Project
Wonder
Project Wonder is a tangible, tested vision of what's possible when young people can not only prepare for the future but participate in creating it, in their own unique communities and ways.
Amy Jacobs didn’t begin her career in education. With a successful background in retail management and as an entrepreneur, she brought a strategic, creative lens to everything she did.
But when she moved to Costa Rica and began teaching at the IB school her daughters attended, she encountered a question that would reshape her path entirely: What if education could be more than preparation—what if it could be participation?
While teaching in the International Baccalaureate program, Amy saw a powerful opportunity hidden in plain sight: the potential for students to engage in real-world, community-embedded projects that were both entrepreneurial and deeply human. Instead of following a standardized path, she invited her students to co-create meaningful experiences that connected academic rigor with creative agency, personal growth and impact in their own communities.
As her students went on to use these projects to reach goals in education, entrepreneurship, and personal growth, Amy also witnessed something deeper: the lasting impact their work had within the community—and the enduring bonds it created between the students, their mentors, and each other.
The strength of the work wasn’t just in what was built, but in the relationships that continued to grow long after the projects ended.
Amy’s vision for learning didn’t stop with the classroom—or even with the students themselves. In collaboration with The Wonderment, she worked to embed this process into the platform’s project model and functionality, transforming what had once been a local classroom practice into a toolset for generational impact.
This then opened a world of opportunities for students to participate in the process from a variety of different places and perspectives—and opened up the experience of global relationships and connections as they began to do "Field Trips" to visit other groups of Project Wonder creators and communities.
The story of Amy’s work is being told not just by her—but by the young people who lived it. Many of her original students now play an active role in sharing the Project Wonder experience as it reaches new groups through The Wonderment.
As multifaceted creators themselves, they are documenting and narrating their own journeys—offering peer-based perspectives, experiences and support both in person and through the platform that make the learning process feel alive, accessible, and real.
Together, Project Wonder goes far beyond curriculum or class. It’s learning in the form of a layered, living experience: one where each young person can recognize their own place in it, guided by the voices of those just a few steps ahead.
But even more than that, it offers the gift of confidence and belonging that comes from seeing that what you uniquely carry is not only valuable, but something the world around you genuinely needs.
Young people have established projects in five countries so far, involving a spectrum ranging from community dance to hydroponic gardens to mangrove restoration.