Embark Education on Embedding Learning in Business

You’re listening to the Getting Smart podcast. I’m your host, Shani Carruthers, and today we’re joined by some innovators in Colorado’s Embark Education Program. Embark Education is a micro-middle school in North Denver embedded in two small businesses, Pinwall Coffee and Framework Cycles. Embark supports students to courageously inquire, engage, and discover a sense of self in an environment that is learner-centered, integrated, and embedded. I’m so excited to

introduce you to Brya Hayosaka, an Embark educator and incoming head of school. Brya is joined by three amazing students today. Mara, who is a sixth grader, Neela, seventh grader, and Laughlin, eighth grader. Everyone, thanks so much for being here today. How are you? Good, how are you? I’m doing great. I’m even better now than I’m talking to a group of students, which is always a delight. So thank you so much for being here. Brian, I’m going to start with you. How did you

get connected with Embark Education? It’s kind of a funny story. A couple years ago, I was an assistant principal at a local Montessori school, and the principal forgot she had a meeting with this guy named Miguel, and she suckered me into the meeting because that’s what principals do. And he told me about this new school that sounded kind of nuts, to be honest with you. But as he was pitching the school idea to me, he was trying to recruit students from our school,

and actually as he left the building, I thought to myself, you know what, this is the space for my nephew, who had struggled to find his own space in education. And he really thrived at Embark from the get-go. And about halfway through the year, he invited me on a ski trip up with Embark. And so I rode up with Miguel, and he explained to me kind of where Embark was, and that it was looking to open a sixth grade program. What he didn’t know was that I was also looking for a career change

at that point. I was actually looking to leave education altogether, because I was sort of frustrated. And by the end of that car ride up, I knew I was going to be the next educator at Embark. He may not have known that I was thinking that, but I knew it. And about three weeks later, I signed a contract to be an educator at Embark, and I’ve never looked back. It was, you know, incredibly serendipitous. But this place, it seems to just have like a magnetic pull on the right

people at the right time. Yeah, this, I mean, so interesting. When you think of these experiences, they’re typically given to high school students. But you all are a micro middle school who are running not only one business, but two businesses. How do you really get the students to buy in? Well, there’s this interesting thing is like, people forget about middle school, it’s kind of a lost area in education. And it’s a huge missed opportunity, I think. In general, the period of

their life they’re approaching, they want to make an impact. And they want to be taken seriously. And they want to explore the world around them and how they fit into it. And so what better way than a business to do that? And so I think the first thing that we think about is, they’re incredibly capable, far more capable than people give them credit for. And also, when given a real authentic challenge, they rise. And so I think there’s a space of just pure belief that we have

that, hey, we’re not not thinking about adolescence in the right way, we’re missing an opportunity. And so I think by providing the opportunities, time and time again, and we see just their brilliance shine. And once you see it once, it just opens yourself up to the next idea. And the next idea, and you kind of just think bigger and bigger and bigger until you’re like, wow, like, I almost forgot the way the world approaches middle school, because I just have taken it for granted how

great it is. Yeah, absolutely. Lachlan, is that true? Do you believe that middle schoolers can make a real impact? Yeah, I do. And I’m someone who has three older sisters. And so all my sisters went through middle school. And a lot of them are like, you know what, middle school doesn’t really like matter, your grades, whatever, it doesn’t matter nearly as much as like your high school and your college grades are going to matter. And so that’s kind of how I came into middle school

kind of with that mindset. But now I realize there is an opportunity to make a real impact here in a mark. And that’s super empowering to feel that. No, that’s really great. I love how it has changed your mindset and how you referenced that. What do you like about what do you like most about spending part of your day in a real business? Well, I like that it makes everything feel kind of real. And you know, it feels like everything that you’re learning is actually useful. And there’s a purpose

to doing it, which is something that I kind of miss in elementary school, I think. But it really just it makes you feel like what you’re doing is real as a purpose. And, you know, it’s not just some busy work that and I feel like that makes you work harder on it because you know that it has a real impact. And that it’s, you know, it’s exciting. And it’s just it’s really cool. What is something you’ve done? What is something you’ve worked on that you feel like has been real

