Our Mission & Distinctives

Real-world Apprenticeship

Real-world Apprenticeship

Everybody knows someone who has the MBA degree, but cannot balance a budget or someone with a PhD in Leadership but could not lead a two-car funeral procession. It is possible to get all A’s in school but still flunk in life. This is why we expose our students to the Grit, Grace, and Growth Real-world Apprenticeships in their Upperclassmen years. These beyond-the-walls learning experiences where students apply their Christian discipleship and Classical scholarship with practical wisdom. Organizational partners are hand-picked and invest in students with meaningful work experiences to develop the virtues of grit, grace, and a growth mindset.

All of our students graduate with both an academic transcript and a professional resume with three real-world apprenticeships (grades 11-12) and four skills-based guilds (grades 7-10). Before the industrial revolution and the centralization of many professional industries, students would complete their academic training, and then be initiated into the desired industry through being paired with a master. Whether the industry was law or medicine or theology, apprentices gained industry-specific technical knowledge through experiences with master craftsmen.

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The Grit Apprenticeship constitutes a rite of passage into being an upperclassmen through getting dirt under their fingernails. We think there are a lot of kids in this generation who have never used a shovel. Through two weeks of manual labor we help our students experience what it feels like to earn a paycheck by the sweat of their brow. Coram Deo upperclassmen learn what it means to work hard with their hands and this helps balance out their academic training with a gritty character.