The Baret Route
The Big Picture Chapter 2
JEANNE BARET was not just guided by a star; in December 1766, she also boarded one. The ship— L’Etoile (French for The Star)— took her around the world, enabling her to discover herself as well as strange, new plants in faraway, exotic lands. Today, the inaugural Baret cohort of over 100 recent high school graduates and college students from more than 40 countries are following in her wake, on their own global expedition, to find and follow their own stars. In Septem- ber 2025, Baret’s 2nd cohort of students will begin their journeys. Baret students are traveling and studying with a full-time team of 17 ac- complished, experienced, and youthful Deans, Fellows, and support person- nel. Like the students themselves, they come from all corners of the earth. They grew up in every land the students will venture to and have an expertise in our students’ interests. This year’s team in- cludes PhD’s in anthropology, medicine, and linguistics from MIT, Cornell, and Berkeley, and nearly half our Fellows are Oxford grads. The traveling team includes a full-time physician as well as security and logistics professionals. Preceded by virtual get-togethers and contextual briefings across this past summer, Baret’s 1st cohort launched its global journey in September after com- ing together for a week of orientation in New Hampshire. Designed to mentally prepare students for the road and year ahead, Baret’s orientation week allowed students to get to know their “House,” a group of 10–14 students and 1 Fellow: a key organizing unit of Baret. Each House is designed as a microcosm of the globe, comprised of students from hometowns far different than those of their high school friends: Casablanca and Mexico City, Kongsberg and San Francisco, Nairobi and New Delhi, Bu- charest and Bursa, Hong Kong and São Paulo, Toronto and Riyadh. Far better than the safety briefings on ships and planes, Baret’s security pro- tocols were a priority during this year’s orientation. Students came to under- stand not just “the law of the land” but the laws of many lands. A modernized version of the “Buddy System” was in- troduced for their use worldwide. Then, bound together, their journey began.
it as a 5th year of college, akin to a dual Masters program in International Affairs and Life Design. Just as leading universi- ties from Brown to the University of Chi- cago are offering “5th year BA/MA” pro- grams, Baret adds an intense global year to a BA, not after, but before or during it. The curated and structured portion of Baret includes four key elements: THE MORNING PROGRAM. Organized by Baret’s Global and Country teams, the Morning Program in each country brings 25–30 experts in front of our students, a total of about 200 thought leaders across the year. On 10 mornings during the weeks in the 7 Home Base cities, Baret organizes a 2–3 hour program each day for the entire cohort. Think of this as a traveling, TED-like conference which immerses Baret students in the culture, politics, arts, businesses, and economies of each region. As content rich as the best college courses, it differs dramatically in “production value.” With Peabody Award winning experience amongst our team, we combine engagement, entertainment, and education through talks, discussions, interviews, student participation and performances, which provide intellectual windows into these regions along with in- spiring models to think about themselves and design their own lives. FELLOWSHIPS: 70 TO CHOOSE FROM. Through the year, Baret will offer at least 70 different Fellowship programs as electives for its students, 10 possibilities in each of the 7 regions. From the 70 op- tions, each student chooses 1 per region, a total of 7 across the year. Led by a Baret Fellow and comprised of 10–14 students each, these Fellowships are 7–10 day edu- cational programs organized around dif- ferent interests from innovation to cre- ativity, nature and politics. Fellowships generally occur outside the Home Base cities on the Baret route, giving students experiences well beyond the world’s mega cities. Students can experience the small towns and wilderness areas of China and Africa, the entrepreneurism and art of the Americas, and the history and environmental concerns of all Bar- et regions. Some of the Fellowships are offered in adjacent countries with the options for this year’s cohort including, to name a few, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Italy, Spain, Germany, Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan.
AFTERNOON OPTIONS. During their after- noons in each of the Home Base cities, Baret students can explore the city on their own or opt to participate in a variety of edu- cational options led by Baret’s Fellows and global leadership. Each year these possi- bilities will be based on the expertise of that year’s Fellows. For this year’s cohort, options include seminars in advanced and intermediate French; college counseling; career counseling; and, for students inter- ested in entrepreneurism, a year-long, 14 session seminar on “Starting Things” led by Baret’s founder. ADVISING. Except weekends, there is a 30 minute, daily “House” meeting for stu- dents and their Fellow to catch up and share experiences and problems. Addi- tionally, each week, Baret students also meet one-on-one with their assigned Fellow. Modeled after the Oxford/Cam- bridge tutorial system, these sessions provide students with life design tech- niques, college preparation, and inspira- tion for their independent projects. Us- ing well-researched techniques, Fellows help students plan to get the most from their coming or current college experi- ence and imminent adult lives. Key de- liverables include Fellow-led-initiatives called “Designing your College Years” in the fall and “Designing your Life” in the spring.
THE BARET route circles the earth, including 7 key regions/countries: North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, and China/Southeast Asia. In each region or country, the full cohort of students works out of a Home Base city, specifically New York, São Paulo, Paris, Istanbul, Nairobi, New Delhi, and Beijing. After 18–20 day stays in the Home Base city, students have a number of 7–10 day Fellowship options from which to choose, traveling in independent, small groups with a Fellow to visit and learn about other parts of the region.
The Baret Program
BARET SCHOLARS is an intense experi- ence, not a course . There is a great deal of learning, but no professors . There are deliv- erables, but no homework . This is a year of much reading, but there is no required text . Students reflect on their year and complete capstone projects, but there are no tests . As one gap year proponent said, “ This is not a year off, but a year very much on .” Hundreds of discussions with students, families, schools and universities tell us that students want a mix of curated, struc- tured programs and independent explora- tion. They also want options from which to choose. Baret delivers on that, providing a combination of the well planned and the spontaneous, as detailed in the pages of this book. Knowing that students learn in their own ways, the Baret experience is built from a recipe of approaches. Sometimes the entire student cohort functions together, sometimes as smaller student groups of 10–14, often one-on-one with Fellows, and through completely independent work.
Time for the Unplanned
“WE LIKE some structure, but give us lots of time on our own or with a couple of friends.” That’s what students and educa- tors told us as we developed Baret. Alums of education abroad said they learned a lot from meeting new people as they walked along the Bund or The Bosphorus. In our home base cities, every afternoon and evening are free for students to do as they wish. And every weekend is at least a 3-day one allowing students to head off to the region around them, mostly by train and bus. Baret will present possibilities, but our students are free to walk, to read, and, top of the list, to talk and discover one another.
Curated and Structured
IF BARET Scholars were a university—and we know it isn’t—we’d like you to think of
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BARET SCHOLARS
BACKGROUND & VISION
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