To Uncollege
One of the most interesting people I met this year was Dale Stephens. Dale is just 19, but he's an incredibly intelligent and poised young man.
Dale is a college dropout.
He is also a world traveler, a speaker, a Thiel Foundation scholar, and a soon-to-be Penguin author. Dale has been outspoken this year about his dissatisfaction with college, writing and talking about his decision to drop-out, and his focus instead on self-education, self-actualization, and entrepreneurship. As such, Dale's become a strong voice for some of those his age questioning whether a college degree is really worth it.
I first met Dale back in February when he was still a student at Hendrix College in Arkansas. Back then he told me about his plans to start Uncollege, which just as the name suggests, would help support students who wanted to pursue alternate education paths, outside the traditional college degree.
Having grown up home schooled (and unschooled), this wasn't Dale's first venture into constructing a personal learning experience. But the bigger challenge no doubt: helping translate that to others.
Then in May, Dale received $100,000 from PayPal co-funder Peter Thiel as part of the Thiel Foundation's "20 Under 20" Fellowship -- $100,000 to drop out of school. The rest, as they say, is history.
Peter Thiel's Higher Education Bubble
It was a simple opening sentence to one of the most-read articles in the tech industry this year. Simple and true: "Fair warning: This article will piss off a lot of you."