The GSE emerged from, and is fully embedded within, a charter school network of innovative, project-based schools. Like the thirteen High Tech High K-12 schools that serve as a context for adult learning, the GSE is committed to providing learning experiences that are personalized, authentic, and transformative. GSE students create personal learning plans, pursue a project-based curriculum, explore their own questions through rigorous inquiry, and develop digital portfolios to demonstrate their learning. They learn by doing and have ample opportunities to explore the intersection of theory and practice and reflect on their learning. Like medical students in a teaching hospital, GSE students take courses and conduct research while engaging daily in the real world of effective, innovative schools.