YEAR TWO

Ascend: Challenge

Where students learn how to translate ideas into action
by creating value for someone else and meeting standards
outside of themselves as they take someone else’s idea
from concept to reality.

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READ THE JOB GUARANTEE

What to Expect During Your Second Year in Ascend

Ascend: Challenge introduces students to new event content, more challenging project requirements, and internship opportunities to boost their resumes
NEW THEMES &
DEEPER CONTENT

Ascend: Challenge Events

During their Ascend: Challenge year, students will again attend APEX, Basecamp, Ridgeline, and Capstone. However, this time around, students will participate in the Challenge track at each event, featuring new themes and content that build on the prior year. While APEX is recreated as a whole each year, the Basecamp theme for Challenge students will shift from an intro to resilience to the fundamentals of mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual resilience. Ridgeline is also recreated each year to feature new subject-matter experts and new student-interest direct real-world projects, but Capstone will shift from a leadership intensive to an intensive focused on living with hope in a world marred by sin and suffering.

NEW THEMES &
DEEPER CONTENT

Ascend: Challenge Events

During their Ascend: Challenge year, students will again attend APEX, Basecamp, Ridgeline, and Capstone. However, this time around, students will participate in the Challenge track at each event, featuring new themes and content that build on the prior year. While APEX is recreated as a whole each year, the Basecamp theme for Challenge students will shift from an intro to resilience to the fundamentals of mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual resilience. Ridgeline is also recreated each year to feature new subject-matter experts and new student-interest direct real-world projects, but Capstone will shift from a leadership intensive to an intensive focused on living with hope in a world marred by sin and suffering.

HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE
CREATING VALUE FOR
OTHERS

Ascend: Challenge 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 the requirements shift and students are now expected to practice creating value for someone else by taking another person’s idea from concept to reality.

HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE
CREATING VALUE FOR OTHERS

Ascend: Challenge 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 the requirements shift and students are now expected to practice creating value for someone else by taking another person’s idea from concept to reality.

CONTINUED EDUCATION &
TRAINING FOR THE
REAL WORLD

Ascend: Challenge Tracks

Upon re-enrollment for Ascend: Challenge students will again choose between the certificate, specialty, or degree track enrollment options for their second year. Regardless of which track they choose, all Ascend: Challenge students will complete the following series of Unbound life skill courses that build on Navigate and the Signature Leadership Course series from Ascend: Foundations: Tactical Communications (how to negotiate, persuade, handle conflict, and witness), Christianity & Cultural Engagement (how to apply worldview & think deeply), and Financial Advantage (basics of financial planning as a young adult).

CONTINUED EDUCATION &
TRAINING FOR THE REAL WORLD

Ascend: Challenge Tracks

Upon re-enrollment for Ascend: Challenge students will again choose between the certificate, specialty, or degree track enrollment options for their second year. Regardless of which track they choose, all Ascend: Challenge students will complete the following series of Unbound life skill courses that build on Navigate and the Signature Leadership Course series from Ascend: Foundations: Tactical Communications (how to negotiate, persuade, handle conflict, and witness), Christianity & Cultural Engagement (how to apply worldview & think deeply), and Financial Advantage (basics of financial planning as a young adult).

INTERNSHIP &
STUDENT LEADERSHIP
OPPORTUNITIES

Ascend: Challenge Community

As students enter their second year in Ascend they become 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

Ascend: Challenge Community

As students enter their second year in Ascend they become 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.

How to Get Started in Ascend: Challenge

STEP 1

Book Your
Re-Enrollment Call

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: Foundations 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: Challenge 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.

STEP 2

Re-Enroll
in Ascend: Challenge

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: Challenge student.

STEP 3

New Team Assignment
& Access to Slack

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.

STEP 4

Attend
APEX

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.

STEP 5

Team Meetings
& SME Webinars

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.

STEP 6

Courses & Project Brainstorming

As the fall kicks off, you will begin brainstorming your Ascend Project and work through the first two of your new Ascend: Challenge life courses.

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.

STEP 7

Attend
Basecamp

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.

STEP 8

Project
Brainstorming

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: Challenge 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.

STEP 9

Attend
Ridgeline

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. 

STEP 10

Project
Execution

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. 

STEP 11

Attend
Capstone

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.

STEP 12

Complete
Projects, Courses, & Certificates

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: Challenge students who complete each aspect of the program year, they will earn a new high-level certificate in leadership and professional development. This certificate, added to the two certificates earned during your Ascend: Foundations year, will continue to set you apart from your traditionally educated peers and ahead in the job market.

Re-Enroll Today

Early re-enrollment open for 2025!
$1,000 deposit required at enrollment.
Installment plans available
over 15 months when you enroll in December.

Certificate
Track


Add on 9 or 15 credits for
$1,000 or $2,000

$11,500 paid in full or:
$766.67/month
  • If applicable: academic coaching
  • If applicable: complete 4-year degree plan through your university of choice*
  • Registration to 4 live Ascend Events, plus free travel to the first
  • Monthly Ascend Team meetings for goal-setting, coaching, and accountability
  • 16-week Navigate life purpose course
  • 3-course Christian leadership training series
  • Hands-on Ascend Project in field of interest
  • Ascend certificate
  • *Dependent on individual university transfer credit requirements

Specialty
Tracks


Add on 9 or 15 credits for
$1,000 or $2,000

$13,500 paid in full or:
$900/month
  • Everything included in the Certificate Track PLUS your choice of Specialty Track:
  • Digital Marketing & Entrepreneurship Track
  • Writing & Publication Track
  • Videography & ProductionTrack
  • Art & Design Track
EXPLORE EACH TRACK

Degree
Track


30 credits

$15,500 paid in full or:
$1,033.34/month
  • Everything included in the Certificate Track PLUS:
  • Academic coaching
  • Complete 4-year degree plan through your university of choice*
  • 30 college credits earned through online general education and elective courses
  • *Dependent on individual university transfer credit requirements
BOOK AN ADMISSION CALL
READ THE JOB GUARANTEE

Ready to Re-Enroll?

Schedule a call with admissions to get your questions answered and re-enroll today.

TALK TO OUR TEAM

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