Inside Alpha’s “Olympic-Level” Project For High Schoolers

"...the only school preparing kids for the real world..."

If you want your kid to stand out in the future, straight A’s aren’t going to cut it. On average, the standard admission rate for an Ivy League school is 5% or less. Thousands of brilliant students get turned away every year.

But there’s a catch.

After doing some digging, my team and I uncovered a crazy statistic — there is a certain demographic of students who have a 75% chance of getting accepted into an Ivy League college. Seriously!? While every other kid flounders to get accepted into their dream Ivy, there’s a group of students almost guaranteed to get in? You could say our curiosity was officially piqued.

My team and I found three commonalities among the 75%:

1. They score 1550+ on the SAT

2. They score a 5 on at least three of the most difficult AP tests (like chemistry or calc BC)

3. And they are Olympic athletes.

With the two-hour learning model, our schools can easily help students hit those Ivy League academic prerequisites…but what about becoming an Olympian? We brainstormed, researched, racked our brains for answers. What’s the non-athletic equivalent of becoming an Olympian in today’s world?

And then, it clicked.

We created a program called AlphaX. It’s Alpha High’s secret sauce, our Olympic-level endeavor. Why is “Olympic-level” so important, you ask? Because Olympians are more than just good for their age. (EX: “He’s a pretty fast for an eighteen-year-old.”) No, Olympians are the best in the world. The same goes for our students. Our vision is not for them to be “pretty good for their age.” Our vision is for them to experience unbelievable success; to be the best at what they do. And they are! AlphaX is the reason you see our high schoolers appearing on the news, testifying at the Senate, building businesses left and right.

Here’s how we built it.

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What is the AlphaX Program?

Meet Chloe, the lead guide for the AlphaX Program at Alpha High School. (We often call our teachers “guides.”) Unlike other guides who work across academics and AlphaX, Chloe focuses exclusively on AlphaX. Put simply, AlphaX is her jam.

In her own words:

“AlphaX is a four-year long project that aligns with a student’s passion and purpose that a student does to an Olympic level. That means they have to have the desire to be the world's best, a total expert in something. They’ll work on this project throughout all of high school, from 9th through 12th grade.”

If it sounds like a huge undertaking, it is. But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: kids are way more capable than we give them credit for. AlphaX is special because it combines a student’s innate passion with agency, support, responsibility, mentorship, and respect. You’d be amazed at how huge of a breakthrough respect can be for kids. It’s a total unlock. At Alpha, we respect them enough to say, “What you’re passionate about matters. Now, let’s build something great together.”

How do students choose a topic?

You’re probably thinking, “There’s no way all these ninth-graders know exactly what ‘Olympic-level’ project they want to build….”

And you’re right. We give them loads of support. The first leg of AlphaX is called “DreamLaunch.” Essentially, it’s a passion and purpose sprint — a series of activities and workshops all students complete to discover what they’re most passionate about. For the first time in their lives, this is where students begin the process of “launching” their dreams.

Here are two of the workshops:

1. The Ikigai Workshop
   “Ikigai” is the Japanese concept of finding your life’s purpose. It’s the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs more of, and what you can get paid for. And it doesn’t have to be some mind-bending, universe-altering thing. What matters is alignment. The goal is for students to pursue a project they are deeply aligned with — and this workshop helps them flesh out the answer.
   

2. The 168-Hours Workshop
   For a week straight (168 hours), students diligently track their time. Outside of school and sleep, where do their hours go? What are their habits? Are they spending time on the things they say they care about, or are they binging Netflix all afternoon?
   
   “More often than not, passion is where you spend your free time,” Chloe says. If a student says they want to be a famous pianist, but they only hit their keys once a week, it’s time to reevaluate. Maybe they need to double-down, practice their discipline. Or, maybe they’re not all that passionate about piano, after all. The cool thing about this workshop is that it really exposes what matters to you — no matter how “frivolous” it may seem.
   
   “One of my students realized she spent most of her time thinking about boys and scrolling TikTok,” Chloe laughs. “And ironically enough, that’s now her AlphaX project. She's building a smart, safe, teen dating coach powered by AI that she markets on social media. And it already has over 50,000 downloads in the app store.”

