Global Virtual Program 🌎
The Knowledge Society is a 10-month innovation program for students around the world ages 13-17 who want to solve the world’s biggest problems. The program is modeled after curriculums from Harvard, Stanford, and MIT, and designed to replicate the learning environments of Google and Facebook. Students from around the world collaborate on real-world problems and receive mentorship for industry experts.
Program Details
Weekly Sessions
Over 10 months you will develop the knowledge, skills, and mindsets to make an impact in the world over the course of 100 hours of live instruction. TKS Virtual sessions are interactive and take place on once a week on Zoom. You will learn alongside a cohort of 30-40 ambitious students.
Here are a few examples of what you'll talk about:
Harvard Business Case
Solving real-world problems through a Harvard business school (MBA) case study
Skill
Data Analysis
Mindset
Attention To Detail
Artificial Intelligence
Understand the implications of AI in various industries
Skill
Personal Websites
Mindset
Authenticity
The Food Crisis
Analyze the causes of hunger and design solutions to end world hunger.
Skill
Problem Solving
Mindset
Global Thinking
Harvard Business Case
Solving real-world problems through a Harvard business school (MBA) case study
Skill
Data Analysis
Mindset
Attention To Detail
Artificial Intelligence
Understand the implications of AI in various industries
Skill
Personal Websites
Mindset
Authenticity
The Food Crisis
Analyzing the causes of hunger and designing solutions to end world hunger.
Skill
Problem Solving
Mindset
Global Thinking
“We do so many different things in sessions, ranging from global sessions, hackathons, challenges with real companies, science and technology and life discussions.”
Naila
Learn About Emerging Technologies
TKS students learn about how emerging technologies are disrupting our world. Students learn about 40+ emerging technologies on our online platform. In our sessions, we go deeper into these technologies, both the ethical and legal implications, and students build projects that solve problems with these technologies.
See our students speak on projects they are working on
“Before TKS, I never would have thought It’d be possible for a teenager to work on technologies that could change the world. Now, I’m working with companies like Hanson Robotics and San Jose State University to develop cheaper prosthetics and improve rehabilitation tech at the intersection of AI and robotics.”
Alishba Imran
Develop Skills and Mindsets to Thrive in Life
Success is about taking great ideas and putting them into action. TKS helps our students develop the mindsets and skills they'll need to be the leaders and innovators of tomorrow.
These skills and mindsets help students excel in personal, professional and academic trajectories.
See how our students apply their skills in projects
“TKS has definitely been life-changing. I grew my ability to figure things out. I got exposure to mindsets that have completely changed my lifestyle and the way that I think about my potential. I’ve been reading 1-2 books a week and solidifying a really helpful 5am schedule. I have a better idea of what I want to do in the world and super grateful for that. Most importantly, TKS toppled my assumptions about the world. It showed me that you don’t need a pHd to have an impact. You can do more with less.”
Mukundh Murthy
TKS Alumni
Be Part Of A Global Community
Students join a global community of like-minded young people where they can meet their best friends and future co-founders among 1200 students and alumni from 20 countries.
Meet TKS Virtual Students
Okezue Bell
“I’m currently working on cultured food and alternative protein in companies, cellular automata using artificial intelligence networks and microbiology research. I like to know hard things but explain them simply.”
Valkyrie Holmes
“I’m crazy passionate about longevity and gene editing! I’ve been on the hunt for materials to build a bio printer and have written countless articles on psychology, the mind, and how our bodies can perform optimally.”
Neha Shukla
“My mission is to use science and technology as catalysts for social change. Being a part of The Knowledge Society has empowered me to achieve my goals, learn about new exponential technologies, and reach wider audiences across the world to impact through my innovations.“
Elena Azais Tatistscheff
“I am very passionate about looking after our mental health both now and in the future. Currently I am looking at ways that Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality can be used to help people on a daily basis or those that have a diagnosed mental health condition.”
Ana Sofia Sanchez Hernandez
“I’m a 16-year-old who’s extremely passionate about gene editing, human longevity, synthetic biology, biohacking, biological computing, and innovation itself. I’m learning a lot about exponential technologies to soon start a company that impacts the world positively.”
