A board game can feel a lot like an entire universe resting on your kitchen table. Its rules can extend beyond the natural laws of physics, beget creatures you’ve never even dreamed of, or ask you to play the role of a character completely out of, well, character.

Running shoes and motivation. According to EXPLO New York Registrar Ariel French, these two things are all you need to transform yourself from a non-runner to a runner. You don’t need to have a sub-8-minute mile or sign up for a race  — although Ariel has competed in roughly 215 in her lifetime...

We’ve pretty much all heard it. And we’ve definitely all said it. The kind of advice that’s orbited planet earth since the beginning of humankind. That simple phrase that invites you to attempt a vague, absolutely near-impossible task uttered by every parent, every friend, and every inner voice: ...

Have you ever been good at something but you had no passion for it? Straight A’s in biology but you want to spend all your free time jamming out to cover songs of AC/DC? Or, you’re the high school track star but the idea of pursuing it as a career makes you want to shrivel up and cry. 

There have been plenty of times in my life where I’ve failed at something so miserably, I fear even thinking about that failure. I fear processing it. I fear navigating it. I fear even trying again. Although unhealthy, this is a common response: failure becomes an ever-churning fear conditioning...

For most of the day, your mind works in overdrive to try and solve problems for you. Brains spend their days at proverbial gyms, where they exercise potential solutions for things like work, extracurriculars, and relationships.

For top performing companies, CEO’s, educators, even students, terms like “continued improvement” or “growth mindset” aren’t just showy catchphrases. They're the essence of a lifelong learner, where feedback is at its core. The life benefits of specific, meaningful, and ongoing feedback allow us...

When we are looking to improve our frame of mind, there are a few go-to’s that doctors recommend. Connections with friends can help us feel more present. Eating healthy foods can increase our emotional and physical alertness. Exercise can feel like straight up mood sorcery.

Growing up, we are constantly encouraged to expand our vocabulary. We look up words we don’t know and practice implementing them in our everyday jargon. For me, it’s fun. It feels exciting to have more “tools” to use when participating in conversation or debate with someone.

So, what do you do for fun? It's a question that tends to help us get to know someone far better than any "what do you do for living" or "what's your favorite television show" would. It's also a question I see people struggle to answer all the time.Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, helped...

Let’s try an exercise. I want you to think about writing a song. Any subject you like. Every instrument is available to you. Take as long as you need.

Depending on who you are, you might currently be paralyzed, with no idea where to begin. Now, what if I said that you had five minutes and a...

During the Holiday season, we tend to weigh back and forth on what type of gifts we want to give. Do we want to one-click purchase something off of Amazon’s “Recommended Gift” list, or buckle down to spend an evening working with a new material and creating something entirely from scratch? Well,...

We live in an era where students are consumed by checklists: taking the SATs, navigating GPAs, and designing a schedule to fit all of their extracurriculars in any given Wednesday. These checklists distract students from the essence of what applying to college is supposed to be — which, at its...

Figuring out who you are and how you want to be in the world doesn't happen overnight. It's part of a lifelong exploration — a willingness to try new things, even if that's not what everyone else is doing. Our students tell us that finding yourself requires patience and flexibility: don't worry...

There’s a reason we all like to be right — and perhaps it’s more biological than you think. According to Judith Glasser from the Harvard Business Review, “in situations of high stress, fear or distrust,“ a neurotransmitter called “cortisol” floods the brain and, as a result, brain functions that...

More and more, we are beginning to see a rising number of adolescents who, in striving for excellence, have developed elevated levels of stress.

Making new friends — at any age — can be daunting. For some of us, it’s as easy as saying hello. For others, it may take some time. We talked to our students during the summer to get their perspectives on friendship, and though approaches may vary, they all agree: friendship is essential to our...

If you were to take inventory of the professionals in your field that you admire most, would you feel too intimidated to reach out to them? Kelly Corrigan — EXPLO parent, Writer-in-Residence, and New York Times best-selling author — says it's time you feel otherwise.

Commencement season has arrived. ‘Tis the time for inspiring speeches, advice-giving tales of caution, and everyone in a high school graduate’s extended family asking them what their plans are now that their senior year  has ended.

Richard Light, distinguished professor at Harvard University, author of Making the Most of College, and founder of How To Live Wisely — a program that aims to strengthen student experiences on undergraduate campuses — discusses how taking chances helps one develop healthy habits of mind and being.

We all have experienced some version of the classic assignment of “Show-and-Tell” — hefting in family heirlooms, jars full of bugs, Pokémon cards, and prized stuffed animals onto our kindergarten desks.  We’d “oooh” and “ahhh” over our neighbors' things, using our senses to learn more about each...

So, what's the difference between being happy and really thriving?

This week, learn about the science of thriving from Dan Lerner, Professor of NYU’s most popular elective, “Science of Happiness”, and a keynote speaker at EXPLO at Yale's CORE Day — a day dedicated to teaching students how to lead...

This week, dive into the concept of "sneaky learning" with us, a term coined by EXPLO parents, Anna and Graeme Lawrie, which gets to the heart of EXPLO's curriculum, both inside and outside of the classroom.

In this week’s Philosophy Friday, 2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner for General Nonfiction, James Forman, Jr. — a three-year EXPLO Instructor who went on to launch the Maya Angelou Charter School and is now a Yale Law Professor — discusses the importance challenging your own perspectives. 

In this week’s Philosophy Friday, EXPLO and MIT Trustee, Brian Hughes discusses the value of dismantling educational silos in favor of liberal arts.

"EXPLO is one of the first places where Alison really stepped up and started advocating for others... that was for her a start in real confidence, in terms of [Alison thinking]  'This is how I should behave as a citizen of the world.'"

Christine and Brett Rogers, parents of three Exploration...