Viewbook 2024

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THE FUTURE OF SCHOOL

Welcome to Sora Schools ............................................................

About Sora Schools................................................................................

School Built Around You................................................................

Core Learning Experiences.......................................................

Courses Students Crave ...........................................................

Customize Your Sora Journey ..................................................

A Unique Model............................................................................

A Different Way to Evaluate Success ....................................

Stay on Track with Sora Home ................................................

Life at Sora .................................................................................

The Best Academic Experience ....................................................

World-Class Faculty ....................................................................

Advising ..........................................................................................

An Awesome Social Experience ...................................................

Global School, Local Feel ..........................................................

Student Houses ...........................................................................

Student- Led Clubs ....................................................................

E-Sports Success .......................................................................

Sora Journal ................................................................................

A Diverse, International Community........................................

Life After Sora...............................................................................

Portrait of a Graduate .............................................................

College Counseling .....................................................................

Transcript + Accreditation .......................................................

ASU Post- Graduate Program ..................................................

Private School Made Affordable .................................................

Table of content

Sora Viewbook • The Future of School

There is no institution more vital than school, nor one more in

need of reinvention.

School should be where creativity, empathy, and ambition are

fostered. Yet the traditional education system eschews that in

favor of rote lectures, standardized testing, and assignments

lacking context and depth. The United States has successfully

developed a system that will scale, yes, but not one that will

move us forward.

At Sora, we believe better is possible.

Looking at the challenges facing our world and the research

about how humans learn best, it’s become clear that for

a happy, flourishing future, we need to prepare students

to tackle complex problems. We must shift our focus from

one-size-fits-all education to something that fundamentally

reimagines what education can do.

This is why Sora was founded.

We’ve developed a new way of learning – a humanized system

that helps students engage critically and thoughtfully with the

world we share; that equips them with the ability to explore life

in a way that’s meaningful to them, whoever they are.

This is Sora. While your student is with us, we aim to challenge

their intellect, embrace their curiosity, and propel them

forward into the future.

We hope you’ll join us.

Christopher Wilson

Head of Schools

Dear Prospective

Sora Family,

The traditional education system is one-size-fits-all, but the

best way to learn is self-paced and personalized. The system

is designed to teach facts above all, but 83% of Americans fail

basic tests about the nation’s founding, despite 89% believing

they’d pass with flying colors. Even college-bound students forget

most of what they learn in school within a couple of years.

As a result, students wind up believing

they are not made for school when, in

reality, the problem is that schools

were not made for them.

Our mission is to empower

students to thrive through an

education as unique as they are.

Sora is the student-centered middle

and high school that provides curious

adolescents with the freedom to explore their interests,

challenge themselves, and discover their future paths.

Our students grow by mastering skills and concepts in

projects that reflect the real world while preparing them

for the challenges of their future. They are supported

by a diverse community, a blend of both live and

independent learning, engaged faculty, and a dynamic

academic journey.

About Sora Schools

Sora Viewbook • The Future of School

Traditional school expects students to conform. Sora expects

students to discover and inspire. By creating a system that

allows students to chart their own course, our students are

happier, more engaged, and find school more useful.

Students receive credit for these units and abilities through

three core learning experiences: Expeditions, Activities, and

Independent Study Expeditions. These experiences look slightly

different from middle to high school, and are designed to

support students academically and developmentally as they

progress through Sora’s program.

Expeditions

Expeditions are group synchronous learning experiences. But

they aren’t like traditional classes found in most public, private,

and online homeschool curriculums. Instead, they are engaging,

interdisciplinary, and student-centered explorations of relevant

topics such as Artificial Friends: AI in Literature and Film, Sports

Technology, History of Rock Music, and Financial Literacy 101.

Activities

Activities provide an asynchronous and independent pathway

for students to work on projects that cover new depths

of knowledge and abilities. Our Activities Library is full of

asynchronous projects, experiments, books, interesting articles,

and videos we’ve created for students to earn credit for units

and abilities within a six week cycle.

(Activities are currently only available to high school students)

Independent Study Expeditions

Independent Study Expeditions provide avenues for Sora

students to engage in a student-proposed project that supports

additional depth, breadth, and individualization to the Sora

experience. Starting with a guiding question, students partner

with a faculty member who acts as their mentor during this

course of study as they explore and answer their guiding

question, then present their findings.

Core Learning

Experiences

Sora Viewbook • The Future of School

Courses Students Crave

Our Learning Expeditions aren’t like traditional classes: they

are interdisciplinary explorations of real-world topics where

students work with others and learn academic content to answer a

fascinating question, like “How Might We Build a Society on Mars?”.

•

In the Trenches: Combat,

PTSD, and War Literature

•

Calculating Justice

•

The Physics of Shark

Movement

•

Banned Books

•

Commotion in the Ocean

•

Dungeons and Dragons

•

Microscopic Art

•

Forces of Nature: Physics

of Sports, Gaming, and the

Everyday

•

Philosophy of Villainy

•

Big Brother Is Watching: The

Science Behind 1984

Recent popular Expeditions have included:

Independent Study Expeditions

Independent study allows for

students to engage in a student-

proposed project during a unique,

individual experience. Independent

Study Expeditions are available to

all Sora students who complete the

planning process and are approved to

participate. This looks slightly different

from middle school to high school,

and is designed to support students

academically and developmentally as

they progress through Sora’s program.

Through an individual study expedition,

students submit proposals for

individual study projects. Projects

provide additional depth, breadth, and

individualization to the Sora experience,

and students can work on projects in

their areas of interest that they create

and scope in collaboration with our

faculty. Examples include coding video

games, writing fantasy novels,

or conducting scientific research

on plants.

Core to Sora’s curricular model,

students utilizing independent study

not only get to explore what they’re

genuinely curious about or interested

in, but they demonstrate mastery in

math, science, English, history, and all

of the academic subjects you’d find

in a traditional high school curriculum

through their individualized project

work. They also learn important life

skills like time management, project

management, teamwork,

and communication.

Customize Your Sora Journey

Activities Library

Additionally, high school students can earn credit

independently through Sora’s Activities Library. The Activities

Library features an incredible catalog of asynchronous

projects, experiments, books, interesting articles, and videos

curated by Sora’s faculty and curriculum team. Students can

utilize activities to enhance their learning, fill any knowledge

gaps, or simply explore new topics! This can range from

diving into the question “how do you develop your startup

idea?” to learning how to develop websites using HTML and

CSS, unleashing the power of mathematics to build your own

Rube Goldberg machine, and analyzing power and corruption

in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. Activities are designed

around a guiding question and are completed within a 6-week

cycle timeframe. While activities are largely independent,

students will meet periodically with a faculty advisor, during

the 6-week cycle, for guidance as they produce a final

project deliverable.

Capstone

The capstone project is a multifaceted reflective project and

is a mandatory graduation requirement for all fourth-year

high school students attending Sora Schools. High school

students in their fourth year curate a digital portfolio that

showcases their specific career-related work, as well as their

overall Sora experience, contributions, and achievements.

The digital portfolio might include a personalized career plan,

project-based learning samples, achievements and honors,

awards, and evidence of participation in activities such as

internships, community service projects, or school clubs. The

capstone project culminates with a presentation during the

Capstone Symposium.

Sora Viewbook • The Future of School

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