In 2014, Episcopal High School (VA), a boarding school for grades 9-12, partnered with WeWork, the shared workspace community with locations all over the world, to explore the use of co-working spaces to enhance our school programs. We wanted to create an extension of our campus that immerses students and faculty in the fast-paced world of startup culture and other current workplace trends, and harnesses the energy of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.Our membership gives us access to 10 DC-area WeWork locations—most are minutes away from campus—and even more nation- and worldwide, as well as a local and worldwide network of more than 3,000 businesses, entrepreneurs, and nongovernmental organizations. Episcopal High School (EHS) students and faculty now have places off campus to connect with people from our community and beyond, and there are many more opportunities for strategic partnerships. The school has expanded the use of these innovative environments to support signature programs including experiential education, student career experiences, professional development, and institutional advancement events.
Background
I experienced a WeWork space for the first time in the summer of 2014. I was about one month into my new role as director of EHS’s Washington Program and thinking about ways to grow the program and expand the school’s network of strategic partners. The Washington Program is designed to keep students connected to the world with immersive experience-based learning. It features four concentration areas, including entrepreneurship, and provides authentic real-world experiences that include weekly explorations of the city and a senior-year externship.Before I even started in this role, people would ask me how I would access large numbers of potential strategic partners for our programs and faculty professional development. What struck me most immediately about WeWork is that it provides instant access to the new world of work and careers, a starting point for building relationships with the cutting-edge of the working world. All of the 21st century learning-outcome and career-preparation discussions we were having on our campus—and that all schools are likely having—about our students can be seen in action at most co-working spaces. Schools need a dose of the reality that we are preparing our students for, and WeWork provides that, helping students and faculty see that the daily work schedule is no longer the typical 9-5 that we’ve become so used to and that many jobs can be done remotely from anywhere in the world. I view the space as a direct line to the state of innovation in the global workplace. With the recent emphasis on apprenticeship-based learning, such as that proposed by the Mastery Transcript Consortium, a school’s membership in a co-working or incubating environment can be a vital connection to networks that provide students with opportunities globally and locally.
In WeWork, I immediately found the potential to forge strategic partnerships for my school all in one location. I also saw the possibilities for WeWork access to expand the creativity and innovative drive of all EHS educators and community members. With this membership, we would be able to work with partners at all 10 Washington locations, not to mention the global network that includes WeWork communities in Asia and Europe. So that fall, I brought the idea of joining WeWork to our CFO and head of school, and we discussed the costs, benefits, and risks of a membership. In the spring of 2015, EHS started using the flexible desk space in a WeWork office in Washington, DC’s Dupont Circle neighborhood.
With multiple bookable conference spaces and a home office, our faculty used our WeWork space for professional development and retreats to engage in innovative thinking that returned to our campus. The Washington Program’s team of faculty and administrators met frequently here, holding multiple workshops that explored design thinking and experiential education for our faculty.
After this initial warm-up period with faculty exploring the possibilities of WeWork, we started to focus on how we could connect our students and greater school network to this dynamic environment. I realized that in order to fully engage in all of the strategic partnership possibilities WeWork offered, we would need a multiple desk space, a satellite workspace for our campus. So in fall 2016, we moved to a larger, multiple desk space at WeWork Crystal City in Virginia, one of the DC area’s growing innovation hubs. Last spring, WeWork offered free expansion at its White House location, so we took advantage and now use space there too.
Our programming at WeWork did not come without challenges that took negotiation, creative scheduling, and persistent efforts to show our community the great potential of a co-working space.
Within our school, we marketed the program to our faculty, organizing an open house, building allies within departments who were willing to experiment with the space, and making transportation as seamless as possible for our faculty and students.
For the WeWork community, which is mainly an adult professional environment, we had a mini campaign that introduced EHS through information sessions about our programs and allowed us to meet individually with potential partner organizations, demonstrating the value proposition of externships.
