Yampah in Semifinals for $10M Grant to “Re-think Education”
A $10 million challenge to re-think high school education. Glenwood based organization, GlenX wants to turnYampah Mountain High School into this next generation’s “Super School.” Listennow.
It is called the XQ Challenge Super School Project. The XQ Institute will grant at least five schools with a $10 million grant each, to develop a new model of education.
And thanks to the support of GlenX and community members, Yampah Mountain High School has made it to the semi-finals and stage 2 of the challenge.
This means Yampah is currently only competing with 350 other schools across the U.S. Getting this grant could mean big things, for Yampah and students of the Roaring Fork Valley.
“We start with understanding passion,” Yampah Adviser Sonja Linman said this would help them to expand their vision on the current curriculum.
“This particular grant is an opportunity for us to really build that concept out and make it bigger and develop a campus to have personalized relationships with school to career counselors, opportunities for internships, opportunities for integrative learning, project-based learning, all those kinds of things,” she said.
And such is the case, with Yampah senior, Daniel Olave, who said Yampah has helped him find his voice…literally.
Daniel has a passion for performing and playing music. (Daniel sings Ain’t No Sunshine 1:22)
“What I had coming from my educational life was that the teachers came up to me and helped me so much with my work and they were the ones that pushed me harder to achieve my goals, like becoming a better musician. Like, Sonja helped me so much with practicing my voice and my vocals.”
Sonja said learning should be customized not standardized.
“I think what’s happened in public education is that we have tried to standardize, and when we try to standardize education; trying to put kids in the same box over and over again has really decreased their relationship with their own inspiration.”
“Passion is about saying to a student you need to have all of the basic skills that you need to be successful in or culture and be able to be progressive as you look to the future, but none of that matters unless you have the fire in your belly to go out and change the world and make a difference,” Sonja continued.
The incredible support Daniel has received pursuing his passion in music, has even helped discover a new passion.
“In the future I plan to go to the police academy, because being a musician is kind of tough because I have seen people struggle,” he said.
The Yampah curriculum has enabled him to meet professionals, including police officers.
“Cops come to school and have interviews and I’ve had a ride-along before and I really loved it,” Daniel continued.
Daniel plans to attend Colorado Mountain College in the fall. Winners of the XQ Challenge will be announced in August. Find more info here.