or that has made an impact? I did a project a couple months ago. And so we were designing a new seasonal menu for pinwheel coffee. And so we had to create a new drink, we had to test it with the community, we would do, we did a lot of like price testing, what’s going to work and you know, how much can we charge for this? And you know, it just felt like, you know, when I’m done with this, people are actually going to come in and buy this, you know, and drink this, which is kind of

something that I’ve never really felt. And you know, people are going to people are going to have their lives altered by something that I’m doing in middle school, you know, just like what I’m doing feels like it’s going to it’s going to have an impact. What was your drink? It was the orchata latte. And it’s been pretty successful. Nice. That’s I mean, what was in it? I’m just a little curious. Yeah, so I worked with two other

students to create it. And so it’s orchata, and then a shot of espresso, a little bit of milk. You should tell them about the partnership. Where did the orchata come from? Yeah, so that’s a really interesting story. So we were trying to make orchata on our own, but then it turned out that it was not really realistic for us to do that and still, you know, make a profit and such. So then we reach out to a local business that’s just around the corner

from us. And then they offered to give us a wholesale price on the orchata. And then we were just like, you know, this is a really good idea. And we just ran with it. And now we get our chota orchata source from them. Did you know what orchata was before you got into this program? A little bit. I did have it a bit, but I had it like I was tasting it every day. And they were like, oh, try this, try that. And I was like, oh. Well, I love how it is really open up your eyes

to new experiences and trying new things, which is what’s so great about running your own business sometimes. And that mindset and, Neela, I’m really interested in your experience and how this experience at M. Bark has empowered you in your own life. Yeah, what are we doing that? Yeah. So it’s really like, so I came from a public school. And in the last half of fifth grade, I quickly transferred to another micro school. And there was like a bunch of different kids at

public school. And, you know, like, some of them are your friends, some of them you don’t see at all. And some of them are in your class, and they just aren’t that nice. And moving to embark from middle school, I like, I didn’t always have a very good experience with other kids. And I wasn’t very confident about myself. But I think now this is my second year here at embark. In each day, like, everyone is super kind and supportive here. And I think it’s just like,

brought my confidence level up a full ton. Because everyone here is very forgiving and kind and supportive. That’s really great. And so you’ve learned the value of having good collaborators around you and really having a team of people who kind of push you to succeed. Yeah, so there’s been really great students. And there’s also been really great educators. Ryan was the my first teacher at embark. And he was always there for me when I needed. He helped

me with my collaboration as I started. And really him and all the other educators really like, supported me and brought me up to make me who I am now. That’s really great. What do you feel like has been maybe the biggest lesson that you’ve learned so far being an embark? I think one of them would be collaborating and trusting others. At my public school,

you kind of like did the work independently, you turned it in and that was it. But now moving to embark, there was like a lot of collaboration and trust with all the other kids that I didn’t really build before coming here. And so like, as I was going every day, collaborating was kind of a challenge for me, because I didn’t really know how to trust others when it came to work. And I didn’t really know how to like, hand others the opportunity to go and have like, what’s the word?

Like responsibility. And so I think project after project, I got a little bit better. Brian definitely helped me a lot with this in sixth grade. And I’m working on it even more in seventh grade. That’s really wonderful. Mara, I don’t feel like I’m talking to middle school students. You all are saying things that are really real world. And really, I’m really just inspired by your ability to tell your story. Is this the experience that you’re having at

embark? Is this what you expected middle school to be? No. I have a younger sister. So there was nobody ahead of me to tell me what middle school was going to be like. So I had no idea, like even going to a public middle school, what that would be like. But I definitely did not expect this. And it was a little more believable for me, because I came from a Montessori school where I did do a lot of hands on learning. And I could manage some of my time. But coming here and having the ability

to be able to like schedule my own day and learn about what I want to learn about and like experiencing these real world situations was nothing like I thought middle school would play out for me. Yeah, absolutely. You talk about scheduling and scheduling your own day. Is that a challenge? How do you do that? It’s not necessarily a challenge. It can get challenging. We have mandatory meetings with our things, our educators put on our schedule, and we have to go