Work with Global Organizations
Each year, in Spring and Fall, students get to solve real challenges using advanced problem-solving frameworks, and the McKinsey and Co consulting method.
United Nations
This year, our Innovate students are working with the United Nations where students are working in teams to research and develop solutions to empower women and girls in developing countries to thrive in the digital economy.
XPRIZE
TKS Activators (second-year students) helped XPRIZE figure out how to get 1000 teams to submit proposals to Elon Musk’s carbon capture prize. TKS innovators had to figure out not only how to improve the quantity of submissions, but also the quality of submissions.
Instacart
Instacart tasked TKS Toronto students with the following problem: how do we improve the shopping experience for Instacart customers? The Instacart Challenge winners will have the opportunity to work with Instacart this summer to implement their ideas.
LEGO
LEGO needs to consistently and effectively engage with teens – a key demographic for achieving their mission to inspire the builders of tomorrow. Traditionally outside of their target market, LEGO must think outside of the box in order to get teens to interact with their brand. TKS innovators were the perfect people to solve this challenge.
United Nations
This year, our Innovate students are working with the United Nations where students are working in teams to research and develop solutions to empower women and girls in developing countries to thrive in the digital economy.
XPRIZE
TKS Activators (second-year students) helped XPRIZE figure out how to get 1000 teams to submit proposals to Elon Musk’s carbon capture prize. TKS innovators had to figure out not only how to improve the quantity of submissions, but also the quality of submissions.
Instacart
Instacart tasked TKS Toronto students with the following problem: how do we improve the shopping experience for Instacart customers? The Instacart Challenge winners will have the opportunity to work with Instacart this summer to implement their ideas.
LEGO
LEGO needs to consistently and effectively engage with teens – a key demographic for achieving their mission to inspire the builders of tomorrow. Traditionally outside of their target market, LEGO must think outside of the box in order to get teens to interact with their brand. TKS innovators were the perfect people to solve this challenge.
More Incredible Companies Our Students Worked With
“Received a random email from a group of 15-16 year girls from The Knowledge Society who sent me a slick, professional slide deck w/concrete AI/tech-based suggestions on scaling women entrepreneurship. Better than most top-tier consultants. Seriously need to rethink our youth engagement strategy.”
Jamshed Kazi
UN Women, Representative-Indonesia
Get trained by Olympic-level Coaches
Program directors help you level up over the 10-month program. You can think of them like coaches: always there and helping you grow. They have unconventional industry experience across startups, technology, and investment. They are here to support our students in discovering their interests and build meaningful projects. TKS Directors give kids the motivation and know-how to make things happen.
Harrison Nolan, Director
A serial entrepreneur from the age of 17 Harrison has built, grown and acquired multiple service based and technology businesses over the course of his career. Harrison has scaled businesses to manage hundreds of employees, has personally consulted with fortune 100 brands, and has taken on opportunities ranging from advertising and marketing to neuroscience and chronic stress.
Steven ten Holder, Director
Steven conceived of and founded Acorn Biolabs, a bioengineering startup accelerated by Y-Combinator, incubated by Johnson&Johnson’s JLABS, and funded by over $3.3M of venture investment from top Canadian VC investors including Real Ventures, Telus Ventures, and Globalive Capital. Acorn non-invasively collects, transports, and cryopreserves young cells directly from consumers to help superpower future longevity therapeutics like 3D bioprinting. During his time at the University of Waterloo, Steven used CRISPR to design an anti-viral immunity system for Arabidopsis plants. Steven co-led the work to bring that design to life in the lab and his team received a gold medal in synthetic biology from MIT (iGEM). He’s also a published scientific author who implemented a mathematical model of antibiotic resistance into a bacterial system by engineering plasmid incompatibility.
“I’ve always been super passionate about helping young people achieve their full potential. I am working for an organization that is helping to build the tools and methods to accelerate the potential of young people.”
Kim Parnell
TKS Toronto Director
Gain Access to World-Class Mentors
TKS students get access to a network of senior leaders from the largest startups and the world’s biggest corporations to help with their technical projects.
