How Ascend Trains Students to Quickly and Effectively Master Complicated Information
Whether your student plans to be an engineer, a nurse, a wilderness adventure guide, or just about anything else, they will need a certain set of skills and they will need to master complicated information.
Some of those skills will be highly specific. Engineers don’t need to know how to start a fire from scratch in the wilderness. Likewise, adventure guides probably don’t need to do advanced calculus on a regular basis.
But there are some skills that will serve your student no matter what they do in their future.
One of those skills is the ability to quickly and effectively master complicated information.
Our Complicated World
We’re living in a complicated world, filled with complicated information. Oftentimes, this information is changing before our very eyes. New developments are made and we find that the information we had is now inadequate.
In this ever-changing world we have to continually adapt to changing situations.
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I’m not suggesting that we should treat our principles or convictions as transient. We ought to believe what we believe and hold to the Truth. But in a lot of situations, new information is introduced and having an adaptive mindset is key.
This is essentially critical thinking. It’s the ability to learn quickly and apply that learning to the situation.
How Does Ascend Help Students Master Complicated Information?
Ascend, Unbound’s core program, trains students to quickly and effectively master complicated information.
The ties in perfectly with the project-based learning model that Ascend uses. Students learn to engage with complex information and apply it in real life situations. They do this through real life projects and taking ownership of their own education.
Real Life Projects
Ascend students learn to quickly and effectively master complicated information as they bring their projects to life. This project might be starting a nonprofit or planning a multi-day canoe trip and building said canoe!
Because these projects are happening in the real world in real time, not in a simulation, there will be unforeseen challenges. Change will happen. Students have to learn how to grow an adaptive mindset to respond to new changes in the situation.
The project-based learning model gives students practice doing what they’ll be doing for the rest of their life: working in the real world with all its changes and challenges.
Ownership of Education
Ascend students also learn to quickly and effectively master complicated information by taking ownership of their learning. While each student has the support of fellow students, their Ascend Team Leader, and Ascend staff, it’s still up to them to take responsibility for their educational success.
Public universities (box schools) take students by the hand and walk them through how to schedule their time, what to do, who to spend their time with, and generally how to live while they attend school.
Unbound students have the freedom and responsibility to drive their own learning. This leads to an adaptive and proactive mindset rather than a passive, “do-as-you’re-told” mindset. Ascend students learn how to practice initiative. They are proactive problem solvers and they use their ability to quickly and effectively master complicated information to see and solve challenges.
Ascend Teaches More Than Academics
While academics are important to preparing students for impactful living, there’s so much more they need to be equipped for.
Quickly and effectively mastering complicated information will serve your student well in their future. This is something that can’t be learned effectively in a classroom with a powerpoint presentation. It requires real world experience.
That’s exactly what Ascend offers.
Ascend prepares students with the tools of real-world experience, community, and flexible academics. Apply today.
Jace Bower is a Copywriter for Unbound. An Unbound alumnus, he has experienced firsthand the powerful advantages of doing college differently and participating in an intentional community. Jace graduated with his bachelor’s degree in History in 2016 and has worked in restaurant management and marketing since then. He also served on the Unbound Student Cabinet in 2019.
The author of two books and a semi-regular blogger, Jace can often be found doing something with words. When he’s not, chances are he’s reading about theology, listening to music, or playing pool or tennis with his wife Shannon in their Virginia home.