This Summer, 23 high school students, ages 16–18, from across our partner schools in the Bronx came together for a two weeks internship hosted by the Edwin Gould Foundation at their beautiful new location in Manhattan.
The focus of the internship was to address the big question about the future of education: How important is it for education to address what makes us human? And what is it that actually makes us human?
The internship reflected our effort to help shape a new field of education—one that prioritizes What Makes us Human.
Together, the students explored three essential dimensions of being human: connecting with oneself, connecting with others, and connecting with life — and how these connections can help us create lives of purpose and contribution, build meaningful relationships, and thrive as we move into college and beyond.
Over the course of the Internship, the students wrestled with these questions through conversation, reflection, collaboration, and plenty of laughter and fun. They explored what it means to truly connect with themselves and understand their own thoughts, feelings, and values. They considered what it means to connect with other people — to listen, to be vulnerable, to understand perspectives different from their own, and to build meaningful relationships. And they explored what it means to feel connected to life: to their communities and the world around them, to nature, to something larger than themselves.
They challenged one another, supported one another, worked hard, and — importantly — had a lot of fun along the way!
We are incredibly grateful to the EGF Foundation for opening its beautiful space to our students and giving them an environment where they could slow down, be together, think deeply, work hard, and have a lot of fun. There is something powerful about placing young people in a setting that is beautiful, peaceful, and inspiring — a setting that communicates that their ideas, their questions, and their lives matter.
It was a meaningful two weeks of exploration, connection, and growth — and a powerful reminder that preparing young people for the future is not only about what they need to know, but also about who they are becoming.
