A Community of Possibility – The Pathway & Purpose for Reimagining Learning

Key Insights:

Shifting education from standardization to connection fosters deeper, more meaningful learning by encouraging inclusive, collaborative spaces driven by curiosity and shared purpose.
True learning happens through risk-taking, feedback, and collaboration. Hands-on, reflective experiences build critical thinking and communication skills, preparing learners for lifelong adaptability and impact

Summary (TLDR)- To build the future of learning, we must prioritize connection, collaboration, and belonging as the foundation for meaningful, transformative experiences that empower individuals and communities to thrive.

Reimagining Learning: Prioritizing Connection Over Standardization

In an American education system dominated by standardization, competition, and individual achievement, prioritizing connection and belonging as both the pathway and purpose of learning is a bold stance. The way we gather matters. From how we assemble to whom we invite to the learning we foster, our underlying values shape what we will ultimately know and create together.

In Community: The Structure of Belonging, Peter Block writes, “Without a shift in trust, social capital, belonging, and relatedness... our capacity to solve problems, organize work effectively, or end the suffering around us is greatly diminished.” He offers that transformational change happens when small groups of committed individuals come together in new ways. This shift in social capital occurs when people with different perspectives and levels of power listen, build trust, learn, and collaborate to improve their communities.

What can happen when people who don’t usually inhabit the same space come together with the shared intention of making a place better?

Even this question challenges our traditional education system. Learners spend their days almost exclusively with peers of the same age, while teachers have limited opportunities to deeply engage with colleagues, let alone professionals from other fields. Though great educators instinctively co-create learning experiences with their learners and communities, systemic structures often make collaboration an uphill battle. Teachers and learners work hard, yet they rarely work alongside those who shape policy, control funding, or operate within other levels of the same system. Even within a single school building, meaningful collaboration between teachers and administrators can feel unattainable due to the demands of both roles.

As we envision a future where every learner receives the support they need to thrive, our Center for the Future of Learning Team has collaborated with Nevadans to develop The Portrait of a Nevada Learner. This Nevada Department of Education framework identifies essential durable skills and poses key questions to inspire meaningful learning experiences, relationships, and environments.

The Portrait encourages inquiry-based learning to explore academic knowledge in ways that provide deeper relevance. For example:

What kind of assessment could a learner create to answer, “How will I grow in my learning?”
What experiences would invite a young person to demonstrate evidence of their understanding of, “How do I build community and sustain relationships?”
What creative problem-solving and critical thinking skills would be necessary for a project addressing, “How do I contribute to make an impact?”
In what diverse environments might a young person explore and test, “How will I thrive?”

Beautiful questions serve as invitations—encouraging us to rethink paradigms, challenge assumptions, explore multiple valid answers, and embrace new possibilities for transformation.

The Power of Collaboration: Breaking Down Barriers of Isolation

Leading community work that truly aims to create a new way forward takes deep personal reflection and self-awareness. It means creating spaces where real connections can grow, where people feel seen and heard. I kept coming back to the transformative learning experiences in my own life. When had my understanding of learning been challenged? What moments had reshaped my sense of self—as a person, an educator, a leader? When had I felt such a strong sense of connection and belonging that it stayed with me long after the moment had passed?

One memory kept rising to the surface: my sophomore year experimental theatre class.

We started with a journal prompt: “The fearlessness of an ensemble can conquer anything.” Every experience in that class was designed to push us as individual artists while strengthening a community of bold, like-minded risk-takers.

That year changed my life.

I was introduced to poetic greats like Eliot and Neruda and came to understand what Brené Brown would later build her career of research on—the power of vulnerability. Every class, I had to create something from nothing with and for my ensemble. Whether I was reinterpreting a scene from Waiting for Godot with the challenge to” integrate a toaster into the scene” or developing an original movement piece inspired by Johannes Vermeer’s painting The Girl with the Pearl Earring, I was constantly reflecting, co-creating, and sharing all within quick cycles of time. The goal? To make something that moved my peers, to help them see themselves or each other in fresh ways, to learn to build together.

The feedback was relentless. Daily. At times, it felt overwhelming. But I learned to let it wash over me. Humbling myself in front of my audience, truly absorbing where I had succeeded or fallen short, taught me that there is no finish line. Like learning, making art is an infinite game. There are only the moments when we share our work publicly and the moments when we return to the creative process. I stopped treating feedback as a checklist of fixes and started identifying recurring themes. I saw weaknesses in my artistic voice, a hesitation to take risks that kept my work from resonating. To improve, I had to let go of the fear of looking ridiculous. Many years later, I realize that letting go of our egos and the attachments to how we've always seen ourselves may be the only way to build a future that empowers human potential rather than diminishes it.

In that class, I learned that when deep trust and passion are paired with reflective action, the result is more than just great work; it’s true human connection. Here, I developed the durable skills of self-awareness and reflection, sharpened my curiosity, and learned to collaborate to create something from nothing. Effective communication and critical thinking in a theatre class? Absolutely! The arts provide an incredible training ground for the skills that employers seek, successful entrepreneurs rely on, and thriving communities depend upon. This continuous cycle of learning, unlearning, and relearning is the secret sauce for long-term success in a rapidly evolving world.

Building the Future Is A Collective Act

These principles are at the heart of how we work at the Center for the Future of Learning. Our mission is to co-design learning solutions that foster both economic vitality and community strength across Nevada. Why? Because school is stuck in the past and our answers to the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of learning deserve more relevant and engaging answers. We bring together learners - of all ages - from different layers of the education system and diverse dimensions of our communities. We build trust, unpack identities, and examine relationships alongside our hopes and dreams. We partner with young people, educators, and organizations to build inside our education system and beyond classroom walls to model possibilities, and we share the learning to scale inspiration and success.

If we want to build the future instead of merely improving the present, we must reimagine who gathers, how we engage, and what we create together.

In Nevada, we are.

In this future, learning will not be about isolated achievements or marginal increases on standardized tests. It will be about the spaces we create together, where curiosity is nurtured, perspectives collide, and belonging fuels meaningful action.

In this future, learners are empowered, connecting, contributing, and thriving.

In this future, we connect and belong to each other. We are a true community.

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Jeanine Collins is the Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer at the Center for the Future of Learning.

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