Parzival Academy - Program of Self-Discovery & Self-Awareness

My time at Parzival has been a life changing experience. I’ve learned so many life changing skills and lessons for survival in the world. Parzival has helped me become a better observer of the world around me and through the program I have learnt better and more efficient ways to cope with my anxiety. I have more self confidence and have been able to put together a list of goals I’d like to complete this year. I also have a better idea of the life path (which I made myself) id like to take. Thank you Ms. Kim and Ms. Raluca!

As a child of the 21st century I graduated high school more than a bit confused. I had decided college was probably not the best choice for me. However, I was unsure of exactly what I wanted to do with my life. This program has given me the skills to determine what path I want to take. I have also been taught very useful skills in emotional maturity, relationships, and general personal growth. I have found Kim and Raluca to be excellent mentors, and have thoroughly enjoyed the conversations with them. I have enjoyed making new friends from all over. I would recommend this program to any one feeling like they don't know where they're going, or what to do next.

Home educated and very intelligent, my son had ideas of what he would like to do but lacked the clarity and confidence to move forward. College did not seem the best option for him, yet he needed an experience beyond home schooling that would help prepare him for adult life. Parzival Academy has been the perfect solution.

Through this past year, he has become very clear about who he is, what truly matters to him, his vision for the future and how he can serve others. Understanding his strengths, he exhibits greater confidence in his ability to develop his career. The individual weekly coaching sessions have been amazing, as they are frequently followed by a new action. I believe the communication skills he has learned may be the single greatest tool for relating with and impacting others that he will use throughout his life. Making friends across the country has been an added bonus.

If “price is what you pay” and “value is what you receive”, then Parzival Academy is an exceptional value! I’ve found the program makes efficient use of time, is effective in teaching life skills that truly matter, and worth every penny!

During this past year, I’ve seen remarkable changes in my son’s behavior as he has learned how to balance his emotions. He is more mature and demonstrates a greater ability to navigate situations that are not as he would prefer them to be. I feel the people skills he has learned will help him throughout life, regardless of the career path he pursues. I recommend Parzival Academy without reservation. The leaders are experienced, understand young people and are able to share information in a way that is engaging.

As a gap year student, I found Parzival Academy a good compliment to my process of mulling over deeper questions of Where I Want To Go. Doing the program, I was helped to be made conscious of considering the elements of a question and how they relate to each other as a living process, something to live in rather than face down and finish. Not all questions have to be answered. I had many valuable discussions and guided thought processes- like digging deep into my memories of when I felt happiest- that made me reconsider many basic concepts (like what constitutes my happiness) in a new light, and the end result that that led toward was, for me, a simple feeling of having taken an Inventory of sorts. For myself (and, I imagine, for anyone at my stage of many, many questions), this is a very good complimentary feeling to have.
I think that the only aspect of the program that I would change would be to have Making Things be more of a standard element in the curriculum. I felt better working with the ideas in the program on something other than a screen, and I found it difficult to keep a regular practice of making my own semi-artistic documentation of my thought process through the program without other students doing something similar. What collective projects we did do, though, like the collaborative creation of a story, were very good experiences.
Besides that, Kim and Raluca are very good conversationalists, and generally good people to spend your time with, in person or virtually. Conversation is really at the heart of the program, and they are good at curating it; and though the social scene was small with only six people most of the time, it did not feel very small at all to me. I imagine that that will only change for the better as Parzival Academy grows and develops.