Enrolling is free and admission is not selective: We work with anyone who wants our help figuring out what they care about and learning what they need to go after it.

What is Powderhouse?

Powderhouse Studios is a small, tuition-free lab school figuring out how to create spaces where people really learn and really want to be.

What?

At Powderhouse, you choose what you work on, and we work together to make it happen. That means figuring out your priorities, turning those into projects and plans, and reflecting on how things are going to help get you where you want to go.

How?

In return, you commit to investing in yourself. Powderhouse isn’t a place where you do whatever you want; it’s a place where you actually do what’s important to you, even when it’s hard.

How Much?

Powderhouse is free. In addition, we make sure you're fed, have funds for projects, and offer use of a laptop, phone, and tablet if you need one while you're with us.

Who?

Everyone is looking for something different when they come to Powderhouse, but we all want to spend more time doing things we care about and less time bored.

When?

We’re open 10AM–5PM, September–June. We aren’t drop-in, but we can create a custom schedule if you need it, as long as you’re working with Powderhouse ≥ 20 hours per week.

Where?

We're in a cozy space just five minutes’ walk from Davis and Porter Squares in Somerville, MA.

Ready to begin? Apply now

Why are we doing this?

Today, youth are excluded from the most important conversations of their lives because we place them in School, a place whose day-to-day is largely removed from issues which matter (to either youth or the world). This disenfranchises youth by denying them both the chance to learn through real work and the opportunity for meaningful involvement in public discourse and civic life.

We do this under the rubric of “developing productive members of society” and “creating good citizens”, claiming that preparing people for effective participation in society requires isolating them from it for more than a decade.

At Powderhouse, we believe this is not only wrong, it doesn’t work.

Alexander Hamilton was barely nineteen when he started his political career. Malala Yousafzai was just seventeen when she won the Nobel Peace Prize. Louis Braille was only fifteen when he invented the Braille alphabet. However unusual or extraordinary you believe these people were, their greatness did not come after a long period of preparation, but grew out of constant and engaged action and reflection doing real work.

We believe young people can do far more than our culture gives them credit for. But realizing this potential requires acknowledging that people grow best when they’re learning, learn best when they’re creating, and create best when they’re creating something which matters to them—and sharing it with a real audience.

The research and design challenge for those who care about youth is clear: We need to advance the art and science of meshing the abstract knowledge and skills today’s society requires with the concrete culture and concerns of youth. To many people, this problem will appear impossible because they believe abstract knowledge and skills are dreary and the culture and concerns of youth fun.

More than a decade prototyping radically different approaches to learning have convinced us this is a mistake borne of most people’s experiences in School, a place where disciplines are atomized into lonely, impersonal subjects, trivia far-removed from everyday life.

After trying to tackle this from the inside, we are setting out ourselves to build an equitable educational institution free to the public which embodies this vision of learning

Joining Powderhouse

Often people come to us because they are looking for something different. Almost everyone wants to spend more time working on creative things they care about, and less time in boring classes. But beyond that, maybe other schools are too big or dramatic. Or maybe they don’t like sitting at a desk all day. Or maybe they have specific needs—e.g. special education, finances, housing, mental health—that make other schools a bad fit. All of that is fine.

There are, however, some eligibility criteria ensuring we can support you at Powderhouse:

  1. You must be able to get to Powderhouse reliably. We provide public transit passes, gas money, bikes (via BlueBikes), or parking passes as needed.
  2. You must be able to work with Powderhouse for at least twenty hours each week. Powderhouse is not drop-in, but we try to support individualized schedules.
  3. You must be ≥ 15 years old when you enroll. If you already have a diploma or high school equivalent, we’ll discuss whether Powderhouse is a good fit.
  4. You must be conversational in English. It’s fine if you’re not fluent, but we need to be able to talk together to work together.
  5. You must be able to walk a flight of stairs. Our current space is not wheelchair accessible, and our program happens on both floors.

How do people enroll?

