Celebrating our Success in Education from 2014-2022

Our mission was simple, but BIG.

Big Idea Project existed to unleash the potential of students as leaders and learners. In other words, we helped students break free from standardized one-size-fits-all education to discover their best self while confidently doing their best work.

From 2014 – 2022…

Our methods were unorthodox.

To accomplish our mission, we knew we had to meet students on their turf—in school. We also knew that we needed to facilitate personal development beyond just academic success to include areas such as character, social and emotional competencies and life skills. Every component of Big Idea Project was carefully crafted to engage each student’s mind, heart and hands as they learned to lead their own learning, to fail forward and to accomplish big goals while serving others selflessly. The BIP Way flew in the face of traditional, standardized education. Many thought it would be impossible to bring transformational learning into schools, but we quickly proved that we could in fact “change school as usual.”

Our results speak for themselves

In the spirit of reaching our own potential, we modeled continuous improvement. Ongoing third-party evaluations, constant feedback loops and on-the-ground research led to significant new advancements every single year. After just eight years, our results proved our unorthodox ways produced industry-leading results. But most importantly,
The BIP Way did what we set out to do: unleash student potential.

Leadership Growth

98% of students displayed substantial growth in leadership confidence, mindsets and skills (from analysis of pre and post-program tracking)

Growth in Empathy

Over 83% of students displayed growth in empathy, a foundational skill for leadership and life.

Better Leaders

At the same time, 98% of students personally claimed they became better leaders because of the class (which proved gains in self-efficacy)

Teacher Satisfaction

Our Net Promoter Score increased every year. 10 out of 10 teachers recommended the experience by our last year of operation.

Student Video Archives

Media Spotlights

Generous Leadership® Challenge

In 2020-2022 our heightened focus on well-being led to the creation of the Generous Leadership® Challenge (GLC) class to address student mental, emotional, physical, social and behavioral health within the context of leadership development. The new GLC class worked hand-in-glove with our signature capstone class, providing a stand-alone year-long class used by schools as an elective or core english course. Students raved about their experience.

“Big Idea Project saved me in many ways. It allowed me to become more of the person I am internally rather than the one I portray on the outside. It pushed me to accomplish goals and work through problems. It allowed me to connect with people in my community that I didn’t even know before. And most of all it allowed me to become humble and participate in civic engagement that benefits the vast majority of the people I came across in my short time with the project.”
– Student

“This class provides a platform to learn real-world skills that most high school classes or projects cannot provide.”
– Student

“Doing the Big Idea Project was the coolest experience of my life and prepared me so much for the real world, without me even knowing it. I would do it all over again if I could.”
– Student

“It doesn’t even seem like a class, it feels like a home where we share our personal experiences to each other to grow.”
– Student

“What you see by the end of this class is definitely why teachers get into the profession of teaching.”
– Teacher

“I have to tell you that even with BIP and GLC going away, you have made an incredible product. My students said they’ve already seen self-improvement…and the BIP has made me a better teacher too.”
– Teacher

“This experience has taught me to see a challenge and accept that challenge so that I can learn how to better succeed even if I fail.”
– Student

THANK YOU!

To our education partners: THANK YOU for letting us serve you. To our hundreds of donors, coaches, sponsors and advocates: THANK YOU for trusting us to do what we said we would do and helping us every step of the way. Together we proved that customized real-world student- centered education is not just possible, but absolutely NECESSARY. Most importantly, we altered the course of over 6,000 young lives.