navigating with purpose
College Prep’s Compass curriculum supports students’ social-emotional learning and sense of belonging throughout high school.
Guided by the question, “How do I find and follow my True North?,” students build the self-knowledge, relationships, habits, and ethical grounding to navigate school and the wider world with purpose.
Across four years, Compass develops six interconnected strands: executive functioning, values alignment, community connection, relationships, self-awareness, and ethical direction. The progression moves from learning to understand oneself and a new community to acting with increasing autonomy, integrity, and impact.
Across four years, Compass develops six interconnected strands: executive functioning, values alignment, community connection, relationships, self-awareness, and ethical direction. The progression moves from learning to understand oneself and a new community to acting with increasing autonomy, integrity, and impact.
Ninth Grade: Building Foundations
Guiding question: Who am I, what shapes me, and what can I do to be well in this community?
The Connections and Advising Program (CAP) supports all ninth graders as they transition to high school. In weekly small-group sessions led by faculty advisors and senior mentors, students build relationships, develop effective work habits, and learn the explicit and implicit norms of a new environment. CAP also creates space to explore self-care, service, ethical questions, and the practices that sustain meaningful connections.
Ninth-grade Wellness & Belonging complements this work by helping students identify the values and identities that matter most to them and begin to develop a clear moral compass. Students practice receiving and integrating feedback, asking for and using support, strengthening executive-functioning skills, and cultivating relationships rooted in empathy, care, and honesty.
The Connections and Advising Program (CAP) supports all ninth graders as they transition to high school. In weekly small-group sessions led by faculty advisors and senior mentors, students build relationships, develop effective work habits, and learn the explicit and implicit norms of a new environment. CAP also creates space to explore self-care, service, ethical questions, and the practices that sustain meaningful connections.
Ninth-grade Wellness & Belonging complements this work by helping students identify the values and identities that matter most to them and begin to develop a clear moral compass. Students practice receiving and integrating feedback, asking for and using support, strengthening executive-functioning skills, and cultivating relationships rooted in empathy, care, and honesty.
Tenth Grade: Belonging Across Difference
Guiding question: Who am I in relation to others, and how do I help build belonging across differences?
In Wellness & Belonging, tenth graders deepen their understanding of their own complex, intersecting identities and consider their relationship to power. Through discussion, case studies, activities, and reflection, students practice active listening and build the self-awareness needed for open, empathic connections across differences.
Students also develop strategies for navigating challenging or risky situations, practicing harm reduction, and acting with authenticity and integrity. The course invites students to examine how individual choices, relationships, and systems shape the wellbeing of the larger community.
In Wellness & Belonging, tenth graders deepen their understanding of their own complex, intersecting identities and consider their relationship to power. Through discussion, case studies, activities, and reflection, students practice active listening and build the self-awareness needed for open, empathic connections across differences.
Students also develop strategies for navigating challenging or risky situations, practicing harm reduction, and acting with authenticity and integrity. The course invites students to examine how individual choices, relationships, and systems shape the wellbeing of the larger community.
Eleventh Grade: Connecting Values to Future Pathways
Guiding question: How do I understand my relationship to power, honor my values, and build the skills to navigate the world ethically?
Eleventh-grade Wellness & Belonging asks students to move through an interconnected community with self-awareness, compassion, and accountability. Students articulate their personal values and consider how to put them to work in decision-making, future planning, and relationships. They also strengthen their ability to navigate complex processes efficiently, act with growing autonomy and agency, and balance individual goals with responsibility to their communities and the wider world.
In the spring, students participate in Purpose & Pathways, a weekly class led by the College Counseling Office. This individualized, student-driven process helps students reflect on themselves as thinkers, community members, and young adults preparing for life after College Prep. With guidance from college counselors, students explore post-high-school options that align with their strengths, goals, interests, and values; research colleges and other pathways; and begin the reflective work that informs personal statements, recommendations, interviews, and applications.
Eleventh-grade Wellness & Belonging asks students to move through an interconnected community with self-awareness, compassion, and accountability. Students articulate their personal values and consider how to put them to work in decision-making, future planning, and relationships. They also strengthen their ability to navigate complex processes efficiently, act with growing autonomy and agency, and balance individual goals with responsibility to their communities and the wider world.
In the spring, students participate in Purpose & Pathways, a weekly class led by the College Counseling Office. This individualized, student-driven process helps students reflect on themselves as thinkers, community members, and young adults preparing for life after College Prep. With guidance from college counselors, students explore post-high-school options that align with their strengths, goals, interests, and values; research colleges and other pathways; and begin the reflective work that informs personal statements, recommendations, interviews, and applications.
Twelfth Grade: Turning Purpose into Impact
Guiding question: How do I understand what matters to me and how I can make a meaningful impact within and beyond these walls?
Senior Projects are the capstone of the Compass curriculum. Students translate their personal and ethical values into sustained, self-directed action that contributes to environmental, civic, or social change. Through projects such as the Partners Teaching Fellowship and independent, advisor-supported work, seniors pursue meaningful questions, deepen existing commitments, and connect their learning to communities beyond College Prep.
Each Senior Project is:
Grounded in values: Students align their work with their understanding of self and personal ethical framework. Proactive in mindset. Students take initiative, practice leadership, and direct their own learning.
Sustained in action: Students commit to focused, long-term effort that allows for depth, iteration, and growth. Impact-focused in outcome. Students connect a purpose-driven vision to a meaningful community-facing result.
Reflective in process: Students clarify their learning and growth through writing, discussion, and presentation.
By graduation, students have developed a personal True North—one grounded not only in reflection and values, but also in purposeful action, ethical leadership, and a commitment to the communities they inhabit.
Senior Projects are the capstone of the Compass curriculum. Students translate their personal and ethical values into sustained, self-directed action that contributes to environmental, civic, or social change. Through projects such as the Partners Teaching Fellowship and independent, advisor-supported work, seniors pursue meaningful questions, deepen existing commitments, and connect their learning to communities beyond College Prep.
Each Senior Project is:
Grounded in values: Students align their work with their understanding of self and personal ethical framework. Proactive in mindset. Students take initiative, practice leadership, and direct their own learning.
Sustained in action: Students commit to focused, long-term effort that allows for depth, iteration, and growth. Impact-focused in outcome. Students connect a purpose-driven vision to a meaningful community-facing result.
Reflective in process: Students clarify their learning and growth through writing, discussion, and presentation.
By graduation, students have developed a personal True North—one grounded not only in reflection and values, but also in purposeful action, ethical leadership, and a commitment to the communities they inhabit.
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mens conscia recti
a mind aware of what is right