Where youth learn to define and pursue their educational path in a trusting & respectful community.
Our Groups: Visionary & Maker
We support Youth-Led, Interest-Based Learning, with a keen awareness of Youth Rights, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity in our community. We support the emergence of engaging activities that allow tweens & and teens to explore their interests and develop their interpersonal skills in a supportive environment. It is a mixed-age space to navigate oneself in relation to others often leading to friendships.
Our Tu/W/Th days are structured with two opening circles, which include mindfulness and intention-setting practice, 4-hours of various offerings based on learning goals, space for lunch and play, and a closing circle to share reflections and gratitude. Offerings are planned for the semester based on the current interests of the Maker Group and the Learning Goals of the Visionary Group. Some offerings are by in-house facilitators, and Subject Matter Experts (SME), i.e. Theater, Creative Writing, Science, Fitness, Expository Writing, etc. Some peer offerings for the Maker Group have been: dance, vocal, coding, and baking.
Our program is enhanced and informed by national organizations, Agile Learning Center, and Liberated Learners, supporting the trust and respect of youth members of our society.
Focus Areas
We work with youth members to provide guidance and resources to help them pursue their interests and develop the social-emotional interpersonal qualities necessary to navigate life's challenges and appreciate the joys through mentor meetings and are looking at starting an offsite teen social club.
Teen Programs lead to High School Interest-Based Transcript, GED, Entrepreneurship, and/or College-Bound Transcript. In planning and pursuit, we brainstorm with teens and their families to support them with the resources needed. Youth members will find company with peers interested in the same outcome designed by their own personality, interests, capacity, and willingness. In Spring 2024 this could look like hiring subject matter experts, access to online services, and in-house facilitators.
Conditions supporting HGEC programming
Campus Use
Rosedale is a private residence that is gifted to HGEC to serve as a cooperative learning campus under these understandings and constraints. Please use care and consideration.
* Our primary purpose in connecting is for youth to orient towards self-determined learning in community. To support the conditions most conducive to in-person interconnectedness in our community we have boundaries around personal devices. The use of personal devices (phones for social media streaming and gaming consoles) had been pervasive, and distracting in Spring & Summer 2023; therefore not in alignment with HGEC values of Learning and Authentic Connection. If devices are brought to the campus to communicate with parents, they must be kept in the lockers and used individually when needed. Access to Google, YouTube, and other human-paced learning modalities is available at HGEC on laptops. If the need for tools exceeds HGEC's supply, we may request folks bring their laptops.
Technology Use
Tu/ W/ Th: 9:30 am - 3:30 am
(Visionary & Maker Groups)
Each day designates 4 hours for personally expansive and focused work within a calm learning energy field. This environmental shift, needed for HGEC sustainability, has required additional planning for offerings that are of interest, resonant, and experiential. We request participant, peer, and parent support in generating conditions that meet this goal with overall success for the youth, family and our organization.
Fridays: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. (Visionary Members Only)
This program will have its experimental beginnings in January 2024 and is for our Visionary Group members. This program's vision is to support a "study group" setting from 10 am-12 pm, with Subject Matter Expert support as needed for members, cooking nutritious lunch together, having a community meal, and ending with an offsite museum visit.
Our Work
Our collective at Holistic Global Education Center aims to mobilize our community resources to conditions that support our children's well-being in their educational journey and their life's joy.
From Current Conditions We Mobilize Towards
1. From occupying large-scale institutional buildings with materials that feel cold and impersonal
2. From systems of Othering by age segregation, separation from families and breeding conflict and competition
3. From adultism in power-over oppressive systems
4. From adhering to arbitrary curriculums, with rigid timelines presented from a skewed point of view
5. From education being commodified, in service of capitalism, and void of joy & soul
towards occupying places of flow, with materials and scale that bring us in connection with ourself, earth & nature.
towards conditions that provide ease of connection with mixed ages, welcoming family inclusion, and sense of Belonging.
to mutually respectful relationships flowing between youth and adults embracing consent and kindness.
to spacious learning that is interesting, experiential, balanced, and informs us of planetary, global, and local sustainability.
to self-determined learning that is relatable, fun, and satisfies personal goals that enrich and enliven us.
Vision
Living life enjoying and supporting society and individual well-being.
