Our Mission

Curious Cardinals aims to ignite passions in our students with engaging, challenging materials and inspiring mentors, so they are empowered with the knowledge and mindset to take agency over their own educational journeys and enact positive change in the world.

Curious Cardinals is committed to creating learning spaces that are inclusive, equitable, and representative of diverse communities. We are proud to provide full or partial financial aid for students who demonstrate need.

Rethinking Education

Traditional education models don’t ask students what they are interested in learning. Curious Cardinals does the opposite. We work with our students to develop personalized learning models so they can discover and explore their passions in a setting that liberates them from the pressure of grades and other ranking systems.

Diversity, Equity,

and Inclusion

Curious Cardinals strives to make high quality education equitable and accessible. We engage our team in discussions about anti-discriminatory pedagogy and how to create inclusive classrooms. Curious Cardinals partners with Prep for Prep and is continuing to expand our own financial aid program to ensure that no student faces financial barriers to participation. We bring together diverse students, speakers, and mentors to share their perspectives and passions.

What Parents Say

"We marvel at the fact that the best teachers our kids have ever had aren’t even teachers! Alec and Audrey have such an impressive mastery of their respective subjects. They create engaging, relevant and challenging coursework that accomplishes what we most want for our kids - a love of learning."

— Alicia, mother of 5th & 8th grade students

Mentoring

Our mentorship program pairs elementary to high school students with a like-minded college student. Mentors will collaborate with their mentee(s) to design a project that both supplements their conventional learning and gives students agency over their education. Throughout the year, our mentors will work with their student(s) to help them build a portfolio of interdisciplinary projects. Whether it be building a video game, recording an album, designing an airplane, starting a business, or addressing a social inequity, our mentors will challenge their mentees to achieve previously unimaginable feats.

Classes

Our reimagined online seminars of under ten students bring together a cohort from across the country to challenge each other in an interactive learning experience. Each teacher is uniquely passionate about the curriculum they create, and classes include lectures, discussions, and debates to keep things lively. We employ a diversity of media for homework including films, college level readings, and even experiments! We have invited distinguished guest speakers including Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy, feminist icon Liz Plank, several representatives from The Innocence Project, Dean of UC Berkeley Law School Erwin Chemerinsky, and many more.

Tutoring

Our tutors supplement the need for one-on-one attention in the age of isolating online classes. Tutors cater their materials to students’ specific interests, combining skills they want to improve, like writing, with topics they care about, like food science. Tutors demonstrate real-life applications of the conventional subjects taught in school so students see what they can do with their education. Each tutor is close enough in age to their students to relate to their interests and academic struggles. Tutors inspire our students by enthusiastically sharing their passions and demonstrating what each student is capable of achieving themselves!

Press

CNN host Bianna Golodryga talks passion-based learning and education during COVID-19 with Curious Cardinals co-founder Audrey Wisch and student Ava Frankel

Our Team in Action

Take a look at our awesome team and the cool things we do when out of class!