What happens if a student can’t figure out their passion?

A valid concern — but you may be surprised at the answer.

“When we first started, there were definitely a few students who took longer to figure it out,” Chloe says. “And we have students change their project all the time, especially early on in their journey. But we’ve never had a student where it just doesn’t land.”

The discovery process is different for every student. But no matter how long it may take, we’re beside them every step of the way. Say a teenage girl is interested in fashion design, but she doesn’t know anything about it. Great! Students are not going to be experts to start. (That comes later, once they really fall in love with an idea.) In the meantime, we strongly encourage students to pursue, learn, experiment, and discover. Guides are instrumental in this process. They help students take courses, read books, unearth any possible resource that will help them begin the process of becoming an expert — and then, if the student falls even more in love with the topic, they know they’re onto something. If not, they can pursue something else. It really is tailored to the individual student.

However.

AlphaX can feel intimidating. I totally get that. What if you want to enroll in Alpha, but you don’t necessarily want to build an Olympic-level project? What if you want to pursue a passion, but it doesn’t make sense to turn it into a business and share it with millions of people?

We want AlphaX to feel accessible to every student. So, we’ve rolled out two tracks: Alpha Honors and Alpha High.

Alpha’s Two Tracks: One for Every Student

• Alpha High Honors Track
  This track is for the students who want to attend an Ivy League school and build an Olympic-level project. It’s for the super ambitious, the hyper-driven, the ultra-passionate kids who already have a vision for their future. Currently, we have students writing Broadway musicals, building neuroscience tech start-ups, testifying at the Senate, coding apps.
  
  Here are just a few examples of what our Honors students are up to:

  • Grace is uncovering corruption in American health organizations. Her mission is to flatten the curve of cancer in Generation Z. As a teenager, she’s already produced a documentary with over five million views, accrued over 66,000 followers on X, been interviewed on Fox News and Dr. Phil, and, perhaps most impressively, testified at the U.S. Senate. (Not to mention, she’s regularly invited to testify before various state legislatures.)

  • Rhett is a competitive mountain biker who raised $3.15 million (!!) to successfully build a mountain bike park in Austin — and it’s become the largest bike park in Texas.

  • Kate writes a newsletter to help parents bring education into the 21st century. She’s amassed over 16,000 Substack subscribers and 33,000 followers on X.

  • Maddie is creating the first Broadway musical entirely written and produced by teens. Her musical has over 67,000 followers on TikTok, as well as millions of likes and views. So far, she’s performed two off-Broadway performances in New York City — attended by Broadway producers and investors — and will release the musical's first single on Spotify this month.

  
  Crazy, right? And these are just a few examples. (You can explore more AlphaX projects right here.) A project of this caliber may not be every student’s dream, and that’s okay — but for the ones who do have that wildly ambitious vision, we help them make it a reality.
  

• Alpha High Track
  This track is for the students who don’t necessarily want to attend an Ivy League college or launch a VC-backed startup, but they still have things they’re passionate about, things they want to pursue. For example, some students want to focus on sports, internships, or community service. Some want to write a book, get their pilot’s license, or become full-time content creators. And to this, we say — do it! While these don’t necessarily qualify as “Olympic-level” projects, they are still high-value, high-leverage pursuits for a student’s future. And here at Alpha, that’s our mission. We help students build something valuable for their future. Something they will look back on and say, “This is where it all started.”

  What are the project requirements for AlphaX?

• Develop a Spiky POV
  A “spiky point of view” is a unique lens through which you see the world. Wes Kao defines it as: “a perspective others can disagree with” and “a belief you feel strongly about and are willing to advocate for.” (For example, one of my spiky POVs is “students can learn 2X in two hours a day.”)
  
  For their project, every student works to develop a strong, well-researched, spiky point of view about their chosen field, whether that be fashion, engineering, neuroscience — you name it. And don’t get it twisted. Spiky POVs are so much more than "hot takes." Students develop spiky POVs that are saturated with research, statistics, and supporting data. Remember: AlphaX is all about becoming an expert. The world’s best. This is the heartbeat of everything that happens inside the AlphaX program.
  