Our Collective
We are a vibrant community of families practicing kind relationships with our children and each other while engaging in holistic education in an unconventional setting for our children.
Naming Our Purpose
Our name orients the compass of our collective to live, grow, and learn together.
Embodying Values
At Holistic Global Education Center, we value ahimsa (nonviolence), and compassion in our learning environment. We strive to create an atmosphere of kindness and mindfulness.
Our values anchor our environment to meet its purpose of providing an engaging and equitable learning experience. We believe that when we come together with respect and understanding, we can create a community that is truly remarkable in being an interdependent nurturing collective where parents support each other and care for all children, not just our own.
We have developed processes for conflict resolution, direct communication, feedback loops, and decision-making to support the integration of these values.
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Learning
We exist to explore the vastness of knowledge so we may grow in our intellect and wisdom.
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Authentic Connection
We provide an environment that supports heart connection through conversation.
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Safe Space
We aim to be a place that provides a physically and emotionally safe environment needed for our nervous systems to relax into learning.
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Soft Qualities
We believe in vulnerability, trust, courage, nonviolence. Away from socialization of scarcity, separation and powerlessness.
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Mindfulness
Awareness of moment-by-moment presence, processed in real time with curiousity, non-judgment and open-heartness.
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Play & Fun
We believe in the joy of playing and having fun in life. We include unstructured time during HGEC and families tend to gather at other times also.
bell hooks speaks to our society seeped in White supremacy, patriarchy, imperialism, and capitalism.
Dr. john a. powell examines our societies' attitudes about Othering & Belonging
Miki Kashtan has been an influence in this journey of moving from individualism towards collective flow of resource.
latest influences
HGEC's activism for social change can be seen in us lifting up and centering inquiries and interest from families historically marginalized or having suffered from the burden of cultural norms imposed by dominant systems.
We encourage folks that have been Othered (BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Immigrants, and more), and their allies to join our vibrant and colorful community. Together, we enrich our collective with a mutually expansive relationship of heart & mind while weaving Belonging.
What does it cost?
We are committed to global representation, diversity, equity, and inclusivity, including historically marginalized or under-represented folks in Self Determined Education settings.
Our requested contribution is $60/day (equal to $10/hr.).
The financial contribution should reflect your value of our program, and fit in your overall family financial budget. Inclusion in HGEC Community should not result in hardship that adversely impacts your mind or body wellness.
We will endeavor to meet you at the intersection of tending to both our needs on this journey!
What made our 501(c)(3) program sustainable in 2023?
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In-house parent facilitator support by Terri, Carisa, and Cori. In-house facilitator support by college interns: Samira and Ebi.
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Amazing subject-matter-expert facilitators and their willingness to work within our resources.
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Open, kind, curious, collaborative, and non-judgmental communication with Parents.
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Member families' financial contributions.
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Increased synergistic structural support from founding parent-member, facilitator, parent, and friend, Terri Shirshac.
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No overhead cost for the location, utilities, capital repairs or improvements, and grounds.
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Full-time (40+ hours/week) work commitment by Founder (Board Member/ Organizer/ Facilitator/ and Parent) at no cost to HGEC for 5-years (2019-2023).
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VELA Grant Funding 2022-2023: for Commons Improvements for a robust environment and the ability to hire an in-house full-time college intern for Tween Program and support families on fee reductions in Spring & Summer 2023.
What does the financial contribution provide?
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Access to a committed community of homeschooling families with tweens/ teens.
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Subject Matter Expert Facilitators!
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Most materials and supplies for exploration and creative endeavors.
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Offsite group mentor options for Teens. The same offer is made to Tweens.
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In-house Facilitator(s) that provide much needed structural support for sustainability.
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Youth Members 15+ leading offerings are paid by HGEC.
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Working together with Parents and Teen Members for "graduating" from High School.
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Parent group support during the Teen years for Transcript & Portfolio construction, including the entry process into colleges.
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Social Emotional Learning emerges from kind & intentional dialogue around conflict and challenges of being in a community.
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Access to 501(c)(3) non-profit educational resources, like TechSoup, Canva, etc.
documents to join or drop-off trial day
Please complete all forms for Trial Drop-off or to Join HGEC
Akilah is called to be among the many who contribute to the collective walk toward ways of living with children that center community, address civil rights issues, and believe in trusting and respecting children.
