Insight’s Purpose, Mission, & Values

Purpose and Mission

Insight Colearning Center prepares today’s teens to make a difference in a rapidly changing and uncertain world. 

In service of this purpose, 

Insight Colearning provides an exemplary high school experience that combines rigorous, college-style coursework, real world learning, and participation in a dynamic and diverse learning community through which students learn that together they can transform their world.  

Insight students build Competence in

  • All academic disciplines

  • Forging positive relationships

  • Collaborating in work and community settings

  • Disrupting inequity and oppression

  • Self-advocacy and living independently

  • Thriving in the natural world

 Insight students build Confidence through

  • Multi-age, seminar-style classes

  • Our three-phase model of education

  • Shared leadership in the school community

  • Outdoor adventures

  • Academic advising

  • Holistic, narrative feedback, instead of a numbered grading system, to facilitate reflection and opportunities for mastery and growth.

Insight provides opportunities for Connection through

  • A welcoming community of peers

  • Respect for diversity, including but not limited to: gender, race, ethnicity, sexual identity, class, religion, and neurodivergence

  • Authentic, personal connections with teachers, advisors, and community mentors

  • Service to school and community

 
IMG_2177.jpg
 
 
 

Insight Core Values

Insight’s actions, decisions, and activities are guided by its core values:

  • Human-centered: Students drive our daily work by coming together in pursuit of new knowledge, understanding, and application. Passionate teachers, who are experts in their fields, tailor courses and experiences to student interests.

  • Justice-oriented: In building the community and in the content of our experiences, Insight is committed to anti-racism, environmental justice, and the possibility of a better world. We study together to find the tools we need to recognize injustice and to internalize the examples of those who have struggled for justice. Success begins when every member is questioning, growing, challenging, and supporting each other to be better versions of themselves and is not found at the expense of others. 

  • Holistic: Learning takes place in the flesh, and our bodies are sustained in ecosystems. Because of this, while the disciplines we study are useful heuristic tools, our real subjects are always interconnected. At Insight, we pursue knowledge wherever it manifests–in books, in a kayak on the Eno, in an equation, in an engine block–and while we do so we always pay attention to the wellness of our bodies, our minds, our neighbors, and our environment. 

  • Creative: Our goal is not to passively interpret the world, but to intentionally change it. We believe Insight teens are highly capable and uniquely skilled, so we are a community of makers and artists where students discover the ways they can work together to create change for the good of themselves, their community, and the world.