You can enroll at Powderhouse through several pathways:

  1. You can join as a homeschool student. ⇒ We manage your home education plan, coordinate with your home district, and take care of all the logistics associated with withdrawing from any school you’re currently enrolled in.
  2. You can join as a partner-enrollment student. ⇒ You are enrolled at your current school (your “school of record”) but attend Powderhouse, earning credit at your school of record. We have existing partnerships with some local school districts, but if we don’t yet have a partnership with your school or school district, we’ll explore establishing that during your enrollment process.
  3. You can join as a direct-enrollment student. ⇒ Powderhouse awards your diploma. Powderhouse is still undergoing its accreditation process, so if you’re considering this option, please reach out to discuss your particular situation and timeline.
  4. Or, you can join as an independent student. ⇒ You are ≥ 16 years old and neither want to homeschool nor want a diploma, though you may want a high school equivalent like the GED or HiSET (which if you’re a minor, will require a legal guardian’s permission.)

What’s the admissions process?

Joining Powderhouse starts with a conversation. We’ll get to know you, answer your questions, and help you decide whether Powderhouse feels like a good fit.

There are three parts to the process:

Exploring

Start by getting in touch.

We’ll talk about what you’re looking for, explain how Powderhouse works, and invite you to visit our space. You can ask questions, meet people, and take some time to imagine whether this is the kind of place where you would want to work and learn. Lots of people come to Powderhouse just trying to figure things out.

Applying

If you’d like to apply, fill out this quick form. Don’t spend more than 5 minutes on it. Then you’ll meet with us for an interview.

We’ll talk about your interests, priorities, schedule, and what you might want to work on at Powderhouse. We’ll also talk about the different enrollment pathways, including homeschooling, working with a partner school, direct enrollment, or joining as an independent student.

Admissions aren’t competitive. The goal is to make sure Powderhouse is a good fit, not to judge whether you’re “good enough.” There are no wrong answers, and you don’t need to arrive with a perfectly formed plan.

If there’s space in the program, we’ll get in touch to offer you an official spot. If not, we’ll put you on the waitlist. For some enrollment pathways, we may need to do some more communications or paperwork with other institutions before you can officially accept your spot.

But, once you accept your spot, you’re in! And then you start the onboarding phase.

Onboarding

Once you accept an offer, we’ll get started. By the time you begin, we should know what you’re working toward, how we’ll work together, and what happens next.

Before your first day, we’ll build a game plan for the year, talk through expectations, collect the information we need to support you, and make sure your parents or guardians are on board too.

Some details can take longer and continue after you start, such as coordinating with a partner school, completing school records, developing a home education plan, or gathering IEP and 504 information. We’ll help manage all that. It can get overwhelming, but it’s worth it: all these logistics set you up to do work you care about and set us up to support you to become the person you want to be and live the life you want to live.

Leaving Powderhouse

We work with people to help them figure out what they care about and build the skills to pursue it. Eventually, that means leaving Powderhouse. People are free to leave at any time, and we remain available to students, past and present, however and whenever they leave. For people who want to formally graduate, Powderhouse Next is the path. For people who want to formally graduate from Powderhouse, we ask them to work with us to set graduation goals and make a plan for reaching them.

Powderhouse Next

Powderhouse Next is the path to graduating from Powderhouse. To apply, you must have been enrolled in Powderhouse for at least one full academic year. During Next, you gain access to the flexibility required to focus on and pursue your graduation goals, which could include things like a more flexible or asynchronous schedule that allows you to start working or attend college part-time. In return, we ask you to take more responsibility managing yourself, documenting and sharing your work and story, and contributing to Powderhouse and the success of other students.

To apply for Powderhouse Next, we ask that people (and, where appropriate, their families) reach out to meet with us to co-author a graduation contract detailing:

  1. Post-graduation plans, including the audience for their portfolio, transcript, or credential.
  2. Graduation goals and timeline, including any credential requirements and their planned last day of enrollment, subject to meeting those goals.

Once we agree on the graduation contract, you're officially in Powderhouse Next. When you meet your graduation goals and reach your planned last day, you've graduated.

Powderhouse Launch Grant

The Powderhouse Launch Grant is a separate application for people pursuing graduation goals they developed at Powderhouse and Powderhouse Next. It is not a guaranteed stipend. People can apply for up to $5,000 to support specific next steps, such as housing, transportation, college classes, or starting a business.

To apply, you must be in Powderhouse Next and have been in good standing for at least three months. Your application should include a budget, the amount requested, how the grant will support your graduation goals, and a plan for managing the money responsibly. For example, if you want to buy a car, your plan might show that you have enough savings to purchase a reliable car when combined with the grant, and that you are holding down a job and earning enough to cover monthly insurance alongside your other living costs. If you are building an emergency fund, your plan might use matched savings and show that you can save consistently on an agreed schedule. We develop the details of the plan with you.