Meeting the Needs of Teens and Young Adults

New Earth Institute also functions is an innovative high school for teenagers and young adults that recognizes and addresses the deepest needs of teens, including:

1. The need to become self-reliant and independent
When you learn practical skills through activities (building, maintaining the campus, cooking, baking, making cheese, gardening and animal care, (and 100 other projects), you practice basic life skills, and are trusted with greater and greater responsibility.

2. The need to belong and be valued
New Earth Institute is, first and foremost, an inclusive community where you are respected and given great responsibilities.

3. The need to feel intelligent and alive.
The many forms of intelligence (intellectual grasp, artistic genius, elevated consciousness, interpersonal skills, the ability to articulate emotions, etc.) are honored at NEI. We pledge to recognize each student’s genius; we honor that pledge by helping each individual recognize her or his unique brilliance.

4. The need to become organized, responsible, and trustworthy
If you are willing to become more efficient and effective, if you are willing to do your best, if you are willing to learn to keep your word, if you are willing to work, and if you are willing to be more appreciated, we have a school for you.

5. The need to serve others
At NEI you are not just a student; you are expected to work for the good of our community, for the good of the world.

6. The need to discover your unique identity
At NEI you awaken to many sides of your nature, and become aware of your many possibilities and many weaknesses. Over and over, you chose you ideals, and conform to who you wish to become. This cyclical process will reveal to you your unique identity.

7. The need to think for yourself
NEI recognizes that individuals need to think critically and learn to trust their own sense of what makes sense. We’ll help you to learn to discriminate what is healthy, wholesome, and true for you as an individual, and what is not. We empower you to become who you want to be.

8. The need to ask questions, to investigate mysteries, and to seek and tell the truth.The intention of NEI is to encourage careful observation and enthusiastic inquiry into academic study and into life. Students who pose their own questions initiate the process of meaningful learning.

9. The need to for a safe forum for communications
To be fully human we all need to learn to communicate efficiently, effectively, and clearly. But we also need to learn to communicate honestly and nonviolently with others so others can truly hear what we have to say. Therefore, NEI provides a weekly forum in which both conflict and compassion can be addressed and personal privacy respected.

10. The need to be free.
The liberty to follow an inspiration (independently or with others) fathers creative genius. The wisdom gained by exploring what enthralls us (rather than what is just mandated to us), feeds our curiosity and satisfies our soul.

11. The need to explore the contradictory views of life and existence.
Coming to terms with reality involves tolerating irony and paradox. To regularly participate in informal debates about ideas enlivens and refreshes the mind. Respectfully comparing one’s opinions with the opinions of others is pure education.

12. The need to accept your own authority and make decisions for yourself.
As students grow less reliant on the authority and the opinions of others,
and learn to trust their own instincts, their own research, and their own intuitions, they come to realize their own power and authority.


NEI strives for excellence, not only in academics, but also in meeting the deeper needs of its students. We do this through classes, seminars, individual and group projects, adventures, discussions, and the natural activities that arise from living life together. In our community, we value participation, enthusiasm, and honesty, considered opinions, work, creativity, and guts.