Tobi Lutke
Founder and CEO of Shopify
“I met some TKS students at the Collision conference, and it was ridiculous how smart they were. I had a conversation on particle physics with a 13-year-old, it didn’t seem unusual at the time – those kids are amazing.”
Earn Access to Unique Opportunities
Develop your personal TKS portfolio earn access to internships, conferences, and guest speakers
Internships
Global companies and top startups choose to partner with TKS to hire for internships and full time roles.
Guest Speakers and Conferences
TKS students regularly get to attend exclusive speaker events and conferences.
Kevin Peesker
President of Microsoft Canada
“Students from TKS were operating with a different set of constructs than what we see from normal students. Engaging with students who had built a level of knowledge that I would equate to university graduates – to see that in action, it’s hard not to walk away and think, ‘Wow!’”
Cost And Tuition Support
Monthly Payment
**Discount if paid in full
$439 USD /Month (10 Months) + $1,000 Deposit
We are committed to making our innovative education affordable to curious and ambitious young people, regardless of their financial situation.
50% of our students receive tuition support
Up to 100% of tuition costs covered
Our application process is needs-blind. Requesting Tuition Support will not affect your admittance into TKS. We will work with you individually if you're accepted into the program to ensure the program is accessible and affordable for your family.
Still Have Questions? We Can Help
Tuition and Fees
We believe that personal finances should not stop ambitious students from joining TKS. Accepted students can apply for tuition support once they’re accepted into the program. In the past, our needs-based scholarships have covered 20% – 90% of students’ tuition. Learn more about Tuition Support
Virtual Program (Sept-June): $439 USD / month + deposit
We offer tuition support for those who need it, and discounted pricing for students who pay in a single payment.
Program
No, you do not require any prior knowledge about technologies or coding. Many of our students get exposed to these areas for the first time in TKS. Students work on tech or science projects outside of sessions. We have online tools and resources to help anyone learn — no matter the level.
TKS is a 10-month program (Sept-June). Students can re-apply for the program each year. Many students stay in the program for several years.
There are 3-hour sessions every week. Usually, these sessions are on the weekend. The students who grow the most in our program invest the most time outside of the sessions into the projects they create while in TKS. Typically, this is usually 6-10 hours each week. There’s no homework in TKS. But, we’ve built our own learning platform for students to dive into emerging technologies/sciences and build their own projects. Students participate in project-based learning at their own pace.
TKS isn’t just about STEM; our goal is to train the world’s next thought leaders, CEOs and innovators to impact billions. This isn’t a tech boot camp. We’re a human accelerator. We believe leveraging exponential technologies is the best way to scale impact. TKS trains students on developing both hard skills and soft skills. We provide students with guidelines, resources and mentors to build expertise in fields of emerging technologies and sciences. Our secret-sauce is the emphasis on soft-skills. We model our curriculum after top innovation institutions like MIT, Google and Stanford. Students learn about:
- Networking
- Presenting
- Building confidence
- Philosophy
- Having thoughtful discussions
- Consulting frameworks
- Design
- Negotiation
- Mindsets
- Mental models
- Branding
- Leveraging curiosity to explore various areas of STEM
- Building friendships
TKS has 40+ internal learning modules where students can learn about a variety of emerging sciences and technologies. Each student can “explore” these learning modules. They include a few hours of hand-picked learning articles and videos. After some exploration, students choose a “focus” area. We provide them with guidance on how to complete a “focus.” Within each focus, students develop depth of knowledge in the topic through our project-based learning approach. This includes creating articles and videos around technical research, building algorithms/computer projects yourself, or interviewing researchers in the field. By joining TKS, students have access to our learning frameworks, guidelines and approaches. Students typically complete two focuses in one year of the program. Some examples of topics we offer:
- Alternative Energy
- Material Science
- Artificial Intelligence
- Brain-computer Interfaces
- Viruses
- Cellular Agriculture
- Blockchain
- Space Exploration
- Cancer treatments
- Virtual Reality
- Metabolomics
- … The list goes on.
