Pick a Constellation.
Six worlds to choose from. Want to build machines that actually work? Orion. Want to draw, write, sing, perform? Lyra. Want to argue about what's fair? Aquila. Pick the one that makes your brain wake up.
For Navigators
Hey. Yeah, you. Want to come build something?
Polaris Academy is a two-week summer adventure for kids who think a lot, make a lot, ask a lot, and sometimes get told they think too much. Spoiler: you don't.
What you'll do
Real stuff. Real days. Real you.
Go deep with a real expert.
Your mentor is an actual scientist, engineer, artist, or philosopher. They will treat your ideas the way they treat their colleagues' ideas: seriously, and with real questions.
Make something nobody asked for.
Stargazer Studio is your time. A short story. A working machine. A song cycle. A board game. A theory you want to test. You pick. Mentors help. Polaris Night is when you show it.
Find people like you.
Twelve Navigators per cohort. Every single day, you'll be in a room with kids who get the same kinds of jokes and care about the same kinds of weird stuff. That part might surprise you.
The Six Constellations
Pick your world
Lyra
Arts & Storytelling
Tell stories that haven't been told. Make pictures, songs, and characters that feel like yours. Then put them in front of an audience that actually listens.
Orion
Engineering & Design
Build things that hold weight, light up, fly, or move. Take them apart. Make them better. Then build something only you would have thought of.
Cassiopeia
Mathematics & Pattern
Find the rules hiding inside puzzles, games, and codes. Invent your own. Trade them with friends and watch what happens.
Andromeda
Sciences & Systems
Watch real living things, real chemicals, real weather. Ask the questions that nobody answered yet. Run an experiment to find out.
Aquila
Philosophy & Civic Voice
Argue about big questions: what is fair, what is real, what should we do? Listen to people who disagree with you. Change your mind sometimes.
Phoenix
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Find a real problem you actually care about. Invent something (a product, a service, a campaign) that helps fix it. Pitch it to people who could make it real.
What you'll bring home
By the end of two weeks
A real project
Something you actually made. Not a worksheet. Not a craft. A real thing you can show people.
Friends who think like you
Your cohort. People who care about the same weird, wonderful stuff you do. Some of you will stay friends.
A few new questions
The good kind. The ones that don't have answers yet. The ones you want to keep working on.
Proof that depth is okay
Sometimes school asks you to dial it down. Polaris is the place where you get to dial it up.
Ready?
Show this page to your grown-up. Talk about it together. Then come find your North Star.