What is it like to be an Embark student?
Embark Education is a unique learning experience! It is the type of school I dreamed about attending when I was younger. The learning is real and meaningful. Middle school students are emerging into adulthood and it is the perfect time to bolster their skills, values and courage to take on challenges, discover how they want to show up in our changing world, and how to do that with grace. Beyond our core disciplines Embark students work on:
Having Radical Empathy
Radical Empathy is actively striving to better understand and share the feelings of others. To fundamentally change our perspectives from judgmental to accepting, in an attempt to more authentically connect with ourselves and others. Our radically empathetic community places this at the root of everything we do.
We have borrowed the term and definition from friends at Stomping Ground. Learn more about this term and the roots of it from their website.
Discovering a Sense of Self
Middle school students are at the cusp of adulthood and working to discover what the larger world around them is about and how they fit into it. We will be supporting students as they explore their authentic selves, even as that develops over their time at Embark.
Deep Connections to Learning and Subjects
Students will connect their learning through their work in both the coffee shop and bike shop but more than that they will be taking deep dives into the core subjects of Humanities, Math and Science. Students will have extended blocks of time to uncover their learning and pull learning across content without the restrictions of traditional school bells.
Courage to Lead
“Leadership is not about titles, status, and wielding power. A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for recognizing the potential in people and ideas, and has the courage to develop that potential…But daring leadership in a culture defined by scarcity, fear, and uncertainty requires skill-building around traits that are deeply and uniquely human. The irony is that we’re choosing not to invest in developing the hearts and minds of leaders at the exact same time as we’re scrambling to figure out what we have to offer that machines and AI can’t do better and faster. What can we do better? Empathy, connection, and courage, to start.”
Following and building from the work from Dr. Brene Brown, who has done extensive research on leadership students will develop their skillsets and abilities to Rumbling with Vulnerability, Living into our Values, Braving Trust, and Learning to Rise.
Taking Action
This is what it is all about! We learn so that we can do- and students will. Students will be expected to take the “next step” with their learning so that they don’t have to ask the question “how will we ever use this?”. Certainly, this will live daily through the work in both the bike shop and the coffee shop but, moreover, students will have the opportunity learn from, in and around the community. Students will be encouraged to take action and complete community projects.