History

Traditionally, a “walkabout” is an Australian Aboriginal rite of passage that marks the transition from adolescence to adulthood. It provides a young person with the opportunity to practice and demonstrate the skills and knowledge required of their community’s adults. Upon successful completion, the young person is endowed with all of the rights and responsibilities of an adult. Most cultures have practiced a variation of this ritual for millennia, but it has never been an integral part of the traditional American education system. Our innovative idea is to give American high school students a meaningful, contemporary rite of passage into adulthood. 

As stated above, Walkabout Education is the vision of a team of educators and alumni from The Walkabout Program, a highly successful experiential education program that the U.S. Department of Education honored as one of the top 40 experiential education programs in the United States. For 37 years, Walkabout thrived as a full-day, full-year, public alternative for high school students from a wide range of socioeconomic and academic backgrounds. The Walkabout Program gave high school students the opportunity to develop into resilient, self-reliant young adults with critical thinking skills to thrive in academic and career settings.

A 2014 study of Walkabout alumni showed:

These data reveal the effectiveness of Walkabout to engage students in lifelong learning, and indicative of how The Walkabout Bronx High School, our first school, will drive student success as defined by our learning standards and student expectations. To achieve these results, Walkabout offers a truly unique curriculum. The program is divided into five “challenge areas”: Applied Academics; Wilderness Expeditions; Career Internship; Service Learning; and Final Presentation. All of this occurs within a challenge-oriented culture requiring students to take risks and move beyond their perceived limitations.