By Ines Kudo
In Acton, one of the most important responsibilities of a Guide is to lift a Learner’s eyes to the horizon, so they can imagine what’s possible and find their path with a clear vision of what they dream of, and the effort required to make it real.
At Tinkuy, we’re carefully preparing the ground to open our Launchpad Studio for High School in a couple of years. It may still feel far away, and we’ve been walking toward it for almost a decade. Our first Launchpadders will arrive after growing with us for 7 to 10 years. That’s the kind of foundation we can build on.
In the meantime, we have the privilege of being part of a worldwide network of innovative microschools that share learning and testimony. Watching others walk the path we’re about to walk helps me lift my own eyes to the horizon.
This week, two messages in my inbox did exactly that.
The first was from Jake Thompson, current leader of the Acton Academy Network. He shared a blog post from Vijay, founder of The Humanist Academy in Texas and an amazing human himself.
Vijay believes mainstream education is facing one of the biggest crises it has ever experienced, and it isn’t academic. It’s existential.
That word matters. The hunger young people carry when life starts to feel like a checklist, and they don’t yet have the tools to aim their life toward something that feels worth it.
In his blog post, Vijay writes about how powerful, relevant, and urgent the Acton High School experience is, especially NGA (Next Great Adventure).
Acton's NGA is designed to help young people discover a calling through real projects, processes, and badges, then pursue it with real-world practice.
It culminates in Fellowship Talks, where Launchpad Learners deliver 10-minute talks about their Next Great Adventure and the journey that brought them there, for a chance to earn up to $100,000 to make it real. Families and mentors make this possible, not just with big moments, but with steady presence in the in-between.
Vijay’s post was inspired by the latest Fellowship Talks at his campus (you can watch them here). Four young people stood fully in their own stories, spoke with the kind of conviction most adults spend decades searching for, and shared ideas that could actually change the world, ideas they’ve already begun to act on.
Then Vijay shared parents’ reactions, and I immediately recognized them. They’re the same things I hear from Mapaches when they attend an Exhibition or a discussion in Ascend:
“Where in the world do you see high schoolers do this?”
“It was amazing. I understood on another level what Acton truly represents.”
“This is the level of clarity and depth you want your children to have in high school.”
And then came the second message.
This one was from Gaby Lucas at Acton Guatemala, and it took me beyond the campus, into what happens years later.
An alum returned to Acton Academy Guatemala seven years after graduating. Jose Andres stood in front of Elementary and Middle Studio Learners and shared his Hero’s Journey: how it began in Guatemala, took him to Canada, and brought him full circle back home.
Then he told them he had walked onto a real Shark Tank and walked out with an investor. Watch him make his Shark Tank pitch here.
Out of 2,000 applications, only 40 entrepreneurs got to pitch. He was one of the few who won investment. And then he said the line that stitched everything together for me:
“What once started as a simulation of a Shark Tank at Acton for the Business Fair has now become something real. I am so grateful for everything I learned at Acton.”
Jose Andres reminded everyone that sharing your calling with others, and working intentionally toward it, opens one door, then the next. It takes grit, patience, courage, and humility, character skills he started building early. You can also enjoy his appearance at Career Ladder. He ended up signing autographs for excited younger learners.
Vijay is naming the urgency: young people need meaning, and they need a path that takes their questions seriously, now, while their identity is still forming.
Gaby is showing what happens when that work compounds. A young person leaves, faces the real world, takes the next steps, and returns years later to say: this became real.
I can already picture it: years from now, our own alumni walking back into our Studios, standing in front of our Pumas, and offering the same gift. Testimony of a life worth living: “Keep going. Keep choosing. Keep building. One door at a time.”