Message from the President: Redesigning School for Purpose and Possibility
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
— Mary Oliver
Every spring throughout the Anaheim Union High School District, students share TED Talk–style presentations with classmates, educators, and members of the broader community—the culmination of months of research and exploration into the causes, consequences, and solutions to pressing issues facing their communities.
The topics vary widely, but the throughline is consistent: the work is fueled by students’ interests, passions, and questions. It is a rite of passage embedded in the district’s vision of what it means to be a graduate: not just someone who has accumulated credits, but someone who can use their voice, engage with complexity, and contribute to their community.
Across California and beyond, young people are contributing in ways that extend well beyond traditional academic boundaries. For example, nearly 700 miles north of Anaheim in rural Humboldt County, high school students, with support and mentorship from the True North Organizing Network, have led efforts to partner with parents/caregivers, school leaders, and staff to expand opportunities for students. The partnership has created a vibrant and cross-generational English Learner Advisory Committee (ELAC) at Eureka High School working collectively to identify and address the needs of dual language learners.
You only have to think back to your own formative years to understand how critical these experiences and opportunities truly are. The moments that ignited your interests, challenged your assumptions, and enabled you to grow as a thinker and leader still resonate years—even decades—later.
These experiences may look different, including such diverse activities as journalism and art, climate activism, scientific inquiry, and participation in school governance, but they share a common core: they position young people not just as learners, but as leaders and contributors. Not just as consumers of knowledge, but as creators.
In many ways, the foundational role these experiences play echoes the experience and developmental needs of much younger learners. But here’s the difference: We don’t expect four-year-olds to sit passively and absorb information. In early childhood, we have become far more intentional about designing environments that support the development of our youngest students. We build around how they learn, creating spaces where young children are known, where language is rich, where curiosity is nurtured, and where relationships anchor learning.
It’s time we bring that same level of intentionality to adolescent learning environments and experiences, rooting this work in a commitment to addressing the inequities in opportunities available to all young people.
Primed for Connection and Meaning-Making
Adolescence is the second great window of brain development. It is a period of rapid neural remodeling, when connections are strengthened and pruned in response to experience, alongside heightened sensitivity to social context and an expanding capacity for abstract thinking, identity formation, and moral reasoning. As USC Researcher Mary Helen Immordino-Yang and others have shown, adolescents’ learning is deeply shaped by emotion, relationships, and meaning-making—not just the transmission of information.
What young people need during adolescence is both similar to the conditions needed by their younger peers and fundamentally expanded: If early childhood is grounded in “serve and return,” adolescence might be understood as “engage and contribute.” Young children learn that the world responds to them. Adolescents begin to test whether they can shape it. This growth and development requires:
- relationships that provide trust and belonging;
- opportunities to explore identity and meaning;
- learning that is challenging, relevant, and connected to the real world; and
- experiences that build their sense of agency: the opportunity to make decisions, contribute, and lead.
Young children learn that the world responds to them. Adolescents begin to test whether they can shape it.
These are the conditions under which young people build durable skills: critical thinking, collaboration, adaptability, agency, and the ability to navigate complexity. In an AI-shaped world, these skills are not optional. As information becomes more accessible and tasks across sectors are increasingly automated, the value of what is uniquely human only grows. The ability to make sense of complexity, exercise judgment, collaborate across differences, and navigate ambiguity will define both economic opportunity and civic life.
In this context, the distinction we often draw between civic preparation and career readiness begins to dissolve. By engaging in real-world problem-solving, whether through community organizing, scientific inquiry, journalism, or civic participation, young people are developing the skills and orientations needed to be successful in both of these important domains.
What we see in places like Anaheim is the power of these opportunities to motivate, engage, and prepare young people for life after high school. Across California, such formative experiences are increasingly being supported by broader efforts to rethink how high schools are designed: expanding opportunities for students to engage in meaningful, real-world learning both in and beyond the classroom. The aim is not to add more, but to reorient the system around development, purpose, and opportunity so that the experiences we know help adolescents build durable skills and contribute to their communities become the norm for all students, not the exception for some.
We are at an inflection point: not only in our democracy, but in how we understand the purpose of education. The adolescent brain is not a problem to solve. Adolescence is a period of extraordinary possibility. If we take that seriously, it asks us to design systems that cultivate belonging, purpose, and contribution—and to align learning with the durable skills young people will need to shape both their futures and our shared world.
Given the stakes, it is hard to imagine more important work.
In solidarity,
Sophie
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Stories of Promise and Progress
With each Update, we share examples of how policies, practices, and innovative solutions and strategies are advancing equitable education opportunities for adolescents in California. Explore the resources below to learn more about how Californians are cultivating thriving for the state’s nearly 2 million public high school students. As always, we encourage you to share your stories. What’s giving you hope? Where are you seeing systems and practices shift to support thriving? Share your stories of change and challenge with stories@stuartfoundation.org.
Elevating civic learning
Last month, educators, practitioners, and leaders from across the country gathered in Philadelphia for Civic Learning Week. It was an opportunity to learn from and with one another about how schools and communities are preparing young people for civic life. California, which established the Seal of Civic Engagement in 2020, acknowledged the week with a gubernatorial proclamation, noting, “Democracy is not self-sustaining—it needs constant upkeep and the faith of its people. It must be taught and learned anew by each generation.”
Several recent commentaries captured both the promise and urgency of this work, including by Tani Cantil-Sakauye, president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California; Erica Hodgin, senior director of civic education at Facing History & Ourselves; and California State Board of Education Member Alison Yoshimoto-Towery. Each point to the need to move beyond isolated examples and toward broader, more equitable access to high-quality civic learning.
Sustaining students’ sense of purpose
A recent article from the Cornell Chronicle shares new insights into cultivating teens’ sense of purpose, which researchers found can “ebb and flow in response to the daily challenges of adolescence.” Lead author of the study and Cornell University Professor Anthony Burrow advises, “Those with the potential to help shape young people’s environments should think as much about the capacity to sustain purposeful pursuits as they do the intensity with which a young person expresses their purpose at any one time.”
Oakland Unified student journalists deepen education coverage
Through a unique student fellowship with Oaklandside, 12 Oakland public high school students are working alongside professional mentors to explore and report on the issues they care about in their schools and community. In an article published last week, students Zoe Psomas and Twyla Hoshida explored disparities in AP and other college-prep classes within and across Oakland high schools. By tapping into young people’s passion and perspectives about school, this fellowship is changing the conversation about Oakland education and developing the next generation of reporters and community leaders.
Students at Mountain House High School engage in civic action projects
In a Law and Society class in this school in the foothills of San Joaquin County, students don’t just learn about U.S. government and civics from a textbook. Using Teach Democracy curriculum and resources, they also practice how to engage in democracy by taking part in mock trials that develop their public speaking skills and leading hands-on civic action projects to solve community problems. Through these experiences, students are developing the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to be informed, engaged, and productive members of their communities.
Young Californian workers learn about workplace rights and safety
Earlier this year, the 22nd annual Young Worker Leadership Academy brought youth from across California together for workshops and discussions about workplace health, safety, and workers’ rights. As adolescents ages 16 to 24 make up 12% of California’s workforce (according to 2021 data), it is critical that they are informed and prepared to enter the world of work— from recognizing safety hazards to understanding labor rights to advocating for better working conditions. As Anna Okrokvertckhova, high school student and 2026 YWLA participant, said: “It is so important for us to know our rights and be able to fully use them, especially as a young worker. We need to know what protections the government gives us.”
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