About
Nestled in the mountains of Estes Park, Colorado, Eagle Rock is a full-scholarship, year-round, residential high school that enrolls young people ages 15-17 in an innovative learning experience with national recognition.
Additionally, we're an educational non-profit organization that connects with schools across the country to facilitate Changemaking through our Professional Development Center.
Our Mission
Our mission is to implement effective and engaging practices that foster each student’s unique potential and help young people use their minds well at Eagle Rock School, and to support schools nationally to do the same.
Eagle Rock prepares the next generation of leaders to challenge unjust systems. We support students and educators to become catalysts of change in their lives and communities.
Our Vision
We envision a future where this country’s high school youth are fully engaged in their education.
Our Core Values: 8 + 5 = 10
Dual Curriculum
Learning Happens EverywhereAt Eagle Rock, we are committed to a dual curriculum that centers both academic learning and personal growth. Students engage in a process of learning about themselves, each other and the world around them.
Belonging
At the heart of the Eagle Rock experience is a sense of community and belonging. We know that when we truly feel accepted and included, we are capable of greatness - individually and collectively.
Belonging looks like honoring and celebrating our diverse identities, perspectives, skills and histories, acknowledging and repairing harm caused by discrimination, and challenging systems that don’t serve us all. It is also a love and respect for the land we gather on, the natural world around us, and the ancestors that came before us. We’re working hard every day to inspire individual and organizational change. We lead through our humanity, and we strive to create a beloved community where we all feel safe, seen, heard and valued.
Eagle Rock is an anti-racist, social justice organization. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is woven throughout everything we do. It is a lens through which we understand the world and our community. It informs all the decisions we make - from curricular design to hiring and everything in between.
Accreditation
Eagle Rock is accredited by the Association of Colorado Independent Schools (ACIS) under the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), and our Outdoor Education Program is accredited by the Association of Experiential Education (AEE). Our Teacher Licensure Program facilitated by our Professional Development Center is in partnership with the Colorado Department of Education.
History
In 1989, American Honda Motor Company set out to further its long-term commitment of contributing to society in an area unrelated to its daily business. Through careful research, the vision of Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center was born: a school that would intervene in the lives of young people by promoting community, integrity and democracy. Eagle Rock would also offer professional development opportunities to help strengthen other schools locally and nationally.
American Honda Education Corporation was founded as a nonprofit in 1991, and shortly thereafter our Head of School was hired. The first group of students arrived in September of 1993 to begin their studies and to help design the school's culture and programming. In April of 1995 we celebrated our first graduates.
Eagle Rock commemorated 25 years of learning in 2018, and 30 years in operation in 2023.
View Honda’s Corporate Social Responsibility
“So, just how long do you intend to support this school and professional development center in our county?” a Colorado commissioner asked in 1992.
“Forever,” replied Mak Itabashi and Tom Dean. They were speaking for American Honda Motor Company, which would go on to create Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center in Estes Park, Colorado.
Phi Delta Kappan --- Forever - A Unique Approach to Philanthropy