Ten years ago, a group of educators and community members got together with a vision of creating a new, unique high school experience for young people. Their challenge was clear: Create an educational environment that allows students to explore their interests and find their passions in a small, supportive learning community. This meant designing a school that transcended traditional public education’s focus on academic testing, which often curtails other critical learning and programs. Their vision included focus on student well-being, creative approaches to teaching and learning, and a campus culture that enables students to try, fail, and try again safely. In 2010, Inspire School of Arts & Sciences was founded, and for the past ten years, we have fine-tuned the art of cultivating an inclusive and supportive campus culture, fostering academic excellence, and nurturing creativity and critical thinking in our student body. 

This transformative high school experience is what makes Inspire unique, and acts as a catalyst for students to become original thinkers and problem solvers in their communities. Inspire has provided students with the unique opportunity to explore and intensively learn in the areas of theatre, music, dance, visual arts, digital media arts, engineering, and science — unlike any other high school in the North State. Now, this award-winning public charter high school needs to raise over $6M to build a new campus. But, how did we get to this chapter in our well-established institution’s history?

OUR STORY

For a decade, we have been providing a world-class education in less-than-ideal conditions – tucked behind another local high school in portable buildings. While we have achieved incredible success at our current home, the next chapter of our story will expand our potential and capacity to build the next generation of challenge-seekers, leaders, and innovators in the North State. 

Last year, we underwent an extensive rebranding process, so that we could vision the next decade of our story with a fresh perspective. The result was a new logo that exemplifies our forward-thinking approach to education and the creativity that drives it, new staff with a dedicated focus to marketing and fund development to help tell our story, and a new challenge to raise the funds we need to build a 21st century facility that matches our 21st century approach to learning. 

It is time for Inspire to relocate to a new location and permanent home in Southeast Chico, on a 7-acre plot of land donated by the Chico Unified School District. At our new location, we will be building a 35,040 sq. ft. facility with updated classrooms, state-of-the-art technology and equipment, maker spaces to inspire creative expression, and plenty of open, artistic space for students to explore and expand their vision of what’s possible. 

HELP US WRITE OUR NEXT CHAPTER

There are many ways to get involved in writing the next chapter of the Inspire story, and it will take all of us to make this dream a reality. Visit our Capital Campaign webpage for more details about making a one-time or monthly donation, leaving a lasting legacy through a naming opportunity at the new campus, or sponsoring one of the many other ongoing Inspire programs we run. Thank you for supporting Inspire. We got this.