• Build an Audience
  “You can’t run super fast in your backyard and call yourself an Olympian,” Chloe says. “What you do has to be done in front of millions of people.”
  
  That’s why students have to build their AlphaX project in public. “The last thing we want is for students to work super hard in private on a project for three years, release it, and nobody wants it.” Real-time feedback and active distribution are central to the program; which is why audience-building is mandatory for all students.
  
  “Some students come to Alpha and they're natural creators,” Chloe says. “They want to build in the dark and never distribute anything. And then other students are distributors: they’ll distribute all day long, but they don't actually have anything meaningful to say. As guides, our job is to bridge the gap. We help creators become distributors and distributors become creators.”
  

• Set Ambitious Goals
  At the beginning of every session (at Alpha, a “session” is an eight-week period), students sit down with their guides and set ambitious goals. What’s their priority over these next few weeks? They also sit down with their guide at the beginning of each week to set ambitious weekly goals. What needs to get done by Friday?
  
  “It’s largely driven by the student,” Chloe says. “It’s our job to make sure they’re setting high standards. Sometimes, we have to push back and say, ‘That’s not high enough for you.’”
  
  The thing is, teenagers are used to being told they’re “just kids.” Can’t they pursue their “little business” after college, like everybody else? But hopefully you know by now: Alpha isn’t everybody else. We champion kids in their desire to build something. We help them set crazy high standards — and we give them the crazy high support they need to get there. The two cannot exist without the other.
  

• Be Flexible
  The cool thing is, students aren’t married to their AlphaX project. Some students commit to an idea, work on it for three months, then change their mind — and that’s totally fine. All along, they’re developing countless life skills they're going to use again and again and again. Skills like: becoming an expert, learning how to learn, how to conduct real research, how to use the internet and AI to find credible resources — the list goes on. They'll use these skills often in life. And, their second project will operate much quicker and smoother than before.
  
  “We never want a student to be working on something they're not passionate about,” Chloe says. “At the same time, we're not going to let a student change their project just because it gets hard. That's part of our job as guides. We help students figure out: ‘Do I want to change because I’m actually not passionate about this anymore, or is it starting to get really hard and I’m scared I’m going to fail?’ We help them navigate that.”
  
  The entire point of this program is not to complete a school project, but to build priceless, real-world experience. And that’s where our guides are irreplaceable.

Guides: The secret sauce of AlphaX

Believe it or not, Chloe didn’t come from an educational background.

“I used to work at a law firm,” she says. “But I've always been super passionate about education. The thing that really pushed me towards education was my mom. She was my third-grade teacher. And as I got older, she just kept moving up with me. It was so annoying at the time. But looking back, I'm so thankful.

“When she suddenly passed away from cancer, I had this moment where I asked myself: ‘What am I doing with my life?’ I didn't actually like being a lawyer. I wanted to leave my mark on the education world somehow. So, I started working on my teacher certification, shadowed at a public school, and realized: this isn’t for me. There was so much wasted time. It was so frustrating. I felt like school could be so much more than it was.”

That’s when Chloe found Alpha on social media. “At first, I thought it was a scam!” she laughs. “But I’m so glad I applied. I love being a part of this movement. I truly believe this is the only school that is preparing kids for what it means to go into the real world.”

And this, my friends, is why AlphaX matters. We’re helping students learn what it means to become an expert in today’s world. AI knows everything there is to know within the boundaries of existing knowledge — which means, that’s now the bare minimum of becoming an “expert.” Understanding all of the information, the facts, the research. But even then, you’re still not adding any value. The most important thing you can do is create. What new knowledge are you going to create? Can you create something new from the boundary of already-existing knowledge?

This is the skillset that will help kids stand out in the future. This is how guides mentor our high-schoolers. This is why our students participate in AlphaX.

And who knows? Maybe your kid will be next.

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Curious to learn more about what our students are up to?

Check out a comprehensive list of AlphaX projects right here.