Experiencing Ascend: A Student’s Guide to the Ascend Projects

Quick Summary: The Ascend Project is a year-long, student-led experience through Unbound where learners complete a personal, meaningful, 40+ hour project. This guide shares what it’s like—step by step—from brainstorming through the final presentation.

The Ascend Projects are at the heart of the Ascend program and central to Unbound’s project-based education model. All students complete one big project over the course of the Ascend year, taking what they are learning and applying it to a real-life scenario.

The prospect of spending 40+ hours completing a personal project can be a bit intimidating, and that was certainly the case for me in my first year. But the experience was incredibly rewarding and taught me so much about myself. In this article I will be going over what it’s like to complete an Ascend Project as a first-year student based on my own experience.

PHASE 1: BRAINSTORMING

Ascend Projects are broken down into three phases, the first of which is the brainstorming phase. This phase starts right after APEX with the beginning of the semester, and the focus is on coming up with the idea for your Ascend Project and completing your project proposals. Students will also attend Basecamp during this phase and gain valuable guidance on how to utilize and grow the practical skills necessary to complete their projects.

How Do Students Come Up With Their Projects?

I had absolutely no idea what project I wanted to do when I began the first semester, which is the case for a lot of students. Some people know right off the bat what they want to do, and that’s great! But for some students, it takes time to come up with an idea that they like. It certainly did for me!

The kinds of projects that students do each year are wildly different and very diverse, so no project idea is off the table. However, there are certain guidelines students are required to follow when selecting their project.

Projects must take a minimum of 40 hours to complete, be personal, meaningful, relevant, and challenging to each student. You will spend the rest of the year working on this project, so it shouldn’t be something that can be completed over the weekend. But it’s also important for your project to be something that personally interests you, especially in your first year because the Foundations project is all about taking an idea you’re passionate about from concept to reality. I have always enjoyed art and being creative, so for my Foundations project I decided to branch out into a new medium of art that I had never tried before, which was animation. It was a really challenging skill to learn, but also a lot of fun!

Foundations Projects vs Challenge and Launch Projects

The Ascend Projects for Challenge and Launch have similar parameters for students to follow as the Foundations Projects, but with a few key differences.

Your first Ascend Project will be focused on bringing an idea you had to life, something that particularly interests you or helps you learn and develop a skill. But for Challenge and Launch students, the focus shifts to working with others and applying the things you have learned so far in Ascend in a team environment. Challenge students complete a project that requires them to take someone else’s idea from concept to reality, and Launch students must lead a team to bring a vision, either theirs or someone else’s, from concept to reality. Ascend Projects for both these years are meant to help you put what you’ve learned since the beginning of Ascend into practice in a deeper way.

What happens at the end of the brainstorming phase?

As students start settling on their ideas and get ready to start their project proposals, everyone will travel to the second event in the Ascend year, Basecamp. This event is very intentionally placed in the midst of the brainstorming phase, as its content builds the foundation and skills needed to complete the Ascend Projects.

When I went to my first Basecamp, I was feeling very nervous about my project. It just seemed so big, and I was getting pretty overwhelmed with everything I had to do. While at Basecamp though, I attended several eye-opening sessions on resilience, time management, and skill development. I had a chance to speak to several staff members about my fears, and they gave me a lot of great encouragement. Basecamp is a very important part of the brainstorming phase, and it lays the groundwork for everything else you will be doing in the year.

After attending Basecamp, the final step in the first phase are the project proposals. Students will have to complete two proposals during this phase: the initial proposal and the final proposal. These are a way for the student to articulate their idea and hash out all the finer details, while also providing accountability as each student’s ATL (Ascend Team Leader) will look over the proposals and give feedback.

The initial project proposal doesn’t need to be super polished, but it should be thought out. When I first drafted mine, I wasn’t super clear on what all the details of my project should be, but I wrote down what I was thinking and sent it to my ATL for review. He was totally awesome and gave me a lot of helpful pointers and ideas as I really began narrowing down the scope of my project (thank you Ben!).

The final project proposal is due at the end of the first semester, and the conclusion of the brainstorming phase. Here you can apply the advice your ATL gave you and finish finalizing the important details for your project.

After you submit your final project proposal, it’s time to start working on executing your project. Something to keep in mind, however, is that even though your proposal is submitted and you have your idea in place, that does not mean that things can’t change. I submitted my project proposal with a pretty good idea of what I wanted to and what the end result would be, but about a month later I realized that I wanted my project to go in a different direction. I spoke with my ATL and adjusted my proposal as necessary. It’s normal for projects to grow and change over time, so just know that you’re not stuck and if you find yourself needing to shift direction later on, that’s a possibility!

PHASE 2: EXECUTION

After completing your final project proposal, it is time to start working on your project! This phase has less steps than the previous one, because it is about putting your plan into action and actually executing your project. You will do a lot of the legwork for your project during this phase, as well as gain valuable project experience at Ridgeline.

Starting your project

Once you have your idea in place and your proposal completed, you can start work on your Ascend Project. Some projects will take more time and resources than others, but all projects must take at least 40 hours as mentioned above.

During this stage, it is very helpful to have a roadmap of things you want completed each month. I drew one up at the end of the brainstorming phase for my first project, and it was a very helpful guideline for me to follow. Just make sure you hold it loosely, as when my project changed a lot of the steps I had laid out for myself needed to change as well to fit my new vision.

Taking your project from start to finish

There is another event placed right at the beginning of the second phase: Ridgeline. This is a very fast-paced, project focused event, which is also intentionally placed during this phase of the projects similar to Basecamp. Students will complete mini projects here in teams over the course of three days.

This event gives students the opportunity to practice planning, executing, and finishing projects in real time. For me, it was a very challenging week, but it also really gave me a lot of confidence that I could actually finish a big project as long as I put in the effort to learn the skills that were needed.

Ridgeline lines up with the beginning of the execution phase, and for good reason. It gave me a great perspective, as well as a confidence boost, as I was just launching into the real project work for my Ascend project.

The next couple months are spent completing your project, with the deadline to finish at the end of April.

PHASE 3: REFLECTION

After project work wraps up, around the end of April, the third and final phase begins. A running theme in Ascend is the importance of reflection, and that is what the focus is at the end of the final semester.

What comes next?

When I finished my first Ascend Project, I felt absolutely amazing. I was so glad to have finished it, and I learned so much during the process. When you gain a lot of new knowledge, however, it’s easy for it to fade if you are not intentional. During this final phase, I was able to take the time to reflect back on my project as I worked on the final project report for my ATL. This report is a summary of what your project was, how it went, and your final thoughts on the process.

Similar to the previous two phases, there is an event intentionally placed during the project reflections that does a wonderful job of tying everything together. Capstone is the final event of the Ascend year, and its themes focus heavily on leadership and reflection. My first Capstone was a phenomenal experience, as it was a wonderful way to wrap up the year and offered a fantastic environment for reflection.

After Capstone, all students will prepare a project presentation to be shared with the Unbound staff, fellow students, and any family and friends that you would like to invite. These presentations are a way to come full circle on your reflections for your project and share what you did and learned with the rest of the Ascend community. The project presentations were a highlight of the last week for me, as we all came together to celebrate each other’s accomplishments.

Are the Ascend Projects worth it?

From my experience? Yes, absolutely. As you will hear quite often in Ascend, you get out of the program, and especially the projects, what you put into them. By putting in time and effort, Ascend Projects have the potential to be one of the most meaningful things you do during the school year. They are an amazing way to learn a new skill, grow a current one, and create something with real, tangible impact in your life or the lives of others. I believe that is well worth the effort.