Have You Heard of Sora Schools?, with Indra Sofian

Indra Sofian offered us an inside look at the founding and launch of a progressive, student-directed high school known as Sora Schools.

Have You Heard of Sora Schools?, with Indra Sofian

“Most schools face the problem of oversight without context, so giving more power to the teachers - who are actually trying to make things work in the classroom - can be useful. Trust and support them to do their jobs.” - Indra Sofian


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Summary

Indra Sofian offered us an inside look at the founding and launch of a progressive, student-directed high school known as Sora Schools. He walked us through the launch process from inspiration through formulation and iteration and ended with a glance towards his dreams for the future.

As a co-founder at Elevate Media, an Atlanta-based content-driven digital agency that provides marketing strategy, consulting, and content production services for businesses, Indra might seem to be an unlikely candidate for starting a school, but that is quite possibly what makes him so compelling. He is unfettered by the constraints of traditional education models and seems intent on formulating a new way of educating young people.

Have a listen, and enjoy the energy and inspiration of someone determined to reinvent the wheel - as long as he ends up with a rocket.

In our discussion, we cover:

00:24 Andrew asks Indra how the Sora Schools journey began.

6:03 Indra talks about the inspiration for and first steps in founding Sora.

11:20 Andrew advises Indra to keep a record of the journey so that others can benefit from his process.

12:15 Indra discusses the onboarding process for new students.

14:20 Andrew asks - what were the hardest challenges you have already overcome in the launch?

16:26 Indra discusses the need to stay focused on the student experience in spite of the administrative challenges of having students all over the country.

19:55 Andrew wonders about how the homeschooling trend will continue to evolve over time, and how Sora interfaces with the homeschooling community.

24:52 Indra offers advice for traditional schools on how to improve the educational environment.

30:23 Indra talks about other innovations that might be coming in the future.

36:34 Andrew asks - How can we collaborate with and support what you are doing?

Quotes:

13:00 “At every step of the way, we want student input because we really, really believe in giving the students agency.”

22:40 “Once a child gets to high school age, it becomes a bit more difficult for a parent to homeschool - regardless of the education level of the parent.”

26:30 “Most schools face the problem of oversight without context, so giving more power to the teachers - who are actually trying to make things work in the classroom - can be useful. Trust and support them to do their jobs.”

32:15 “I hope that the students who graduate from our program are entrepreneurial, thoughtful, independent, self-directed people.”

Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion:

John Danner https://twitter.com/jwdanner

Keith Rabois https://twitter.com/rabois

Homeschooling https://twitter.com/rabois/status/1068167341949603841

Outschool https://outschool.com/

Workspace Education https://workspaceeducation.org/about/team/

One Stone https://onestone.org/

Where to learn more about the guest:

Personal website - indrasofian.com

Twitter - @indysofian
@soraschools

Indra on Linkedin - linkedin.com/in/indrasofian

Indra’s newsletter - medium.com/@indrasofian/

Sora Schools - https://soraschools.com/

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