Alpha High welcomes students who have been at Alpha since elementary school alongside students transferring from very different educational environments. Because of this, it is important to bring students to a shared starting line, especially with respect to life skills development. Students who are new to Alpha may be entering alongside peers who have spent years of multiple hours per day developing skills like receiving feedback, public speaking, problem-solving, and independence. Bootcamp is designed to rapidly close that gap before students move into our more advanced high school life-skills curriculum.
But Bootcamp is about much more than remediation. It is designed to reset and dramatically increase a student’s expectations for what they are capable of. Over the course of the eight-week Bootcamp, the goal is for students to experience firsthand just how much they can accomplish when expectations are high — but the support is equally high. Students who begin Bootcamp thinking, “I could never do that,” emerge from it understanding that they absolutely can. We want students to leave believing that massive acceleration is possible.
Every Alpha High freshman begins the school year here, completing a set of 18 challenges designed to provide the foundation for each of our Alpha High School life skills. These life skills are prerequisites for the deeper, more advanced work ahead, including selling an idea, speaking compellingly in public, teaching themselves something difficult, receiving critical feedback productively, working effectively with others, and doing demanding work without complaint. Students do not pass these skills simply because they participated or tried hard. Each skill culminates in an objective test with a clear outcome that does not depend on a teacher’s subjective judgment.
Equally importantly, these are not one-time, pass-or-fail tests. Though failure is an intentional and expected part of Bootcamp, students have unlimited opportunities to try again, apply what they learned, and keep working until they demonstrate mastery. This matters because we want students to understand that failure at something, even if it’s repeated, is not a judgment of their intelligence or worth. Rather, it is simply part of the process of getting better. Through Bootcamp, failure becomes common rather than shameful, and students learn to recover faster, figure out what they need to change, and keep going without it affecting their sense of self. The standard does not move, but students are given as many attempts as they need to reach it. In many ways, this concept of learning to fail without being defeated by it is one of the most important things students learn in Bootcamp.
For our students to accomplish Bootcamp, it is essential we provide them with the high support needed to meet those high expectations. To do this, Guides are deeply involved in providing that high support to our students. Guides spend all day, every day actively coaching their students and providing them with the motivational support they need to try again.
Though the Bootcamp process can be demanding, it is also designed to be extremely fun and provides a deep bonding experience for our new Alpha High students. Students take on difficult challenges and surprise themselves with what they can accomplish all while working closely together to create a culture of excellence.
Importantly, Bootcamp is a starting line, not a finish line. We are certainly not trying to perfect eighteen different skills in eight weeks. Rather, we are establishing a shared threshold, rapidly catching students up on foundational skills where needed while showing every student just how quickly they can grow. When students clear that threshold, they enter the rest of Alpha High with both the practical tools and the confidence required for the much deeper and more ambitious work ahead.
You can read more about Alpha High Bootcamp here: Explore Alpha High Bootcamp.
