Last Updated on 09/03/2026 by Ethan Sawyer
Written with Blake Boles, author of The Art of Self-Directed Learning: 23 Tips for Giving Yourself an Unconventional Education, and Lauren Calahan (LEAP4change).
“Self-directed learning involves exploring what you want without regard to arbitrary standards and requirements,” says homeschooling expert Becca Stuart-Orlowski. “And while a learner’s self-directed path can intersect with standards and requirements, it doesn’t always.”
Colleges have a deep appreciation for students who take charge of their education. In applications, they look for evidence of initiative and independent thinking. Not everyone is ready or interested in charting their own course in high school—but there are many ways to augment traditional learning with self-directed experiences if your heart and mind are leading you in that direction.
Take a minute to think about whether you’re already going beyond the expectations of a class or activity to explore ideas that genuinely intrigue you. Maybe you’ve asked a teacher for additional reading. Maybe you reached out to a college professor whose research caught your attention. Maybe you went down a rabbit hole on a topic and ended up taking a course on Coursera or another MOOC. Maybe you’ve been thinking about how to mobilize classmates to help out a community organization.
If that sounds like you—or the you you’d like to be—read on.
What Do Self-Directed Learners Care About?
For a College Essay Guy podcast interview, I asked self-directed learning expert Blake Boles that question. Like me, Blake is big on values, so he named three: genuine choice (autonomy), building real skills (mastery), and community and purpose (relatedness).
While self-directed learning is often associated with homeschoolers, it’s valuable for almost anyone. Here are five tips from Blake’s book:
Five Tips for Self-Directed Learners
Attitude is your most precious resource. Replace “I can’t” with “I could if I…” Ask yourself what information or resources you’d need to make something happen.
Google everything. The internet is one of the most powerful tools in human history. Use it to research, create, build, or promote almost anything your imagination can dream up.
Email strangers. You may be surprised how many interesting people will respond. Feeling shy? Start with a short, genuine note about why you admire their work.
Find your nerd clan. Who’s into the things you’re into? Yes, even the weird things. (Those often make for the most interesting college essays.)
Create an awesome digital paper trail. Your future employers, collaborators, and maybe even your kids will Google you. As Blake says: “Start filling the internet with your creations and leave a trail worth following.”
Resources for Self-Directed Learning
A few starting points if you want to go deeper:
- BlakeBoles.com: Off-Trail Learning (podcast), books, articles, and YouTube videos
- Books with a more radical lens: John Taylor Gatto, Grace Llewellyn, Peter Gray, Kerry McDonald
- A less radical option: The Self-Driven Child
- Blogs: Will Richardson, Penelope Trunk
- College reads: Excellent Sheep, The Case Against Education
- Parenting: The Nurture Assumption
- Websites: Alliance for Self-Directed Education (Tipping Points blog)
- Summer programs: Not Back to School Camp, Camp Stomping Ground, UnschoolAdventures.com
One warning: spending too much time with this material may have you wondering, “Is college right for me anyway?” That’s a great question to ask. Pull on that thread and watch what happens.
Should You Create a Self-Directed Project?
Established vs. Self-Directed Projects
These sound similar, but they’re actually quite different.
An established project is designed by others and already running—you join it rather than create it. Examples include in-school opportunities like fundraising for a club or tutoring, and outside opportunities like working at a soup kitchen, volunteering at an animal shelter, or playing music at a senior center.
A self-directed project is initiated by you, rooted in your own vision, and led by you. Examples:
- Starting a garden or composting program in your community
- Petitioning your school board for healthier cafeteria food options
- Creating a career day panel to speak to students about different paths
- Planning a field trip to document headstones in a cemetery for your local historical society
Joining an established project is great. But a self-directed project offers a few specific advantages worth knowing about.
You’ll learn a ton about yourself. Building something on your own teaches you to work outside your comfort zone, discover your weaknesses, develop new strengths, and build real confidence.
You’ll develop entrepreneurial skills. Creating a clear vision, building a team, holding yourself and others accountable, assessing decisions, failing, and getting back up—these are skills that transfer everywhere.
Your project may help you stand out. There aren’t many students who have what it takes to organize, lead, and complete a project from scratch. It’s genuinely impressive on an application—though that should be the last reason you do it, not the first.
Is a Self-Directed Project Right for You?
Ask yourself a few values-based questions:
- Do you prefer having someone else lead, or do you like taking charge?
- Are you comfortable taking control of weekend plans, or are you fine going along with whatever the group wants?
- Do you prefer supporting roles or leading ones?
- Do you spend a lot of time thinking idealistically about what you’d like to change in the world?
- Given your current commitments, do you actually have time to develop an additional project?
