Ascend: Launch introduces students to new event experiences, customized professional development training, and more robust project requirements that call on them to put their leadership skills into practice.
During their Ascend: Launch year, students will again attend APEX, Basecamp, Ridgeline, and Capstone on the Challenge and Launch track. However, this time around, students will hold leadership and mentor roles and be expected to come alongside younger students, lead discussion groups, and possibly even be leading their own Ascend team as an Ascend Team Leader (ATL).
NEW EXPERIENCES & DEEPER CONTENT
During their Ascend: Launch year, students will again attend APEX, Basecamp, Ridgeline, and Capstone on the Challenge and Launch track. However, this time around, students will hold leadership and mentor roles and be expected to come alongside younger students, lead discussion groups, and possibly even be leading their own Ascend team as an Ascend Team Leader (ATL).
Each year in Ascend the requirements for the Ascend project change. During year one in Ascend: Foundations students are required to take an idea they’re passionate about from concept to reality. During year two in Ascend: Challenge students are expected to practice creating value for someone else by taking another person’s idea from concept to reality. And finally in Ascend: Launch students are required to lead a team while bringing their own or someone else’s idea from concept to reality.
LEADERSHIP IN ACTION DURING TEAM PROJECTS
Each year in Ascend the requirements for the Ascend project change. During year one in Ascend: Foundations students are required to take an idea they’re passionate about from concept to reality. During year two in Ascend: Challenge students are expected to practice creating value for someone else by taking another person’s idea from concept to reality. And finally in Ascend: Launch students are required to lead a team while bringing their own or someone else’s idea from concept to reality.
Upon re-enrollment for Ascend: Launch students will again choose between the certificate, specialty, or degree track enrollment options for their third year. Regardless of which track they choose, all Ascend: Launch students will attend quarterly online intensives for customized professional development training as well as monthly masterminds with their fellow Launch classmates for peer coaching and accountability plus reporting on their courses, projects, and any additional personal or professional goals they are working towards.
CONTINUED EDUCATION & CUSTOMIZED TRAINING FOR THE REAL WORLD
Upon re-enrollment for Ascend: Launch students will again choose between the certificate, specialty, or degree track enrollment options for their third year. Regardless of which track they choose, all Ascend: Launch students will attend quarterly online intensives for customized professional development training as well as monthly masterminds with their fellow Launch classmates for peer coaching and accountability plus reporting on their courses, projects, and any additional personal or professional goals they are working towards.
As students enter their third year in Ascend they are again eligible for more specific hands-on skills training and professional development through internship and student leadership opportunities. These opportunities range from semester-long internships with Unbound’s staff team to 10-month internships on one of Unbound’s student leadership teams to year-long internships as an Ascend Team Leader (ATL). Applications for these opportunities open at various times throughout the year and are posted in Slack as they become available.
INTERNSHIP & STUDENT LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
As students enter their third year in Ascend they are again eligible for more specific hands-on skills training and professional development through internship and student leadership opportunities. These opportunities range from semester-long internships with Unbound’s staff team to 10-month internships on one of Unbound’s student leadership teams to year-long internships as an Ascend Team Leader (ATL). Applications for these opportunities open at various times throughout the year and are posted in Slack as they become available.
The admissions process for re-enrollment in Ascend starts with a consultation call. This call is intended to find out what your experience was like as an Ascend: Challenge student (what you liked, what you didn’t like, and how Ascend has impacted your life overall) and what your goals are for the next year. Your counselor will answer any questions you have Ascend: Launch and afterwards, if you decide re-enrollment is the right next step for you, your counselor will help set up your re-enrollment next steps.
After your initial call with your counselor you will reconnect to complete re-enrollment. On your re-enrollment call, you will complete two steps with your counselor: payment for a $1,000 deposit and, if applicable, scheduling an academic coaching call. After re-enrollment, you will receive a form in your inbox to update your student profile. You will then reconnect with your academic coach who will provide all the details you need for your upcoming academic and life courses as an Ascend: Launch student.
