META will open in fall 2026 with 9th and 10th graders. Fill out this non-binding Intent to Enroll for your student to demonstrate an interest in META opening and *potentially attending META!

META's Approach

We view school as a place to build the skills, mindsets, and confidence to rise within (not just enter) your career, have a successful life, and change the world.

META develops leaders who will design the future using management, entrepreneurship, teaching, and art.

Down

We use our graduate aims as our overall guide, while offering an academic experience grounded in our values.

Scroll for more about each below!

By age 23, META alumni:

Graduate
Aims

Our goal is for students to succeed both during and after their time at META, so we align all our operations to prepare students for outcomes that are true well after they've graduated.

Graduate Aim 1:

Have a career pathway aligned to both their skills and passions with an orientation for equity and justice.

Why?

It's imperative that students live a life of individual agency and choice as they progress into a career. However, their education goes beyond them; uplifting communities is multidimensional and will only happen if students understand how they can enable positive social change in whatever field they enter.

How do students prepare at META?

Students take strengths-based assessments throughout high school to identify their areas of growth and know how to capitalize on their strengths, both personally and professionally.
They participate in on and off-site internships. An on-site internship might include a student being responsible for creating communications and marketing for the school, being paired as a teacher's assistant for lowerclassmen classes, or helping run logistics for sports teams. An off-site internship might be at the Colorado state Capitol, a local business, a partner school, or a non-profit.
Students frequently hear from diverse professionals in different fields.
They take courses in social justice and ethnic studies to intimately understand systems of power and privilege, and gain skills in community organizing.
Students earn career credentials that align to Management, Entrepreneurship, Teaching, and Art that will help jumpstart their career.

Graduate Aim 2:

Use academic, managerial, entrepreneurial, communication, creative, and leadership skills to grow themselves and their communities.

Why?

The world is getting increasingly competitive. To secure future opportunities for themselves and to uplift communities, students need a skillset that includes and goes beyond a strong academic foundation. They need skills that will allow them to rise in whatever path they choose.

How do students prepare at META?

Students participate in a near-peer mentoring program, where they receive a mentor and eventually become mentors to other students.
They take courses in marketing, communications and design, art, entrepreneurship and social innovation, and management and leadership.
Students engage in a project-based curriculum in each class, where they can creatively and authentically apply their learning and draw connections between classes.
They apply their in-class learning in real-world internships where they use META skills.

Graduate Aim 3:

Confidently communicate their social, personal, and professional identities.

Why?

One component of securing opportunities is skills and knowledge. Another is deeply understanding one's self – especially in relation to the broader world. Identities influence how people perceive and engage each other and people's experiences in social systems, so students unlock their power by understanding all of the facets that make them who they are.

How do students prepare at META?

Students learn and practice reflection protocols that enable them to track their own progression academically, socially, personally, and professionally.
They take ethnic studies and social justice classes, where they explore the history of their communities and understand frameworks of power, privilege, oppression, and socialization.
Students participate in student-run affinity groups where they can engage with others around lines of similarity and difference, such as race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, ability, and religion.
They explore their personal interests and hobbies through elective classes and student-run clubs.
Students explore and define what "professional" means to them and in different contexts.

Graduate Aim 4:

Can move into a career in education, or contribute to the improvement of education and other social systems regardless of their career path.

Why?

We need more teachers, principals, and district officials of color, just as we need diverse leaders across all industries. There are many ways that historically marginalized communities can improve the systems that often perpetuate injustice – medicine, business, law, government, and more. A META graduate thinks about how to positively shift systems.

How do students prepare at META?

Students teach each other at META and teach younger students at partner schools.
They co-create their learning environment with peers and teachers.
Students take courses in teaching and learning facilitation and design.
They create and actively participate in a teacher evaluation system.
Students take concurrent enrollment courses in education with partner organizations and higher ed institutions.
They do projects and explore curriculum that focuses on how they can use their academic and META skills for good.
Students create school policy through real voice – practicing systems impact at the school level.
They can be placed as interns in partner organizations that do social-change work – such as government offices, nonprofits, social impact startups, and more.

Academic
Experience

To prepare students to achieve the above graduate aims, META's academic experience emphasizes real-world application, student choice, collaboration, and leadership.

Project Based Learning

META students learn by incorporating both core content and META skills in long-term assignments where they work with others to develop rigorous end products.

Metacognition

Students think about how they are learning in addition to what they are learning. They constantly reflect and ask themselves: "what strengths do I have as a learner, and how can I use them to grow?" "How does what I'm learning now connect to other learning in and out of school?"

Culturally Responsive Learning for Students in Denver

Culturally Responsive/Sustaining Pedagogy

META teachers develop experiences for and with students that allow them to make connections to their lived experiences and modern lives. Teachers understand and celebrate students' identities – and provide space for students to do so with each other.

High School Internships and Real World Learning in Denver

Connection Outside of the School Walls

Students engage in on and off-site internships that align to Management, Entrepreneurship, Teaching, Art, or a combination. They apply what they've learned in school in real life. Examples include working at the Capitol, as a marketing intern for META, a teacher assistant, and more.

Values

Our values ensure that staff, students, families, and other community members are meaningfully engaging with themselves, each other, and the outside world as we work to prepare students for lives of impact.

Hard Work

We set big, ambitious goals for ourselves, our work, and our community. We work individually, and together, to achieve them while having space to recharge and rest with decolonized self-care.

Empathy

We seek and involve other perspectives – especially those most historically marginalized. We both honor and look beyond our own lenses as we engage in our work and with each other.

Agency

We have the ability to make choices within our school work, our projects, our self-expression, and how we build our futures. We strive to provide others with choices now and in the future.

Advocacy

We practice expressing our own needs. We also advocate for and with others tactically, effectively, and urgently – especially those historically unheard or with less privilege.

Authenticity

We have confidence in who we are and we bring our full selves to everything we do, while celebrating others. We understand and express our professional, personal, and social selves – and understand how these overlap.

Learn

We view everything as an opportunity to learn. We understand that learning can happen both inside and outside of the classroom, from adults and young people alike, and we seek constant growth.

META's Approach

META develops leaders who will design the future using management, entrepreneurship, teaching, and art.

We use our graduate aims as our overall guide, while offering an academic experience grounded in our values.

By age 23, META alumni:

Graduate Aims

Academic Experience

Values

Hard Work

Empathy

Agency

Advocacy

Authenticity

Learn

Graduate
Aims

Academic
Experience