Learning in the Real World
 The most important element of the education at a Big Picture School is that students learn in the real world. The main component of every student’s education is the LTI (Learning Through Internship). In this minimum 10-12 hour, two-day-a-week internship with an expert mentor in the field of the student’s interest, the students complete authentic projects (projects at internship sites that benefit the student and the mentor). These projects are the main root to deepening learning and academic growth and investigation in the curriculum. These authentic projects are connected to the student’s interests and needs and are “real to” or meet the needs of the mentors. Students have an LTI each year they are in school, unless in 12th grade their senior thesis project (the large, culminating independent real world project) encompasses the LTI.
There are three primary reasons for connecting real world, adult mentors to the schooling process:
1. Students learn how to be adults by being with adults.
Teenagers are on the brink of adulthood. The best way for them to learn how to be an adult is by being immersed in the adult world. With mentoring, a young person steps into that adult world on a regular basis, and interacts with a variety of adults. Mentoring moves a young person beyond the familiarity of the adults in his or her personal life and provides a broader range of role models.
2. The expertise is out in the real world.
Advisors know a great deal about human development and their own specialties. But they can’t be expected to know about all the interests that students may have. The expertise of a mentor in music, engineering, banking, cooking, medicine, etc., is valuable to both the student and his or her advisor. Mentors become living examples of the careers students are contemplating.
3. The guidance is invaluable.
The mentor-intern relationship is special for people of all ages. The guidance and direction mentors give is personal, and based on the intern’s own particular needs, talents, and interests. There is a level of comfort in this kind of guidance that makes it possible to learn through both accomplishments and mistakes. For teenagers, it can be an especially important haven during the tumultuousness of adolescence.
Essential Elements of Learning in the Real World Include:
• Mentors who are experts in their respective fields
• Authentic projects at internships (as the main core of student work) which delve into academic investigations
• Mentor training
• Mentor recognitions and celebrations
• School-based LTI Coordinator
• Advisor meetings with mentor(s) (at least once/month)
• Experiential learning and trips
• Summer learning (the school helps students find summer learning opportunities)
• Service learning
• Exposure to a diversity of learning experiences
• Senior Thesis Projects (with senior thesis committees)
→ RETURN
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Board Meetings
DBPHS Board Meetings will take place on the second Wednesday of each month.
Meetings begin at 9am and are held at Denver Big Picture High School.
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