Mentoring relationships are at the heart of BLC. Each teen is matched with one of the staff, Alexis, Sandy, or Eileen, who sets aside time to meet individually each week. It’s hard to overestimate the importance for young people to be heard and known and not just feel like a number. Having a caring, supportive and knowledgeable adult as an ally helps teens to make the most of their time at BLC.

Mentors also help connect young people to the learning opportunities at BLC, online and in the wider community. We help them keep track of what they learn and the experiences that they have for whatever next steps they are planning to take after BLC.

We know that sometimes parents also have questions. What steps do we need to take to apply to college? How does a young person get working papers so they can get a job? Is a gap year a good idea? What is the process to get a driver’s license? Chances are, we have helped other families do whatever you have questions about. We schedule three routine family meetings throughout the year, but you can get all the help and support you need with just a phone call or email to your child’s mentor.

The community at BLC is one of the highlights for many of our teen members. We experience “reverse snow day syndrome”: instead of cheering when we have to close for bad weather our members are disappointed because they genuinely enjoy being at BLC. And why not? Who wouldn’t want to go to a place where you are welcomed, have friends, can learn about things you are interested in and have time to laugh, play and enjoy yourself?

We intentionally keep the community small, no more than 30 or so at capacity. We want everyone’s voice to matter and not feel like they are just a cog in a machine.

While not perfect, we work really hard to keep the BLC community a welcoming and inclusive community where people are respected for who they are. For young people who are coming from a hard social situation in school, the friends and acceptance that they find in the BLC community can be the most valuable experience they have.

Many people are astounded by the huge number of opportunities there are for young people to learn independently of the traditional school system. BLC acts as both the provider and connector to this world of possibility.

The classes and activities at BLC typically meet once a week for an hour, average between three and eight attendees, and cover the whole range of interests - everything from traditional subjects like algebra and writing to interest-specific subjects like learning Japanese or computer programming. Eileen, Sandy, and Alexis lead some of the classes, but many of the learning opportunities at BLC are offered by our amazing community volunteers. This allows us to provide a diversity of offerings based on our members’ interests.

BLC sets aside Fridays for trips and special workshops. Often proposed and planned by members, trips can be anything from a nature hike, to visiting the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, to taking a tour of the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab.

Since BLC is a small community, there are many leadership opportunities. Our members organize trips, lead our weekly all-group meeting, take on roles in the community like first-aid and safety manager and even lead classes and offer one-on-one music lessons to other members.

Many parents worry that leaving traditional schools to use self-directed education will somehow limit the opportunities or choices their children have after they leave BLC. Nothing could be further from the truth!

A large majority of our members plan to attend college after their time with BLC. Many people are surprised that teens who don’t attend school can go to college. Actually, the self-directed-education-to-college path is well established in the United States. There have been millions of young people who homeschooled or had other non-traditional schooling backgrounds who went to college. This is a routine application process for colleges and doesn’t disadvantage families who choose this educational route. Our mentors help young people document the learning that they do and create a narrative transcript that translates that into a form colleges understand. Every young person who has attended BLC that wanted to go to college has, often to their first choice school.

The second most common next step for our members is either into the working or entrepreneurial world. Young people can use the flexibility and control offered by self-directed education to start learning the skills needed to be successful in a given career. The budding software designer can start coding and building products. The future carpenter can start informally apprenticing on jobs around town. The would-be salon owner can start doing their friends’ and families’ hair and makeup. Instead of squeezing your interests into “after-school” time, you can work on your interests as the main focus of your education.

Finally, some of our members take time after BLC to travel or do a gap year before heading to college or into the workforce. The big message is that anything teens can do by attending school, they can still do through self-directed education. BLC is here to help provide and connect young people to those opportunities.

One of the most unique aspects of BLC is that many of the classes and tutorials are led by community volunteers. We ask members regularly if there is anything else that they'd like to work on or learn, which often leads us to search in the local community for someone who is willing to share their time and talents with a young person. We’re constantly amazed at the talented and dedicated people we are able to find or who find us.

BLC members get to learn computer programming from actual computer programmers or people who have an incredible passion for it and want to share that with others; Spanish from native speakers; agriculture from farmers. Getting exposure to and making contacts with people who are active or retired in the fields teens are interested in is an incredibly valuable experience and can lead to many opportunities down the road.