How We’re Using the Space
The best example of using this co-working space to enhance the student experience is our senior externship program, which is rooted in more than 40 years of student-centered experiential learning. The senior externship consists of a full month of career immersion supported by a real-world curriculum for 12th graders.For a school near Washington, DC, one could assume that the majority of our students would be working in government-related organizations. Through our WeWork membership, we are able to disrupt the traditional internship by connecting with lean entrepreneurs and other organizations that are ready to provide students with real experiences. This year we will have more students working in the innovation sector than ever before, and the possibilities continue to present themselves for our students, from venture capital-supported startups to global humanitarian organizations like The Malala Fund. Students are able to finish their EHS careers with an experience that embeds them in and engages them with new economies and fields.
Other successful uses of our WeWork co-working space include:
- Learn the City, a series of small-group meetings with entrepreneurs at the EHS space and other area incubators that give ninth-grade students an opportunity to meet people doing the work of innovation daily.
- Eleventh-grade English classes have used the office and breakout conference rooms for a design-thinking project with connections to local communities.
- The social studies department used the space for a symposium-style learning day in which faculty worked in small groups with discipline-specific experts.
- We have hosted alumni events both locally (“Introduction to Design Thinking for EHS Alumni”) and in San Francisco at WeWork Transbay (EHS CONNECT).
- EHS summer programs use the space for on-site experiential learning summer programs in sustainability and entrepreneurship.
- Our 11th and 12th grade entrepreneurship class uses the space for on-site meetings and class design work in their annual pitch contest.
Key Takeaways
There are many ways independent schools can use co-working environments and spaces. Here are some insights that we’ve learned.Take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. Working with entrepreneurs and other organizations outside of your community requires a flexibility in schedule and certainly mindset. It helps to work within partner organization schedules rather attempting to fit them into a sometimes rigid school schedule.
Do your homework. WeWork is not the only co-working company; there are a number of great options that may fit your school’s programming needs. Determine the best price point and access for your school. We wanted a metro-accessible space to encourage the use of public transportation, as well as parking if we needed to drive.
Start small. In three and a half years, we grew from a flex desk space to a six-desk room. Take time to get to know your co-working space and all the amenities.
Keep moving forward. Our membership allowed us to practice some agile planning when it comes to placement in key neighborhoods. We now have spaces in the Crystal City tech area and White House locations that immerse the school in two distinct spheres of Washington.
Enjoy the freedom of leasing. Independent schools can use co-working membership as an alternative to funding new buildings that house innovation environments by renting month to month in an already-established nearby space. WeWork has also supported us in our innovation goals while growing our on-campus programs considerably by an almost osmosis-like effect.
Exit strategies are important. Co-working spaces that include all tech needs and support in lieu of building a second school campus can pose less significant financial risk for a school. Ending a lease is easier and ultimately, it’s a low-impact way to experiment with the new nature of careers and work for our graduates.
Treat it like a travel experience with your students. During the early stages of our WeWork connection, we needed to meet fairly frequently with administrators to put some risk-aware policies in place including: mandating that EHS adults must be with students during programming and ensuring controlled access to the space.
Encourage your faculty to use the amenities and professional development offerings that these spaces often have (lunch lectures and workshops). And get your students there as much as possible—for class, for work, to meet for great conversations with people other than their teachers.
The co-working space trend continues to grow globally, and your school can decide what level of engagement it wants when it comes to developing new partners in the school’s mission and goals. The possibilities are endless. I have seen faculty using the space in ways I could not have forseen at the outset. Our WeWork experience is truly a creative spark in the EHS community.
Read More
“WeWork is Launching a Grade School for Budding Entrepreneurs,” a November 2017 article at bloomberg.com, explores how the startup, “built on a vast network of hip co-working spaces where entrepreneurs and freelancers rent desks, is making its move into children’s education, launching a private elementary school for ‘conscious entrepreneurship’ inside a New York City WeWork next fall.”