Or maybe you want to stay engaged, creative, and productive this year but just don't know where to start.
Introducing:
DEVELOP YOUR LEADERSHIP CAPACITY
Receive access to an OnDemand video curriculum with all the tools you need to create a self-directed project.
FIND YOUR PROJECT
Your Creativity + A Problem in Our World = Opportunity to Make a Difference
WATCH WORKSHOP SESSIONS
Watch past workshop sessions with me (Bonnie), where we brainstorm ideas, give and receive feedback, and troubleshoot problems.
LEARN ABOUT YOURSELF
What are my core values?
What am I really good at?
What do I love to do?
COLLABORATE ON DISCORD
Collaborate with a community of motivated peers via a private Discord community. Make personal connections, find accountability buddies, and work in teams.
CREATE A PLAN
Whether you decide to launch your project, or just explore a new interest, you’ll have the tools and resources to make it happen.
-Linda, Uncommon Summer Student
- How to identify your core values and how they manifest in your life
- How do you lead? Are you more comfortable out front (envisioning big ideas) or in a supporting role (helping others get things done)?
- Receive access to an OnDemand video curriculum with all the tools you need to create, launch, and level-up your self-directed project
- Receive access to our recorded workshop sessions with me (Bonnie), where we brainstorm ideas, give and receive feedback on each other’s projects, and troubleshoot problems and roadblocks as a group
- Read and watch a curated selection of great articles & videos about how to grow as a self-directed learner and generally become a more thoughtful and productive person
- You'll join a community of your peers where you'll connect, collaborate, and share ideas
You’ll also learn practical skills, such as how to:
- Remain calm in the face of adversity
- Identify problems in your community that matter to you and how to brainstorm potential solutions
- Avoid the pitfalls of perfectionism
- Scope a project (to avoid potential overwhelm)
- Use the internet (better) to research your project
- Write an effective vision and mission statement
- Create a to-do list and schedule that works
And yes, we realize many students are balancing other priorities. That’s why all the homework for this course is optional.
This program is for students who:
- Want to brainstorm a cool project idea to keep them busy
- Have a lot of creative ideas, but need some structure in order to put them into practice
- Are already working on a project and looking for more ideas/tools/inspiration
- Want to make a tangible contribution to their community or the larger world
- Don't have an idea for a project, but simply want to learn more about who they are and how they work
The OnDemand curriculum is made up of 19 exercises that give you all the tools you'll need to undertake a self-directed project, from start to finish.
We start with building capacity as a self-directed learner and leader, and finish with tools for marketing and reaching a wider audience.
You’ll have the guidance of the OnDemand videos, the Uncommon Workbook to hold all your work in one place, and the Uncommon Discord Community to workshop and share ideas.
- Designing a line of up-cycled clothing and selling it on Depop Publishing a photography website
- Producing a podcast about space flight
- Creating a virtual speaker series at your school
- Renovating a bedroom
- Launching a food or clothing drive
- Constructing native bee boxes in a local county park
- Designing and creating a garden
- Designing an online course to teach people how to build their own computers
- Hand printing t-shirts and donating the proceeds to racial equity organizations
- Launching an online custom illustration business on Etsy
- Finding interesting ways to help homeschool your younger siblings
- Building or renovating a bedroom, treehouse, or car
- Writing or producing a book, podcast, album, film, app, video game
- Organizing a virtual talent show, hackathon, poetry slam, storytelling night, concert, art show
- Creating a virtual career day panel to speak to students about their paths
-Brittney, Uncommon Summer Student
Hi, I’m Bonnie!
As soon as I arrived in high school, I felt like something was off. My school’s academic and social environment wasn’t a good fit for me.
Luckily, one of my friends gave me a copy of the Teenage Liberation Handbook. It seemed a little radical, but the author was actually advocating for ambitious students to drop out of high school as a strategy for getting into college and pursuing their dreams. I realized that I could probably be more productive outside of school, so I made the leap!
After I quit full-time school, I signed up for correspondence courses, volunteered at a local nonprofit, worked in construction, slung coffee (as we say in Seattle), traveled for several months in Australia and Fiji, learned to surf, taught English in Japan, attended community college, and then finished the International Baccalaureate at an international school in Norway.