to lessons. And then we have independent work time, which is free space on our calendar that we can do our independent work on, whether that is writing or reading about what we’re learning about, or reading for fun. Mara, how has being part of embark education made you think differently about business and entrepreneurship? I never thought about it before. I never thought it would be part of a business. So there wasn’t really anything to think differently about. But you would

be young entrepreneurs and I’m like, I’m never going to be one of those. And here I am working in the car shop and the bike shop on a weekly basis. And that has really changed my mind about, huh, maybe I can do some of this. Yeah, absolutely. And you say you have a younger sibling, right? Yeah, do you go home and encourage your sibling to maybe think about entrepreneurship or coming to a program like embark? I mean, I totally encourage her to come to embark. I don’t know if there’s

necessarily stuff about entrepreneurship. I come home and talk about my day at the dinner table, but there’s not like always a direct combination. Yeah, I know, absolutely. Well, I’m sure that everyone is always excited when you all come home and talk about your day, because that’s sometimes not what middle schoolers do. But when they’re excited about what they’re working on, then it makes it a whole lot easier.

Lachlan, do you do the same? Do you go home? Go ahead, Mara. Like I come home and I talk about my day and my mom says, I would go back to middle school if I could go to the embark. Absolutely. It’s the experience that everybody wants to have. We want to go to school in a way that looks like real life. Lachlan, do you have those experiences at home? Are you going home and talking about your day? Yeah, I do have that experience a little bit. And so what kind of is

is my sisters don’t really like they kind of are kind of they don’t really understand like, oh, they’re kind of like great. So you do this and the coffee job, like when you did work. And I did a lot of explaining of that. Yeah, I talked to them and they’re all kind of like, whoa, that’s so crazy. You know, I always this and that. And this is the contrast, right? Yeah, no, that’s awesome. It’s great that you all won’t have a space to talk about it. But

when you think about your learning, Lachlan, like, how do you demonstrate your learning? How do you show that you’ve learned something? Yeah, so embark, we do these big six week projects. We will focus on like this one kind of this one part of our learning. And so then there’s always a product kind of at the end of that. And so in the latest project added, we created these great videos that to go on the website that were accurately representing our focus on diversity,

equity and inclusion here at embark. And then, you know, there was a drink project where we had to create a drink for pinwheel. So there’s always that like, that final culmination, whether that and their product there, or there’s like a, you know, a gallery or a showcase community event. But there’s always something that’s bigger than us. And that is going to stand, you know, and it’s going to affect other people. And so that’s how we that’s how we show that we’ve learned

something. And we do a lot of reflecting also, just personal reflections. And I always go really deep into those and try to really think about how I’ve changed and how I’m smarter and how I, you know, feel different about certain things. How does that make you feel lackland to do things in service of others? It’s a great feeling. I’d like to like kind of talk about we had a project at the start of the year, where we hosted a community event called trick or treat on Navajo

Street. And so we built a couple of rubed Goldberg machines to deliver candy to the kids that we invited. And then part of it and led like a project where everybody was trying to, you know, reach out to different organizations and everything to, you know, to try and get people there. And the end, it was a big secret. And, you know, you feel great because you’re thinking, oh, you know, me and all my friends, all my other students, we made this happen. And, you know, there’s like,

you know, there’s a bunch of people. And every time I’m in the coffee shop, and I hear somebody order an archived latte, I can kind of smile on myself and be like, wow, no, I did that. Yeah, no, that’s a really, really great feeling. And, Neela, you were talking earlier about how educators kind of had your educators like Brian and others help you to kind of get to that feeling. Why are how do they play such an important role in your success at Embark?

Yeah, I think so, like, about every week or every other week, you have a conference with them for 15 minutes. And so I really enjoy how you get to make this amazing connection with the different educators, especially the one that you’re having the conferences with. And so right now, or for the rest of my time here, Brian is my advisor. And so all the different kids have different advisors. And it’s really great because for 15 minutes, they’re always focused on you. And you just make

this amazing connection through all of them. And with the connections, you’re there, then now more open to them and your willingness to have them help you. And I just think that the connections are big thing here in Embark. And it’s really great. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I’m sure through those connections, like you were speaking about earlier, you learned how to collaborate, how to trust is so nice to be able to have an adult in the building

