Featured photo: North Star Alum Jonah Ferdman-Hayden (on right) installing solar panels on the North Star building.

Two of my current projects, alumni research and North Star building improvements, collided this week in the form of Jonah Ferdman-Hayden. When the workers arrived to install our new solar panels, among them was North Star alumnus Jonah! After some time at community college and a series of jobs cooking in local restaurants, Jonah decided to go to a formal training program to become an electrician. Now 24 years old, he is in a long-term apprenticeship with Valley Solar. Congratulations, and what a delightful surprise to see him on the roof!

My alumni outcomes research, published back in 2017, identifies what our alumni do as their first, second, third, and fourth major activities after North Star. We average about 25 alumni per year, and my current list has 584 names on it. (This list excludes ‘brief members’ whose membership at North Star lasted less than six months, and it does not include current members.) For this Fall’s updating, I’ve decided to work from the most current alumni backwards. The goal is to produce some numerical data about what happens to teens who use our program.

So far, I have made it back five years, to alumni who left North Star in 2016 or later. These youth range from ages 13-22. While we (North Star staff) knew everyone’s first step, we often don’t know what people do after a year or two or three away. It takes a focused effort to find out. I’m pleased that the results are heartwarming and inspiring. Data aside, many alumni have responded with kind notes, which I have passed around to staff during our last cold, dreary week of in-person time with teens at North Star this month. Our spirits are buoyed!

Some Numbers:

North Star has 120 alumni from the past five years. There is only one person whose first outcome is listed as “Don’t Know” by North Star staff.

• Return to School: 25%
  (These teens attend North Star, often for middle school, and then enroll in a public school, private school, or local public charter school.)
  
• Independent Homeschooling: 15%
  (These teens and their parents find they are not using North Star in a worthwhile manner, and choose to continue homeschooling independently, often at ages 13-18.)
  
• Community College and Formal Training Programs: 38%, up to 50% including 2nd and 3rd major activities
  (Many members overlap community college with North Star, and move to full-time enrollment after our program. “Formal Training” includes vocational programs, certificate-bearing programs, along with Americorps and the military.)
  
• Four-Year College: 3%, up to 18% including 2nd and 3rd major activities
  (While it is rare for teens to go straight from North Star to a four-year college, the numbers increase dramatically as our alumni grow older. This group of recent alumni will likely triple this percentage in the next two to four years.)

• Ordinary Work: 16%, up to 35% including 2nd and 3rd major activities (Grocery stores, restaurants, landscaping, retail, family businesses)
  
• Unusual Work or Self-Employment: 2%, up to 10% including 2nd and 3rd major activities)
  (Glassblowing, Music performing, Circus, Guitar-building, Long-term travel, entrepreneurship)
  
• Professional Work: 1%
  (Working in their field of certification or in a field that typically requires a college degree.) This number will increase significantly in the coming five years.
   

Short Analysis

First, we see that about 40% of our alumni decide to pursue their remaining teenage education either through returning to high school or independent homeschooling. While I’m always a bit disappointed to see teens choose an alternative to North Star, I have learned to see this outcome as inspiring and heartening. We often meet young people in crisis, and after a year or two of respite, they choose to rejoin the traditional path of school, often successfully. Also, we encourage our members to know they can homeschool without North Star. We are opening up options, not insisting that we have the one right path that all teens must stay on until age 18. Our ongoing relationships with these alumni confirm these positive feelings. For example, one alum sent this message last week:

Hi Ken!

I’m doing very well! Currently living in Florida, attending zoom high school at (a private school.) I’m getting excellent grades, in plenty of extracurriculars, and generally gaming the conventional education system to my advantage so that I can pay as little as possible for college.

It’s really great to hear from you! I miss Massachusetts quite a lot sometimes, and I certainly miss all the North Star people. I wish you all the best with everything that’s going on. My time at North Star was very important to making me into who I am, and helping me to understand who I am. North Star was there for me during a particularly difficult time.

Warm regards,

Second, most of our alumni in the 16-20-year-old range attend community college and/or find ordinary jobs. That is, many of our alumni are attending community college and holding down jobs during what would normally be their junior and senior years of high school, and then continue with this path for another year or so before they move on to their next endeavors. Please keep in mind that North Star welcomes all interested teens, and many had limited visions for their futures when we first met them. North Star staff take joy in seeing each of our alumni find their next step into young adulthood. We also know that tracking these alumni another five years will show them moving on to four-year colleges, professional work, and other interesting adventures. These alumni are not stuck; they are very much in-progress. (Which is why my alumni research is a difficult project!) One 17-year-old alum wrote: “I got my dream job at a bookstore and cafe!” She added “I was at Holyoke Community College during my time at North Star, but I was taking all of my pre-reqs (aka ENG 101 and 102.) Now I’m in my second year at HCC, and all of my classes are really interesting and I’m having a lot of fun!”

Third, several of our members migrate to careers in the arts, the outdoors, or entrepreneurship. They extend the North Star philosophy of self-directed learning to their lives, and are literally “living their dreams.” For example, one reported,

“I’m still in Holyoke, but the guitar building has slowed down a bit. After Raffi (former North Star extended staff member) and I finished the four guitars, he went off to school and I took a small break. This week I’m actually getting back into the groove of things with a new guitar build.

In the same building in Holyoke I started renting out another room for use as a music studio. It’s been very exciting and really nice to have a place to go to play and record. If all goes to plan, I’ll be recording a new record soon.”

Another alum is getting his drone’s pilot license, some have lived in Japan or Chile, and one completed an outdoor survival living program. Many are focusing on their music or art. We will see just how far they can go with these pursuits.

Fourth, while only a handful have gone straight to four-year colleges from North Star, many more have moved on to this experience. North Star alumni of the past five years are attending or have graduated from the following:

Antioch College

Bard College

Bennington College

Concordia College

Earlham College

Emerson College

Goddard College

Hampshire College

Marlboro-Emerson College

Massachusetts College of the Liberal Arts

Mt. Holyoke College

Sarah Lawrence College

Simon’s Rock (Bard College)

Southern New Hampshire University

University of California Santa Barbara

University of Hawaii

University of Massachusetts

Warren Wilson College

Westfield State University

One alumna reflected,

Though I’m happy at school, I actually find myself missing the North Star model quite a bit! During my time at North Star I was in three bands, and in college I joined at least two more. My music has also evolved into more advanced studio work. I have still been able to do professional photography work, and make connections in Brattleboro and now the Boston area after my college’s merger with Emerson College. So many worlds are colliding at the moment. Glad to share!

More to Come!

Ironically, the lead person in this story, Jonah Ferdman-Hayden, is not actually included in this data. He left North Star before 2016. Over the coming weeks and months, I’ll go back another five years, and work on his cohort, now in their mid-20s. Beyond them are the grown-ups, with the oldest alumni now over 40 years old. In fact, we have another second-generation member this year!

We can easily guess what the data will show: North Star alumni go on to do all the things that high school graduates go on to do. North Star alumni may have a few more people doing unusual work or self-employment, and maybe somewhat fewer attending four-year colleges, than our local public and private schools. Of course, those numbers are affected by the personalities and early school experiences of the teens and families who choose to join North Star in the first place.

Notably, my email is not filled with negative responses. Some people moved on from North Star after brief memberships or to return to high school. Others didn’t find our center valuable. Amazingly, for the radical message we offer, that “School is Optional!”, we seem to be derailing no one from a chance to pursue a meaningful young adulthood.

Our collective alumni offer much joy, inspiration, and optimism. Please stay tuned for more. And you older alumni, please be in touch!