“SelfDesign is a unique opportunity to pursue your interests in a different way,” says former SelfDesign learner Erik, a member of our Class of 2019. “It’s also a great opportunity to find like-minded people – which could be hard to do otherwise – but SelfDesign provides the perfect opportunities for these connections to be made.” At SelfDesign® Learning Community, learning [...]
More than two years ago, in September 2021, a learner in grade 9 approached SelfDesign® Learning Community’s Principals Team with an idea. She wanted to know if the school would be interested in supporting a learners’ newspaper, written for and by learners. Aerin, now in grade 11, says that the idea came from a conversation with her mom and sisters, [...]
Our Grade 6–7 Theme and Grade 8–9 Theme offerings allow learners to connect with their peers in safe, supportive online spaces, grow their comfort at communicating online and gain skills they’ll need in later grades.
When Cass starts the Bachelor of Arts program in Digital Media Studies at Vancouver Island University this month, he already will have one of the four-year program’s courses under his belt. Cass commenced from SelfDesign in June. During grade 12, he took one of the program’s first-year-level courses as part of the BC Ministry of Education and Child Care’s dual-credit [...]
Grade 8 learner Aria and her sister joined the SelfDesign® Learning Community this learning year. They live in Comox, on Vancouver Island, but this year, their family took a sabbatical to go sailing. Aria and Micah needed an alternative to brick-and-mortar schooling to keep up with their learning during their travels, and SelfDesign’s flexible, personalized approach to learning provided a [...]
Careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are becoming ever more important, and at SelfDesign, learners who finish grade 12 with a Dogwood Diploma have the same opportunities to pursue post-secondary studies and careers in STEM as any other learners who graduate from high school in B.C. At SelfDesign® Learning Community, we are applying cutting-edge educational research to our [...]
On October 30, 2022, 18-year-old Nicholas set a world record in the men's 200-metre freestyle S14 swimming event at the FINA [International Swimming Federation] World Cup preliminaries in Toronto. Three months earlier, he had set a Commonwealth Games record in the 200-m freestyle S14 Para swimming event in Birmingham, England. Those achievements followed a silver medal in the same event [...]
SelfDesign believes in the safety, acceptance and inclusion of all learners in regard to ability, learning style, culture, race, personal or spiritual beliefs, and gender identity and expression. We work year-round to find ways to implement SOGI 123 (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity 123) throughout our organization and offerings to support our learners and other community members who identify as [...]
Next September, Grace will leave the small farming community where she grew up in the west Kootenays to begin the four-year Bachelor of Arts theatre program at Dalhousie University in Halifax, where she’ll specialize in historical costume design.
Rupert overcame a brain injury to spend his years with SelfDesign advocating to make the world a better place.