that you could go to. What do you think is, I guess, most important about that relationship with your advisor? Like, why is that so valuable to like, where you started and where you’re going? Um, yeah, I think it’s really important because with connections, you get, there’s always like, they’re always there for you. They know how you work. They know, like, when you may need support. And I think that the connections here are very valuable because everyone here understands,

like when you may need help or when they can like, support you. And I think that with the more connections you have, the easier and better support you get from your peers and others. And especially from the educators, the more connections you have, just overall, the easier it is. Yeah, absolutely. Brian, you have to be so proud of these students, not just the ones that are sitting there, but even the ones that are quote unquote,

sitting behind the curtain and the community that you’re able to build in the school and outside of the school. How do the businesses that you all run with the coffee and the bike shop, how do, how do those business really foster a sense of community? Well, I think, Ed and Mark, when we think about who an educator is, what an educator is, really expanded that definition to think about who are these adults that are impacting young people’s lives. And

man, we are just so fortunate to have such an incredible team of baristas and mechanics who, when they enter like the students like the educators, they don’t really know exactly what they’re signing up for either. And you just, you watch the connections happen, you know, use that word and I think it’s right. These connections happen between different adults and different students. And it’s just incredible to see the way those relationships make everybody

feel included and welcomed. Both, you know, I think our learners suggest as good of a job making the adults feel welcome as the adults do making the learners feel welcome. You know, in that, in that way, everybody’s learning from everyone all the time. And we really just don’t have that hierarchy. You know, there’s a, that’s something I’ve never experienced before. I think people like to talk about, you know, creating a more, you know, a less hierarchical world. And I think

we really have that here. It’s very rare when you see somebody using a position of authority, because we just believe that everybody has authority and agency. So, you know, I would say the shops, we just, we just love, we love who the baristas and mechanics are. And they often make connections with learners in ways that sometimes we can’t because we have those things in common. So it’s just, it’s a really cool opportunity.

Yeah, I’m going to go back to that student agency for just a second, because you, you just did something that I think is really important. You removed the student label and instead you talked about the work that they’re doing as baristas and mechanics. How important is it for students to be able to see themselves in those positions by giving them those labels? What does that do for their identity and their sense of pride? Yeah, I think you, you can, you see visible transformations

happen then within a moment. Honestly, you know, there’s, you see how, of course, we know this as adults, we wear different hats in different places and locations, but then those things change to other aspects of our life. So when I walked in this morning, I saw a student, an eighth grader behind the bar and a typical customer wouldn’t have even thought twice about it, because this eighth grader carried herself in such a mature way. Now I can tell you that

you’re an eighth grader. I’ve had to have some stern conversation with her right now. She, it’s almost like there’s this, there’s this wall that she crossed and she goes behind and she’s a different person. And but the reality is they’re not separate. You know, that’s all within her. And I think that part of it is we get to see ourselves in different spaces. It really filters into who we, who we are and who we become in ways that you might think a typical school

setting might not offer you. Could I add on to that? Yeah, absolutely. I love that they can bring Yeah, go ahead. Like, yeah, the story, I’m going to tell it’s about the first time that I did shop shit in framework cycles. And I remember I was super nervous. And then I walked in, I opened the door and the door just is open for like five seconds. And I wasn’t sure what I like, try and pull it shut, or maybe I should like wait for it or something. And now I know it’s an automatic door.

And it’s there so that people can move their bikes through it comfortably. But at the time, I was just so like uncomfortable in that situation. And then I started talking to the breeze or sorry, the mechanics, specifically Jake, the manager framework. And then I became a lot more comfortable in that situation. And you know, by the end of that couple of options, I was just super comfortable just being like, Oh, you know, I can do that one, Jake, you know, like I’ll fix the brakes or

something on that. And there’s just really kind of like when that splits, and I realized like, like, I can do this, I can do this after Jake had kind of, you know, through to me as if I was, as if I could be there if I was. Yeah, and that’s, that’s really great. Luckily, do you remember, like, and I’m sure like Jake didn’t do like a specific thing. But do you remember any of the things that he did that help you to become comfortable in your new environment? Yeah, so I

