My kid is about to graduate from a high school that is basically an intentional community that happens to be a school. I’m here because they have openings in their boarding house, and they reached out to me to spread the word because they have realized that community-raised students are an ideal match for the school. So far, four kids from our local ecovillage area have gone there, even though it’s two states away.
Youth Initiative High School has been perfect for my kid, and I think it would be great for other teens raised in community. It’s not a boarding school per se – most of the students are from the local town – but they have one boarding house where out-of-state and foreign exchange students live together with a family of five whose parents work at the school.
YIHS is in the delightful hamlet of Viroqua, WI. It was founded by teens about 25 years ago and is loosely based on Waldorf, with a strong emphasis on the arts and service.
The boarding house costs around $9K per year, and tuition for the school is on a pledge basis: they let you know what tuition costs per student, which is usually around $9-10K as well, and then you pledge however much you are able to pay that year (which can be over or under that amount).
My daughter has thrived in the boarding house environment there, where they have chore charts, a cooking rotation, all-together-now cleaning times, and a strict limit on screen time. The teachers at the school are dedicated, creative, intellectually curious mentors who seem to genuinely love teaching teens.
The school administrator, a fabulous individual by the name of Matt Voz, who is also a boarding-house parent, sent me the following note:
“We are hosting two live panel discussions on January 14th and 15th over the web. Interested families can learn more and RSVP at www.yihs.net. And, of course, they are welcome to reach out to me over email at matt@yihs.net.”
Here is the school’s website. You can get in touch from there: https://www.yihs.net/
Here is a link to the boarding house infographic:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nH6BEgjJtKAhpqe38X-8x8NCsmyDUhFN/view?usp=sharing
Go ahead and check them out! It might be just what your kids need to grow beyond the homeschool coop or other options in your community.
Warmly,
Alyson