Patrick Cook-Deegan, founder and director of Project Wayfinder, was a 2015-2016 education innovation fellow at Stanford’s d.school, graduate of Brown University, and former Fulbright Scholar. In his article, Seven Ways to Help High Schoolers Find Purpose, he reports that his research infers specific ways young people can find purpose in their work:

• prioritize internal motivation over external achievement;
• foster collaboration;
• see teachers as mentors and coaches;
• take students out into the world;
• learning from failure;
• value students’ inner lives; and
• start with the ‘why’.

These are the very outcomes we expect from our strategic framework: mission skills (empathy, creativity, perseverance, and curiosity), personalized learning, collaboration, and sustaining connections. And our revamped advisory program aims to foster many of these outcomes as well. But perhaps most importantly, it is our partnership with families - sharing hopes and dreams, asking tough questions, seeking clarity - that will enable all of us to help our young people find purpose in their work.