the big issues of our times: we know that there is a teen mental health crisis now and that climate change may become the defining crisis of our future. And we need to reckon with our past to build a more inclusive future. 

Our classes offer opportunities to grapple with societal challenges and build valuable skills. Our design team includes recent alumni of top universities, who infuse our classes with the ideas and skills they wish they had learned in high school. 

We put just as much effort into how we teach as what we teach. This approach works: students consistently tell us that they didn’t just learn from our classes, but that our classes make them excited to learn more after the class ends.

We’d love for you to join our community and help us write our story, the story of what high school education can be in the 21st century. 

Sarah Dillard, Founder