The way we’re doing school isn’t working

Last week, I took the train along the Hudson River to New York City, my seat facing the back of the train car so my view from the window unspooled away from me rather than towards me: miles of the wide river, edged by forests and mountains that emerged then departed, tiny islands caught in eddies, seagulls that skimmed the surface, bridges stretching from side to side, the sky a clear blue, the water flowing north to south from the particular tilt of the land and gravity’s inevitable tug towards the center of the earth. I was on my way to the city for a quick 24-hour work trip, invited to have dinner with Chris Whittle, entrepreneur and founder of the Baret Scholars—a new gap year program—as well as other inspiring Baret team members, students, and alumni, and a handful of educators from Manhattan schools (stay tuned: we’ll be co-hosting a webinar with Baret in November!)

I spent the train ride scribbling down my hopes and dreams for Uncommon Futures. A word map of guiding themes appeared on my page: “paradigm shift”; “less apathy, more engagement”; “new ways of doing, learning, working”; “beyond lawyer/doctor/teacher;” “authenticity”; “learning by doing”'; “alternative paths”; “purpose”; “presence”. I’ve been in a period of ideation and research, caught in an entrepreneurial zeitgeist as I figure out how to make our vision—empowering a new generation to follow uncommon paths for the common good—a reality. I’ve been thinking more and more about how the ways we’ve been doing school and work aren’t working anymore: a model of achievement leading to rising levels of disengagement, addiction to screens leading to diminishing opportunities for connection, jobs evaporating before our eyes with the rise of AI, professional burnout a forest fire we can’t contain. In a 2023 Harvard study, three out of five young adults reported that they lacked “meaning or purpose” in their lives.

Questions I’m asking myself: How can we do better? What will the world look like in ten years? Will college (as we know it now) become irrelevant? What will people need to face these changing tides?

I’m not the only one asking them. There are other dreamers afoot, already re-envisioning the way we might restructure our systems. Programs like the Baret Scholars—where a cohort of nearly 100 curious, engaged students travels to seven cities around the world for a year, learning in real-time from professionals in every imaginable field (reminding me of my transformative time as a 10th grader learning in Central America with The Traveling School semester program)—or the Flight School, where it’s no longer a “gap year” but a “launch year,” and students accepted to their fellowship receive $10,000 to plan an experience between high school and their future, “equipping the rising generation as the leaders we need—comfortable with uncertainty, animated by possibility, and prepared to build a world that works for everyone.”

Since September, I’ve been in a business class through the Center for Women in Enterprise. One of my classmates, Janell Caldwell, has an infectious positivity and passion as one of the few women of color in the truck-driving industry, running a business advocating for safety and compliance on the road. She shared her personal story with me: navigating the internal shame of not finishing college as an undergrad due to cost and lack of resources, she found a job driving a school bus. Behind the wheel, Janell realized she found her life’s purpose—and even found the determination to enroll back in college, later receiving a Master’s degree as a first-gen student. She told me that she wants young people to know that life takes you down unexpected paths, and that’s okay; the task is to embrace your gifts, even if it’s different than what society tells you to do.

I’ve always had an insatiable curiosity about what people do with their lives. Before you know it, I’ll be in a deep conversation with a cab driver from Kenya about how his dream is to coach sports teams, or a 10-year-old who who wants to be a chef. When I meet new people, the first thing I want to know is what their dream job was as a kid, and what it is now.

My hope for Uncommon Futures is to be a place where people can find support to shape their next steps with authenticity and meaning, where they can become inspired by other non-traditional trailblazers, where we can learn to adapt with technology while still maintaining our humanity and connection to the planet, and where we all have the power to shape our own future and our collective future to be kinder, more resilient, and full of purpose.

In the coming months (and years), we’ll be launching 1-on-1 career counseling services, a podcast interviewing off-the-beaten-path professionals, and a cohort model where people can prototype and design their future—whether it’s college, a gap year, or a career—in community.