If this feels like a checklist for “Are you an entrepreneur?”—you’re right. This kind of project is an entrepreneurial venture. If you don’t already have those instincts and want to develop them, it could be a great opportunity.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Developing a Self-Directed Project
Step 1: Connect with What You Care About
Students whose projects don’t closely connect to their values tend to burn out faster than those whose projects do. Take time to reconnect with what genuinely matters to you before you start building.
Step 2: Connect Your Values to a Problem
Imagine you had a magic wand. What would you change about the world? Consider: What causes suffering for you personally? What injustice or problem do you react to most strongly? What makes you most afraid for the future?
Now ask: To make that image a reality, where would I need to start?
Two examples of self-directed solutions addressing local problems:
- One student was tired of seeing discarded water bottles around his high school campus. He and his Environmental Club members gave speeches to the Board of Education, raised $2,500 through a GoFundMe campaign, and had water fountains installed—keeping thousands of plastic bottles out of landfills over two years.
- Another student was bullied and responded by developing an app called “Sit With Us” that helps new students find peers willing to share their lunch table. It not only transformed her school community but surpassed 100,000 downloads.
Two examples addressing global problems:
- A team of students in Connecticut and Uganda identified poverty, education, and leadership as three areas for impact. Together they helped start a student-run tutoring group and LEAP Kumazima, a nonprofit that promotes leadership through soccer.
- Another group of students worked to empower women through education, health, and social justice. Through their partnership, they built night schools in India so young women could simultaneously do their chores, get an education, learn about their health, and build a stronger community.
Step 3: Write a Vision Statement
A vision statement is an inspiring assertion that reflects your core values and describes the world as you’d like it to be. It helps motivate your team, attract partners, and focus your efforts.
Keep it short—ten to twenty words.
Examples from large organizations:
- We envision a world where all people—even in the most remote areas of the globe—hold the power to create opportunity for themselves and others. — Kiva
- A world where everyone has a decent place to live. — Habitat for Humanity
- We’re in business to save our home planet. — Patagonia
Vision statements can also be more specific:
- We envision a Lincoln High School where all students are able to creatively express themselves and follow their dreams.
- We envision a school where every member of the student body has access to clean drinking water.
Spend five to ten minutes drafting yours. Aim for: future focused, values based, present tense, simple language, inspirational.
Step 4: Create a One Sheet
A one sheet is a piece of marketing you’ll use to attract potential partners. It shows what you’re doing, how you might collaborate, and how serious you are about this project.
To build it, answer the W5H questions:
- Whom do you need for success?
- What do you need for success?
- When do you plan to start?
- Where will you build it?
- Why are you building it?
- How will you build it?
Use these answers to create a clear, compelling one-pager.
Step 5: Build Your Team
For some projects and people, independent work is best. But many of the strongest student projects involve a team. A good team gets things done more efficiently and with more diverse perspectives—and team projects tend to make dynamic stories in college applications.
Before partnering with anyone, ask yourself:
- Is this person great at something I’m not?
- Is this someone I want to spend hours with?
- Do I look up to this person?
- Do we share the same bar of excellence?
- Is this person a reliable communicator?
Good answers to most of those? Probably a great partner.
Step 6: Write Your Mission Statement
Vision statements describe the future you’re working toward. Mission statements describe how you’ll get there—together, right now.
Examples from large organizations:
- To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. — Tesla
- To help bring creative projects to life. — Kickstarter
Project-specific examples:
- Our mission is to provide clean drinking water to students at Westminster Academy.
- The mission of our project is to leverage music across world cultures to connect students, inspire knowledge, and build compassion.
Work with your team to craft this collaboratively. Every word matters, so give it real time.
Step 7: Make Your Project Happen
Create an action plan. Map out who does what, and by when.
Step 8: Write About Your Project in Your College Application
Your self-directed project can be a powerful topic for your Extracurricular Activity Essay. Focus on what you built, what you learned, and why it mattered.
A Final Note
This process isn’t for everyone. If you’re overcommitted, would rather join an existing organization, or are working within real constraints, you don’t have to do any of this. Many students get into great colleges without creating a self-directed project.
If you do pursue one, pursue it because you genuinely care about the problem—not because of what it might do for your application. The best projects, and the best college essays about those projects, come from students who meant it.
Further Resources
- Blake Boles’s Tips on Emailing Interesting Strangers or Requesting Recommendations
- One-Sheet Examples and Two-Sheet Example
- Sample Action Plan Template
- DoSomething.org
- BlakeBoles.com
- LEAP4change.org
- Tips for Learning What Type of Leader You Are (from Lauren Calahan)
