Reimagining High School, Da Vinci RISE Gives Students a Rewarding Future

At first, Donnaysia thought it strange the teachers at Da Vinci RISE High, a charter school in Los Angeles designed around the need of at-promise youth, would greet her with a cheerful smile and a “good morning.” 

Before coming to Da Vinci RISE, Donnaysia was doing so poorly in school that it didn’t look like she would graduate. Most of her mornings didn’t feel “good” and her future seemed bleak. 

“I didn’t care about academics or my dreams and goals,” Donnaysia says, now 17. 

Worried Donnaysia wasn’t going to graduate, her mother enrolled her at Da Vinci RISE. The school offers a flexible hybrid learning schedule and is geared toward helping students who need trauma-informed support, safe spaces, and extra resources to learn effectively. 

Created in 2016 with and for students like Donnaysia, Da Vinci RISE was designed around the needs of youth in foster care, experiencing housing instability, and/or are impacted by the juvenile justice system under the belief that if they built a school for kids who need the most support, they would create a magical place that is empowering for all youth. Some of the students come from homes with generations of family gang involvement, and it’s typical for students in foster care to have attended six high schools before landing at the supportive and welcoming environment at Da Vinci RISE. 

“We actively recruit kids who have been expelled or suspended from their traditional schools,” says Erin Whalen, executive director and co-founder of Da Vinci RISE. “We’re the last stop. We refuse to give up on kids and are committed to being as supportive and consistent as their family would be.”

The RISE model is built on the foundation of partnerships with community nonprofit organizations to provide full wraparound services to youth and families. The learning-design leverages personalized and relevant project-based learning and hybrid learning technologies to ensure students can access their learning whenever and wherever they need it. Rather than arm the school in armed guards or restrictive policies, RISE provides their students with an equitable healing environment by offering mental health, behavioral support, and crisis management. Students get access to free transportation, internships, mentorship, scholarships, and groceries. 

The need to help these students succeed is great. In Los Angeles, there are 63,000 homeless students, 28,000 kids are in foster care, and 20,000 students are incarcerated. These youth disproportionately contend with a severe lack of educational, social-emotional, and material resources, Whalen says. 

Over time at Da Vinci RISE, those smiles and “good mornings” grew on Donnaysia. They are now what she loves most about the school. The teachers care about her: They want her to have a good morning, to graduate, to have a successful career, and to have a whole new life.   

“When I came here I bloomed. Everyone really cared about me and my future. And that means a lot,” she says, tearing up.