Odyssey STEM Academy

Great learning blends community, curiosity, and creativity. Each ingredient allows for endless possibilities and new creations, and they are well represented at Odyssey STEM Academy in Lakewood, CA. At Odyssey, young people are embedded in a flexible learning environment where community, curiosity, and creativity are unrestricted. They can imagine, design, and pursue learning pathways that are unique to their individual passions and engage in deeply personal learning experiences every day. Young learners (and their families) own the learning process.

From day one, families are enrolled through an intentional onboarding program. Family members explore and communicate their hopes and dreams for their kids, and the role they hope to play in seeing those dreams fulfilled. Young learners build a flexible learner profile that reveals their interests, aspirations, and challenges. With input from the whole family, a blueprint is created for connecting young learners with personalized, relevant, and contextualized opportunities.

In practice, this blueprint might land a young learner out in the community at a local food bank where socially embedded learning through conversations with staff, volunteers, and patrons is abundant. Within this open-walled experience, the young learner is deeply engaged in social, nutritional, and philanthropic studies—where the high-level, competency-based outcomes they develop carry over to whatever sparks the young learner’s curiosity next.

Starting with general interests and passions rather than specific careers (or content standards) allows Odyssey learners (and their advisors) to gain exposure to once unknown possibilities. As they build their knowledge, skills, and dispositions within this learner-centered framework, they continuously develop a strong sense of learner agency—embracing their innate independence and leadership to explore what the world has to offer and how they can contribute to their community.

Learning at Odyssey meets every young learner where they are, which organically leads to a one-of-a-kind “recipe” of learning that is dynamic and palatable. All of this has been possible since their first year of operation, thanks to the unique combination of ingredients Odyssey leaders know makes for authentic and rich learning. By piloting and iterating on the fly—knowing growth only comes from action—the adults and young people in this Los Angeles-based learning environment are showcasing how transformational learner-centered learning can truly be.