At the beginning of the Ascend year in August, you will receive your new Ascend Team assignment and get access to the new Slack channel for the next academic year. If you are an Ascend Team Leader (ATL), you will also connect with your fellow ATLs and the Ascend Program Director for ongoing leadership training, support, and accountability as you lead your team throughout the next academic year.
Once again, you will start your Ascend year at APEX where you meet your Ascend Team and Ascend Team Leader (ATL). APEX takes place in August in Michigan and serves as a program orientation for new students, a recognition event for returning students, and a reunion for Unbound alumni.
While every APEX is unique, you can expect to find world-class speakers, alumni speakers, extensive team challenges, recreational activities, deep discussions, and friends, old and new.
As soon as you return home from APEX, you’ll begin to get ready for Basecamp, the next event on the Ascend calendar.
During this time, you will begin to attend live monthly webinars with subject matter experts from varied careers and professional backgrounds. You will also meet once a month with your Ascend team to discuss the webinars, set personal and educational goals for the year, and discuss your courses and projects.
As the fall kicks off, you will begin brainstorming your Ascend Project and attend your first monthly mastermind with your fellow Launch classmates as well as your first quarterly professional development intensive.
Depending on whether you are enrolled on the certificate, specialty, or degree path, you will also begin your next general education or elective courses according to your degree plan.
Basecamp takes place in late October and is designed to deepen team relationships, connect you with your fellow classmates in preparation for the upcoming project challenges of Ridgeline, and teach you to thrive by focusing on the topics of mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual resilience.
Basecamp is held in Pennsylvania and is designed to be more challenging and personal than APEX. Each day is a combination of sessions, team challenges, free time, and deep discussion. By the end of Basecamp, team identities and personalities will begin to take shape and connections will deepen into friendships.
By the end of Basecamp, you will have completed training in mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual resilience.
You will need all of those skills because the end of Basecamp triggers the acceleration of Ascend Projects.
In the fall semester, you will brainstorm, develop, and plan your Ascend: Launch project. Leading up to Ridgeline at the beginning of the spring semester, you will submit your initial project proposal to your ATL and, once you receive final approval, be ready to start executing in January.
In January, the spring semester kicks off at Ridgeline. Ridgeline is held in Florida and is all about learning by doing.
Team challenges reach their peak intensity during Ridgeline and are designed to teach the skills you need to turn ideas into reality as you launch the execution phase of your Ascend project.
On the first day of Ridgeline, students are given a challenge that will require brainstorming an idea, planning it, and then executing it. Ascend staff and invited experts will be embedded with you at the event, where they will teach, coach, challenge, and assist as students deal with tight deadlines, limited resources, and high expectations.
After coming through the challenges and intensity of Ridgeline, you will move into the execution phase for your individual Ascend projects.
Academic intensity increases during these next 12 weeks as students complete the next two Ascend: Challenge life courses leading into Capstone.
By this point in the year, your team feels like family again and your expectations of what is possible have continued to shift. Team conversations are loaded with inside jokes, most of the memes shared on student platforms only make sense to your fellow Ascend students, and relationships have grown and deepened through shared experiences and time spent together.
Capstone takes place in early May in the Colorado Rockies. This event is primarily academic and reflective. As an Ascend: Challenge student you will attend a new track of sessions focused on living with hope with a world marred by sin and suffering.
Learning is intense, but there is still time for hikes in the mountains, long conversations in the lodge, and an opportunity to work together one last time through the team challenges.
Capstone typically brings back alumni from years past who volunteer to help and mentor current students and pass on stories that have built the culture of Ascend.
From Capstone until the end of the school year in early June, Ascend Teams hold their final meetings, you will complete your projects through a peer review, final reports, and presentations at the online Ascend Project Showcase, the academic year concludes, and summer begins.
For all Ascend: Launch students who complete each aspect of the program year, they will earn the third Ascend certificate as well as the final Unbound certificate that encompasses all three years. Together, this set of certificates will continue to set you apart from your traditionally educated peers and ahead in the job market.
Early re-enrollment open for 2025!
$1,000 deposit required at enrollment.
Installment plans available
over 15 months when you enroll in December.
Schedule a call with admissions to get your questions answered and re-enroll today.
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