The Explo Difference

For more than 30 years, Exploration has brought together bright, curious, and interesting young people from around the globe to challenge themselves, discover the world of people and ideas, and experience the joy of learning.

Exploration curriculum is unusual and allows students to investigate subjects they are not likely to encounter during the school year. Courses are not for credit and are also ungraded. The approach to teaching is different too. An Exploration classroom is lively and active. Students are moving, designing projects, and challenging each other. Physics principles might be illustrated by riding large hovercrafts around a hockey rink, or firing five-foot-tall trebuchets on a playing field. Improvisational theater might be used to demonstrate how white blood cells fight off a virus. Enticing aromas emanate from a kitchen where students are preparing food as part of a restaurant management course. Learning is engaging, challenging, and fun.

At Exploration, we want students to exercise their curiosity. We want students to make choices about what is important to them. At our Programs, every student chooses what classes to take, what activities to participate in, and what trips to join. The choices are astonishing in their breadth and number.

We think leaving home base is important, which is why we venture off campus every week on trips to museums and plays, as well as things like white water rafting, professional athletic events, and amusement parks. You can try “skydiving” in a wind tunnel, finding your way out of a corn maze, and helping out on a farm. You might go on a cruise of Boston Harbor, visit the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., or get covered in paint at a Blue Man Group performance.

The choices at Exploration are tremendously diverse, and so are the students. They come from 40 states, 50 countries, and all walks of life. They are interested in everything from music to genetics, from 3-D art to archeology, from game theory to hip hop dance. They are friendly. They help create a warm, welcoming, and supportive community in which students can truly be themselves. The Explo experience is exciting and intense and results in incredible friendships. Recently, we’ve started interviewing many of our 40,000+ alumni, and one of the most amazing things we’ve heard over and over again — even from people who attended 30 years ago — is: “My closest friends are from Explo.”

We have an amazing staff working side by side with our students. The people we hire are creative, talented, and well rounded. Every year, our students tell us that the strongest asset of Exploration is our staff. We spend a lot of time finding the right people, and then training them in the Explo approach to teaching.


Exploration believes every young person is capable of making a significant contribution to the world. Finding your talents and passions is the first step to determining what those contributions might be, and we believe young people should explore subjects far and wide. For most students, narrowing your course of study too early means you likely haven’t explored the world enough to really discover your greatest natural abilities and interests.

The thing about trying new things is that you may not be good at them – at least at first. But you shouldn’t worry about that. At Explo, everyone is trying things for the first time, and we’ve got a great safety net to make sure no one falls too far. If you get into the habit of acting on your curiosity, trying new things in life will simply become a habit; a habit we think makes life a lot more interesting and fun.