remember how Jake was just kind of letting us have free reign without what we wanted to do, and how much we wanted to participate in the shop shift. So personally, I wanted to be fixing bikes, and I wanted to be maybe kind of customers. But Jake was just kind of like, you know what, whatever you feel comfortable with, you just do that. And I was like, All right, well, I can, you know, fix the tire or something on this one. And then you kind of merged into that situation

where all of a sudden kind of, you know, you feel like you’re supposed to be there, and you no longer feel like, like, why am I here? You know, this is a business, I shouldn’t be doing this, but then you feel that opportunity to be like, sink into like the real fact that, you know, you are doing an actual work on an actual person’s bike. And yeah, I think Jake was just trusting us. Yeah. Yeah, no, that’s really great. And Mara, you know, as we talk about the trust,

like Laughlin and both Nila reference, or just the whole team, I guess, one of the things is just making sure that you do feel like you belong in the space, and you are treated kind of like an equal or like an adult that you belong there. And one of the things that was referenced earlier was about creating your own schedules and how that helps to have that independence. We were kind of talking about it. What does that do for you to be able to walk in and to say, okay,

this is what I’m working on, it might be different from Laughlin’s, it might be different from Nila’s, but what does that mean to you to be able to understand what you need to do and then to be able to schedule your day around it? I think there’s a big level of responsibility that comes with doing that. But it always feels good when you, when you are in control of what your day looks like. And just the end result, like, if you schedule your day badly, you’re not going to feel that get

at the end of the day, because you might not have gotten the work you want to do done it. But if you have a really good day and you do put breaks in there and it’s like really productive, the end result and how you go home feeling is really good. Did you know how to do that or did you have to learn? I sort of knew how to do that coming from a Montessori school where there were bits and pieces of my time that I got to fill, but a lot of it I had to learn just because

Embark is so different from any other experience I’ve had. No, that’s really great. Nila, why should students come to Embark? I think that there’s a big, like, running piece and responsibility that you’re going to take into the world. Like, in the world, you’re not going to have someone saying, okay, this is what you’re going to do, this is when you’re going to do it, and this is who you’re going to do it. And I think that, like, at Embark, it’s just a real great thing,

because you’re taking the time for yourself and you’re learning for yourself and you’re doing all the things either with a partner or with an educator, but you’re like crafting it and scheduling it, like, on your own. And I think that it’s just a really important piece that will be really helpful in the later time when you are actually, like, older and crafting more things for yourself, you’re going to have an idea on how to do it. That’s great. And I love that you said in the later

time and not in the real world, because you all are doing things right now that are very real world, and I love how you were able to say, I’m also going to need this later, but I’m also learning it now. And that’s really great. Brian, where can people go to learn to figure out more about what you all are doing at Embark? Great question. So the first, the first thing in place is to come in, you know, come hang out. If you’re in, if you’re ever passing through Denver, we have a beautiful

coffee and bike shop, and we’ll coffee and framework cycles, and you love having guests just pop their heads in our spaces, talk with any learner. These three happen to be really, we feel confident that all of our students could sit in this chair or speak with any help that comes through. So I think the first thing is in person is always, you know, come on in. The second piece would be our website has a fair amount of information, and Jacqueline was saying

that the learners are adding more and more to it, so EmbarkEducation.org. And then I think, you know, for educators, we are building out our educator facing programming, which is going to be exciting. So keep an eye out for that. It is going to be under the umbrella of Embark Education, but it’ll be called iterative. So that will all be located at EmbarkEducation.org. And, you know, throughout the next five weeks, all the learners that are participating in this learning experience

hopefully will be finding their voice in the spaces that are meaningful to them. So, you know, they won’t even have to come find us because they’re coming to find you. Yeah, no, that’s really excellent. I have a feeling that after this podcast, you’re going to have a lot of visitors. So, Neela, Mara, Lachlan, get ready, start making up a bunch of drinks because they’re hitting your way. So thank you so much, all of you all for being here today and for being shiny

examples of what not just middle schoolers, but all students can do when you just give them the space and the confidence to really believe in themselves. So thank you all. Thanks for tuning into the Getting Smart podcast today. We want this podcast to be actionable and insightful and a great way to learn about what’s next in learning. In order to stay on the cutting edge, we need people in the field to tell us what they’re

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