It all started with a 17-year-old student who felt his curiosity fading in school. Determined to make a change, he created the first Curiosity Club. A space where learning was driven by curiosity, not pressure. What began as one small idea has grown into a movement, empowering youth everywhere to reignite the love for learning in their vibrant communities.
Curiosity Clubs run in two 5-month semesters each year. Before each semester, we open applications for youth who want to start a club in their community. Selected Guides kick off their journey with an 8-hour Guide Training Experience, where they gain the skills they need to be a guide. Once a week, Guides from around the world meet online for an hour-long session to share ideas, solve problems, take part in workshops, and hold each other accountable.
The Curiosity Clubs meet weekly in-person for around 1.5 hours in schools, libraries, parks, or even someone’s house. Each session typically includes three of our six building blocks: Get Curious, Plan Projects, Work on Projects, Share Experiences, Mini Projects, and Team Building. Guides use and contribute to the session building booklet filled with activity ideas to design meaningful sessions. Each semester wraps up with a Curiosity Celebration, where clubs share their projects and learnings with their wider community.
Spreading Curiosity Club has been a journey of learning and adapting. We started by working with schools, but introducing a fee led to closures, forcing us to rethink. Instead, we opened applications directly to young people and the response was incredible. Last semester, over 600 applied, and we helped launch five new clubs led by passionate youth in their communities.
By focusing on reaching the youth directly, we have gone back to the roots of where we started. It is not a school-led space, it never was. It is a youth-led space. With 10 new clubs planned for next semester, we’re excited to see the movement grow, one Curiosity Club at a time.
Applications to start a Curiosity Club are open in January and July. Apply and we have a chat. More info on www.curiositylearning.org. Got questions? Good! Email curious@curiositylearning.org.
