Homeschooling through high school can feel intimidating, even for the most seasoned homeschooler. I have reached out to a few online high school resources. I recently came across Sora Schools and co-founder Indra Sofian about the inspiration behind this unique virtual project-based high school option for teens. He also joined our weekly homeschool roundtable, which are held monthly in the Las Vegas Homeschooling Support Facebook group.
The live, virtual school is accredited by WASC.
Sora Schools hosts an Open House second and fourth Thursday of each month from 12:30-3 p.m. EST, which allows teens to meet the teachers 1:1, attend enriching workshops, get introduced to the student community, and learn what it’s like to go to Sora. Register early to check out Sora!
How does Sora work?
Sora is a live, virtual project-based high school where students explore their interests and future careers. Our educators take what students are interested in and help them create projects focused on those subjects, whether it be creative writing, computer science, history, space, or more.
Students in our high school aren’t studying for tests or sitting in lectures. They’re building video games, writing books, and conducting scientific research. As students work on these projects, traditional academic subjects like English, History, Math, and such are incorporated in their learning plans–instead of learning algebra or composition for the sake of a test, they’re learning these topics and applying them through projects.
When the students graduate, they leave with a high school diploma and enter the next phase of their lives as self-directed, thoughtful adults.
What makes Sora different than other online programs?
There’s a few key differences between Sora and traditional online programs.
- First, we’re a live, virtual school. We allot time for asynchronous work, but we have a lot of live, synchronous events like our morning standup meetings where students talk about their projects, tasks, and their plan for the day, our weekly workshops hosted by our educators, the 1:1 meetings between the educators and students, and our weekly Friday Showcases where students present what they’ve been working on during the week and teach the other students something they learned. These are all interactive and engaging–it’s not passive learning like other live, virtual schools with lectures.
- Second, our program is an extremely personalized education. Not only do students work on projects and learn subjects in their areas of interest, but our educators work with them to hand-pick and create custom curriculum and projects for them. They meet with the students consistently and collaborate together on individual learning plans for each student.
- Third, our program does a lot more than just provide a curriculum and structure. We connect students with industry professionals through our Mentor Network so they can learn about new fields of work and jobs. Students periodically meet with a counselor who helps them develop soft skills like time management, project management, presentation, and more. Overall, our core strength is the student community we’ve built–they help each other with projects, keep each other accountable, and inspire each other to work hard and dream big.
What tips can you offer parents to use Sora?
We don’t have lectures, courses, or even tests. Our curriculum is predominantly project-based, and those projects are centered around individual student interests. Our program works with a lot of students who were bored in their previous school, had a lot of deep interests that weren’t fulfilled or facilitated, or were looking for a more supportive community and group of students.
If you’re looking for a better educational option for your high school student and are interested in our personalized, project-based approach to learning, consider enrolling your student at Sora Schools.
