OUR STORY & VISION
A learning community where young people are known, challenged, and connected to something larger than themselves.
OUR ESSENTIAL VALUES
The Youth Collective was created to give young people time and support to ask meaningful questions, build strong relationships, understand the world more deeply, and discover how their ideas and gifts can contribute to their communities, both in society and in nature.
Courage
Kindness
Integrity
OUR VISION
We envision young people knowing they are valued, capable, and full of gifts the world needs.
Through belonging, wonder, and courageous, meaningful action, they come to trust that their ideas matter. Alongside their communities, they help shape a more compassionate, just, and sustainable future for people, animals, and the Earth.
Meet the Founder
Bridget Wann
Educator, program designer, and founder of Purpose Lab Collective
Bridget has spent more than fifteen years creating thoughtful, engaging learning experiences for young people.
Her background spans nature-based, project-based, and humane education. Her work centers on building learning environments where young people can think carefully, grow in confidence, form meaningful relationships, and use what they learn in service of a real purpose.
What guides her work
Learning becomes meaningful when curiosity, relationships, and real-world purpose come together.
Experience behind the Youth Collective
Knowledge in service of young people
California Multiple Subject Teaching Credential
More than fifteen years of classroom teaching, including service as a Gifted Program Coordinator.
Master of Arts in Education
Graduate study in Curriculum and Instruction.
Green School Bali Educator Certification
Training in progressive, nature-based, and sustainable education.
Institute for Humane Education
Solutionary Micro-Credential, expected completion August 2026.
THE QUESTION BEHIND THE WORK
What becomes possible when young people have the time, trust, and guidance to pursue questions that matter?
Purpose Lab Collective grew from a question Bridget kept returning to as a teacher:
How can education help young people understand themselves, care deeply about the world, and participate in it with thoughtful compassion and courage?
Bridget has watched students come alive when learning connects with a real place, person, problem, or possibility. They ask deeper questions. They listen differently. They begin to see academic skills as tools for understanding and creating, rather than tasks to complete. Just as importantly, they learn that their individual strengths matter to a group and the wider world.
The Youth Collective is the first small-group expression of that idea. It brings six young people together for a carefully structured learning experience that makes room for individual growth, rigorous inquiry, authentic relationships, and purposeful work.
THE RESEARCH BEHIND THE YOUTH COLLECTIVE
The Youth Collective’s Research-based Learning Practices
Research across education, psychology, health, and environmental studies points toward the same possibility: meaningful learning that connects students to nature, strengthens knowledge, well-being, connection, and agency for young people.
The research behind the practice
Learning
shaped by
evidence.
Research across education, psychology, health, and environmental studies points toward the same possibility: meaningful learning can strengthen knowledge, well-being, connection, and agency.
Open each finding to explore the study.
01 Humane education Humane themes, ideas focused on compassion, empathy, and the alleviation of suffering for living beings, have been linked with stronger engagement and reading performance among middle school students.
02 Project-based learning Rigorous projects can support academic achievement, collaboration, reflection, and deeper understanding.
03 Environmental learning A Stanford-led review of 119 peer-reviewed studies found predominantly positive K–12 outcomes.
04 Learning in nature Outdoor lessons can support attention, engagement, stress regulation, and academic learning.
05 Nature and well-being Research connects nature experiences with young people’s well-being, personal development, and environmental stewardship.
Meaningful learning and well-being
Engagement is part of a larger picture.
Purposeful projects can help young people feel capable, connected, and useful. They make room for movement, curiosity, relationships, age-appropriate independence, and the experience of contributing something that matters.
Projects that matter invite students to matter.
01
Meaningful schoolwork
Middle school students describe meaningful learning as
real-world, personally relevant, hands-on, social, and
future-oriented.
02
The need to contribute
Adolescence brings a growing capacity and developmental need
to make contributions of consequence.
03
Purpose supports persistence
A larger purpose for learning can support self-regulation,
deeper learning, and persistence through difficult tasks.
04
Real-world childhood
Independence, responsibility, play, and face-to-face
connection give young people opportunities to build
confidence and resilience.
05
Purpose, belonging, and well-being
Purpose and belonging are associated with motivation,
resilience, hope, identity, and positive community
engagement.
A COLLECTIVE THAT CAN GROW
The first cohort is a beginning.
Over time, Purpose Lab Collective can become a connected educational ecosystem where each project adds knowledge, relationships, and possibilities for the young people who follow.
The Youth Collective is the first youth education program of Purpose Lab Collective.