Students can study whatever interests them. If the topic they’re passionate about isn’t available, they’re still able to complete a “focus” in it.
TKS is an extracurricular program. Students attend school during the week and attend a TKS session on the weekend. However, we do have optional opportunities that may pop up during the week. Again, these are optional.
Sessions are run fully virtually, with students from around the world. TKS Virtual students use Slack, Zoom, and our own tks.life platform to coordinate hangouts and activities between sessions.
Opportunities outside sessions are limited to remote experiences. We host many incredible guest speakers and workshops online, but you won’t be able to attend in-person events or office tours.
After TKS
Our priority is to prepare students for the real world. During the program, students work on unique projects and create a personal portfolio that can be used when applying to university. Some TKS students have gone on to attend world-class universities, and many have gotten incredible scholarships. We do not have a university feeder program, but TKS focuses on building skills to prepare students for life. Examples of schools our students attend:
- Stanford University
- UC Berkeley
- Johns Hopkins University
- University of Pennsylvania
- UC San Diego
- University of Waterloo
- University of Toronto
- Queens University
- Minerva Schools at KGI
TKS has partnerships with companies that may provide internship opportunities to select students. During TKS, we work with students to secure internships with leading companies like Microsoft, Deloitte, and KPMG, while also training them on how to be successful in these positions. This enables students to add tremendous value to the organizations they work with, while also maximizing their learning experience. Internships must be earned by the students and are not guaranteed. However, throughout the program, students learn valuable skills like cold-emailing and having meetings. Many students get internships on their own with the skills they learned through TKS.
TKS doesn’t stop after the 10-month program. We want to support our alumni during their journey towards impacting billions. We have an online platform and global community for our past and current students. They have access to our TKS resources, learning modules and mentors. We are also building an investment fund for startups founded by TKS Alumni, while also creating relationships with top-tier organizations to help them recruit talent to solve hard problems.
Sessions
There are 4 types of sessions:
- Tech/science sessions
- Challenge sessions (students work with real companies on a “challenge”)
- Hackathons
- Philosophy and personal growth
Sessions are ~3 hours. We typically do them in-person, but are able to deliver the same quality online. We’ve designed these sessions to be interactive. These sessions involve:
- Group discussions
- Hands-on activites
- Research activites
- Presentations
For more information, please check out our program page.
TKS hosts several sessions at differnet timest throughout the week to accommodate Virtual students in different time zones. The specific time and day will be determined based on which cohort students get accepted into, and their own time zone. Each cohort is strategically designed based on interests and personality types to maximize relationships between students.
Application
There are 2 steps before being accepted into TKS. First, you’ll need to submit an application. Then, based on your application, we may request additional material like a video or article before moving to the interview step. The interview is over video chat. If we think you are the right fit for TKS after your interview, we will extend an invitation for you to join the program.
You can access it in the top-right corner; click the green button. Or, right here:
Any high school student that is ambitious, driven, curious, and wants to make an impact on the world. If you aren’t a great presenter or you don’t have technical programming skills, don’t worry. Those are skills we train. But you DO need to be open to learning new skills by pushing yourself and committed to putting in the effort! (Seriously, this isn’t going to be a random extracurricular you go to once a week).
We don’t have a “quota” for the number of students we select. We only select students who we think can grow exponentially in our program and have a high degree of drive and curiosity. As a result, acceptance rates vary based on the number of applications and the city. Historically, the average acceptance rate has varied from 10-20%.
Students can join TKS while they’re in high school and on a gap year.
We get this question a lot, but unfortunately, we don’t accept students who will be in University during the program.
Other
Our students are re-defining what teenagers can do. Some examples are:
- Building quantum-machine learning algorithms
- Building Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) robots
- Working on cutting-edge cancer therapies and conducting clinical trials
- Becoming thought-leaders and paid consultants in areas like alternative protein and healthcare.
- Working for companies like Microsoft, KPMG and XPrize
- Building and selling their own companies
- Speaking on stages like SXSW, CES and Web Summit.
To learn more, check out our student spotlight page.