When college applications came around, I was accepted to every university that I applied to, with full scholarship offers at most. After taking a gap year, I went to Stanford for a BA in History, then moved to Sweden, where I completed an MFA at Konstfack. I worked for a number of years as a producer with the Stanford Storytelling Project, and now I am back in my native Seattle, working as a writer, editor, and academic coach.
Those un-schooling years were truly formative in my life, and I'm grateful that I took that initial risk of doing something different with my time in high school. While I don’t think that dropping out of school is a good idea for everybody, especially students who are happy, I do think that learning to recognize one’s own sense of purpose and taking action toward fulfilling it can help one live a more authentic life.
That’s my goal with this program: to help you find your sense of purpose, and take action toward fulfilling it. And perhaps it will make your college application more competitive as well.
+How do I log in?
If you have purchased any of our online video courses or live webinars, you can login by going to the website menu bar > Log In > Online Courses. You can view that page here. From there you can access all of your products in your library.
+Are live sessions recorded?
Yes! Live sessions will be recorded and hosted inside your course account inside the relevant session module.
+What’s the homework?
You can find the homework in your course syllabus (linked above). Each week, we’ll ask you to complete optional brainstorming exercises or work on your essays in preparation for the upcoming live session.
+How long do I have access to the course?
Students have access to the course for one year from the date of purchase.
+Are essay reviews included with the course?
Unfortunately we have a small team and are not currently able to guarantee essay reviews as a part of this course.
However, sometimes Ethan may ask for students to submit a few essay drafts to review during the live sessions as an example for the group. In this case, we will let you know during the course where to send essays for a potential review.
+Who is a good fit for this course?
This is built for students who are doers, or at least ready to shift into “do something” mode. This is also for students who have a lot of creative ideas, but need the structure and tools to get started. (And if this isn’t you, here’s a list of 11 Things You Can Do This Summer That Don’t Involve Saving the World or our larger post, How to Spend Your High School Summer
Really, though, we want to prepare the next generation of leaders who are coming of age in a highly complex and unprecedented historical moment. In that sense, if you’re between the ages of 14 and 17 and personal development is your thing, we’d love for you to join us.
+How much time do I need to invest?
It depends. If you want, you can watch the four 90-minute sessions (so 6 hrs total) and learn a lot. Other students, however, will get inspired by the resources and ideas they discover and may end up spending 10 hours or more per week on their project.
Remember: All the homework is optional, so it’s kind of up to you.
+How can I do an independent project if I’m stuck at home?
Technology is amazing. Just because we’re limited (mostly) to working online right now doesn’t mean we can’t create something meaningful.
+Will this coaching program help me get into a good college?
Maybe. Colleges are definitely interested in students who take initiative and this can be a great way to do that. But we don’t think this is the best reason to develop a self-directed project. We hope this program will make you into a better thinker, leader, and human.
+What do you mean by “leadership skills”?
We mean your ability to stay grounded and present, even when your team is in turmoil and nothing is going the way you planned. We also mean both the ability to exercise your strengths and recognize when it may be time to ask for help. We believe compassionate leadership rests on a set of capacities that can be learned and reinforced with practice.
+What if my project idea takes longer than four weeks?
It probably will. The purpose of this program isn’t necessarily to finish a project (although you might!), but to have the tools and resources to more effectively identify good ideas, limit the scope of what you can realistically get done given your available time and resources, and navigate complicated situations as they arrive. In the final week, we’ll connect you with an accountability buddy from the course (or offer you tips for finding one outside the course), and offer best practices for keeping one another on track as you continue your projects.
+What if I don’t have an idea for a self-directed project?
No need to have one in mind. We’ll brainstorm ideas together. And if you don’t come up with an idea by the end of the course, that’s okay too. You’ll still learn a lot.
+What if I can't afford it? What is “Pay-What-You-Can”?
Access is really important to all of us at College Essay Guy. It’s at the heart of most everything we do and is why so many resources on the site are free and pay-what-you-can. We offer pay-what-you-can spots for students from low-income homes. You can submit a request on this page at the links above. As this is something we are passionate about, we have an option to submit a pay-what-you-can request on each of our course pages.
+What if I have another question?
My FAQ page has you covered. Or, if you can't find the answer there, shoot an email to my team: help@collegeessayguy.com.
