Wayfinder was born out of an effort to help students navigate life with belonging, meaning, and purpose. Nearly ten years ago, we embarked on a journey to reinvigorate schools using inspiration from traditional Polynesian wayfinding. This ancient practice of charting a course to unseeable destinations using the stars, ocean swells, and wind patterns became a powerful metaphor for guiding young people through life’s uncertainties. From the start, our goal has been to help students develop the skills and character needed to build lasting relationships, develop purpose, and become responsible, contributing members of their communities and society.
On a mission to realize our vision, we began developing the program at Stanford d.school K12 Lab, leaning on cutting-edge research from leading experts in adolescent development, neuroscience, and purpose. Partnering with one of the world’s top human development scholars and the head of the Stanford Center on Adolescence Dr. Bill Damon, we set out to help students find their way. Our program had two core goals: first, to help students develop resilience, regulate their emotions, and manage their well-being; second, to encourage them to contribute to their communities, explore career paths, and make daily decisions guided by their values and aligned to their greater purpose.
Our curriculum development began with a focus on high school, aiming to make an impact on students during some of their most challenging and influential years. Together, our experienced team of former secondary educators, administrators, and counselors aimed to create a program flexible enough to fit into busy school schedules and relevant enough to resonate with teens. We used human-centered design to learn from the real issues affecting students and teachers and develop a responsive program through rigorous testing and iteration. With our fingers on the pulse of secondary education, we worked to craft a curriculum to help students make meaning of their classroom learning, connect it to their passions, and graduate with a clear vision for their future—equipped with the skills, mindsets, and knowledge needed to achieve success on their own terms.
With program development in progress, we wanted to learn more about the metaphor that inspired us. We traveled to Hawaiʻi to meet Polynesian Voyaging Society members to learn to integrate tenets of wayfinding into the curriculum and help students fine-tune their inner compass and live purposefully. Guided by Education Incubator leaders Dr. Miki Tomita Okamura and Hye Jung Kim Tano, we explored how wayfinding connects with purpose and ties technical skills with life values. This was a critical step in ensuring that our name and impact would honor wayfinding’s cultural roots rather than simply extracting its metaphor.
