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.

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.

YOU MAY BE WONDERING (FAQ)

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.