Zero Dropouts | Field Academy
Denver Metro with Statewide Potential
Who We Are
Zero Dropouts is dedicated to designing innovative student development opportunities in collaboration with school districts, communities, and students. Our mission is to co-create solutions that recognize, foster, and unleash students' unrealized potential so that their lives are transformed as they thrive in their education and work.
Field Academy is Zero Dropouts’ experiential, credit-bearing learning model that connects students to learning through real-world experiences, relationships, and purpose. Experiential learning at Zero Dropouts is grounded in work that is applied, relevant, and situated in authentic contexts—whether in the field, in community, or through projects that connect directly to life beyond the classroom. Through expeditions, micro-campuses, and community-based partnerships, students engage in meaningful work and earn credit by demonstrating progress toward standards in ways that reflect how learning is used in the real world, while developing a stronger sense of belonging, competence, agency, and optimism about their future.
What We Believe
We Believe Mysteries are Opportunities We are inspired to solve the deeply complex mysteries that face our world. Our innovative approach drives us to uncover hidden truths and create tailored solutions that address the unique challenges of our clients and communities.
We Believe in Anti-Deficit Ideology Anti-deficit ideology focuses on recognizing and valuing the strengths, abilities, and potential of individuals and communities, rather than highlighting their shortcomings or deficiencies.
We Believe in a Sociocultural Model for Learning People develop knowledge and skills through an active learning process that encourages interactions with teachers, peers, and their communities. We meet people where they are in their learning journeys, centering their experiences and identities in the process to foster both independent learning and collaboration.
We Believe in a 'Power With' Approach to Relationships We use a 'power with' approach that emphasizes collaboration, mutual support, and collective empowerment in our relationships with youth, partners, and each other. Instead of hierarchical or competitive dynamics, it focuses on sharing power, fostering partnerships, and working together to achieve common goals.
We Believe Organizations are Living Systems We believe that organizations and groups operate as dynamic living systems. This perspective emphasizes interdependence and collaboration, fostering resilience and adaptability. By nurturing supportive relationships and collective growth, we create conditions and environments where all members can thrive.
Who We’re Looking For
We're building something. We need someone who can help us figure out what it becomes.
Field Academy works with students who are disconnected from school — disengaged, behind on credits, unconvinced it has anything to offer them, or some combination of all three. We meet them there, take them outside, put them in real situations, and help school feel worth coming back to.
We need someone to manage the expedition side of that — the partnerships, the logistics, the relationships with sites and organizations — and to keep asking the hard questions that come with it: What makes an expedition worth doing? How do we document student growth and persistence in ways that tell the real story? And how do we make the case to partners, funders, and districts that this work deserves to grow?
Who You Are
You're a teacher. You've taught — in a classroom, a program, a studio, a field, somewhere — and you have the experience to show for it. Real students learned things because of you. You think intentionally about how learning happens. You scaffold. You notice what students are taking away. You know the difference between students being busy and students building something.
What the work looks like
- Building and maintaining community partnerships that can hold student learning
- Planning and running expeditions that are rigorous, purposeful, and connected to real competencies that build toward credit
- Being present with students in ways that adults in their lives often haven't been
- Thinking alongside program leadership about what experiential learning should look like as we scale
Schedule
This role isn’t likely to run on a standard Monday–Friday calendar. Partners have asked for full weeks in the field, three-day weekend expeditions, and everything in between. We'll build the schedule in response to what students, partners, and communities actually need — and we need someone who finds that kind of flexibility energizing.
What we're looking for beyond that
You're comfortable in situations that don't come with a clear playbook. If ambiguity makes you anxious rather than curious, this probably isn't the right fit — and that's okay. Experience with youth work, outdoor education, community organizing, or expedition design is relevant. So is a track record of building relationships and showing up when things get complicated.
What we can offer
A real seat at the table as this program takes shape. The work will define the role as much as the role defines the work.
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