Support for Making Choices

Volo Natural Learning Community

Helping young people to understand the world around them and use their unique talents to develop fulfilling lives.

Volo means “I fly” and “I will” in Latin (from volare and velle).

Personalized learning

Ability and interest-driven learning plan for each person.

Nature based

Learning with a love for the outdoors and nature.

Youth leadership

Opportunities for leading in the community.

7 – 18 years old

Alternative to conventional school.
Initial focus on ages 7 – 14.

4 Seasons

Year-round; pick your semesters.

Projects

Youth-led projects and service learning

Why Join Our Learning Community?

Young people thrive here with support for creativity, personalized learning, and relationships
We meet modern challenges with advanced learning strategies based on research and experience.

Outdoor, Nature-Based Learning

We value an outdoor lifestyle and experiences with nature.

Agency

We value agency, or the ability to choose, and respect the choices of people of all ages in our community.

Community

We value relationships and trust the wisdom of history in which people worked together and learned from each other.

Here’s what we do together at Volo

We support individuals as they gain fundamental knowledge, lifeworthy skills, and attitudes for tackling the future.
This includes:

  • Outdoor experiences
  • Collaboration on individualized learning plans
  • Hands-on, experiential learning
  • Resources for learning
  • A mentor for each young person
  • Community involvement
  • Youth leadership
  • Projects
  • Service learning
  • Digital creativity
  • Rigorous foundations
  • Real play
Welcome
Is this for me?

More “Is this for me?”…

What Research Says

about the keystone elements:

“Hundreds of studies now bear on this question, and converging evidence strongly suggests that experiences of nature boost academic learning, personal development, and environmental stewardship. In academic contexts, nature-based instruction outperforms traditional instruction. The evidence here is particularly strong… ”

Ming Kuo, Michael Barnes, and Catherine Jordan, Frontiers of Psychology, 19 Feb 2019.

“Agency may be the one most important factor in human happiness and well-being.”

Bill Stixrud and Ned Johnson, “The Self-Driven Child,” 2018

“…when we look at creativity in action, we can see that creative ideas emerge socially.”

Edward Clapp. “Participatory Creativity,” 2017

“It is not enough for students to ‘know’ certain things (i.e., content mastery) and be able to ‘do’ certain things (i.e., skill mastery); they must also want to know more things and be able to muster the requisite cognitive inducements to exhibit personal initiative, resourcefulness, and persistence in their learning.”

Michael Ponton and Paul Carr. Autonomous and Self Directed Learning: Agentic Perspectives. 2016​

“”Providing children with the kinds of early life experiences that support the development of healthy, balanced motivation systems is key to ensuring positive outcomes later — for school, work, health, and raising the next generation.”

Harvard University Center on the Developing Child, 2022.
“If he cannot devise his own solution (not of course in isolation, but in correspondence with the teacher and other pupils) and find his own way out he will not learn, not even if he can recite some correct answer with one hundred percent accuracy. We can and do supply ready-made ‘ideas’ by the thousand; we do not usually take much pains to see that the one learning engages in significant situations where his own activities generate, support, and clinch ideas — that is, perceived meanings or connections.”

John Dewey. Democracy and education. 1916

Questions & Answers​

Here are answers to a few questions that have come up. Please feel free to contact us with any other questions. We look forward to connecting with you.

We love to share

Questions? Ideas? Just Curious? Please feel free to reach out to us.