EXPLO Online 10-12 - Welcome Letter

EXPLO Online 10-12 - Welcome Letter

Welcome to EXPLO!

It’s hard to say it any other way: it’s been quite the year so far. We spent much of the winter and spring hearing from students, families, teachers, educators, and many others about the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic. From cancelled sports seasons, proms and trips to bumpy transitions to online learning to delayed college decisions — it’s hard to understate the impact this has had on us all. We certainly hope that you and your loved ones are healthy and safe. After those months of listening, learning, and even some soul-searching about what’s on the minds of high school students right now, we felt ready — inspired, actually — to create something new. We built this online program based on EXPLO’s 45-year history of creating transformative learning experiences for tens of thousands of students the world over. We added to that a deeper understanding of how unprecedented it is to be a high schooler in the year 2020. The result is a program that offers you a glimpse at your future self through real-world course projects, expert guests and speakers, and meaningful connections with other like-minded students. Soon, you’ll find yourself seeing the world differently. Asking bigger questions. Making connections between ideas, people, and parts of yourself that seemed unrelated before. It’s a program tailor-made for you and for this moment.

We are so excited to welcome you into this community and to share all we’ve planned with you.

Before you dive into EXPLO Online, we’d like to highlight some of what you can expect.

You’ll Drive Your Own Learning. Our courses are not about learning for a grade or to boost your GPA. That’s because we know that real learning is driven by curiosity and questions – the fuel that makes you a true lifelong learner ready to handle whatever this changing world throws at you. It’s why we’ve built each of our online courses around real-world experiences. Visit with Gideon Rose, Editor-in-Chief of Foreign Affairs Magazine, who will lead a session of the International Relations course. Build your orthosis project in Bioengineering with Tim Lewandowski of the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab (rated as the #1 Rehabilitation Center by the U.S. News and World Report). We’re confident that experiences like these will have you thinking like the psychologist, business leader, or diplomat you may wish to one day become. You’ll

collaborate with other students. Your skills and strengths will be put to the test, and you’ll be called upon to share your experiences, opinions, and feedback with others. We hope you do so with respect, curiosity, and honesty. The course projects are ambitious and visiting faculty have high expectations, so you should expect to spend time outside of class working, thinking, preparing, and collaborating. You’ll Explore Future Careers. A meaningful career is not just a job or a paycheck, but intriguing work that brings purpose to your life. Great career exploration starts with understanding your interests and skills; it then helps you see where in the world of work those skills and interests could really make an impact. Our Career Lab sessions are the perfect way to get started or to dig deeper, with sessions like Applying for Internships and Professional Communications. In our Industry Experts speakers series, you’ll also be exposed to the people and places at the heart of the industries you care about (or soon will). You’ll learn how they got there, and discover where they see the industry going in the future. Consider attending sessions with experts like Colorado Supreme Court Justice Richard Gabriel or with Tony-award winning Broadway star Jessica Hecht. We’ll rely on you to engage, ask insightful questions, draw out meaningful connections, and push for understanding. Finally, through our College Prep series, you’ll be challenged to think critically about what’s in your nearer-term future, and the ways your plans around college may have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hear from Logan Powell, Dean of Admission at Brown University, on the state of college admissions in this unprecedented time. Attend a session (for parents or students!) with Dr. Lindsay Cohen of Spark Admission on the important questions you should be asking yourself around finding a college that’s truly a good fit for you. We think the insights you could glean from engaging with these thoughtful leaders will pay dividends as you undertake your own college search. You’ll Connect with Our Community. EXPLO mirrors the world in many important ways, not the least of which is our diverse, global community. You’re about to join a group of students and faculty who are curious, who celebrate difference, and who search for the common ground that binds us together. Our EXPLO Online Student Handbook captures what it means to be a part of this community, and calls on you to be kind, safe, true, and curious in your interactions with us and one another. Over the course of the next two weeks, you’ll be able to choose among many activities and social events. We’ve selected some of our most popular on-campus activities and adapted them to an online format. We’re particularly excited about TikTok Group Choreography, Growing Tasty Friends: Microbiology and Wild Yeast Capture for Homemade Bread, Online Makerspace, Beat Making, Community Gaming Hour, Staff and Student Talent Show, and Karaoke Night.

We’ll also offer a variety of student clubs and societies. One such opportunity is “Race and Identity in American Society”, where students will join long-time EXPLO faculty member, educator, and activist Will Gordon in taking a closer look at the ways in which racism and white supremacy are embedded in American society and beyond. The sessions will offer a context-rich exploration of critical race theory, identity politics, and historical perspectives. Students will be provided with a framework for introspection, discussion, and (if desired) action regarding the topics of anti-racism and understanding oppression in our society today.

One last thing. You should know that beyond the website you’re on now, there’s another way for you to connect.

Join the EXPLO Online Kiosk. For many years, we’ve hosted an “EXPLO Online Kiosk” as an extra way of making connections within our community both before and during the summer. This summer, we’ll host it using Discord. If you haven’t used Discord before, it’s an invite-only chat platform that we selected for its functionality, security, and privacy. You won't need to be a member of the group to know what's going on at EXPLO — we use our EXPLO Online platform (the site you are on now) — to publish all daily courses, activities, career lab, industry experts, college prep, and social events. Participation in the EXPLO Online Kiosk is a great way to enhance the experience by helping you make more connections with the other students in the Program. The Kiosk is all about sharing within our community. It’s a great way to promote a course project or presentation, to share your “Pets of EXPLO” (#pet-photos) submission, to post interesting articles for the other students in the Current Events society, or to vote for the week’s featured game in the Video Game activity. As a member of our Discord server, you will be able to see the profiles of other members. Similarly, other members of the server will be able to see that you are a member, and any public information you have available on your profile. It is always a best practice to regularly review the kind of information you have publicly available on the web. Although the security settings for our Online Kiosk are high and the group is private and invite-only, we ask you not to post private or sensitive information (a wise practice on any social media platform). Our staff also monitor the group activity to ensure all posts meet our community standards. Before joining our group, please make sure your username closely resembles your actual name (so that we can verify who you are) and that your avatar and profile are appropriate. Here’s the link where you can request to join: https://discord.gg/sjgHR64.

We hope you’re ready to engage in this new experience with us. With over 50 hours of courses, events, activities, and speakers — all specifically selected for you — we hope you enjoy these next two weeks with EXPLO Online. Our goal is that this experience gives you new ideas, connections, and skills that leave you feeling energized, inspired, and eager to take on the coming year.

Warmly,

Sarah Ruter

Andy Smith

Head of Programs

Assistant Head of Programs EXPLO Online Grades 10-12

EXPLO Online Grades 10-12