Fruitful Futures

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Most college help starts with the application. This starts with the student.

A student in grades 6 through 12 gets a counselor they talk to every week, whose job is to help them work out what they actually care about and then go and do something about it. It is an AI, and it says so.

Not open to families yet. We are building it with a small number of people we know.

Every week

Try something, come back, change the plan.

Half an hour, on a schedule. The counselor suggests something real to try: an opportunity nearby, a class, a project, a person to talk to. The student goes and tries it, then says how it went. The next meeting starts from that instead of from a blank page.

Over the years

Years of evidence, and it belongs to the student.

What they tried, what stuck, what they were like at thirteen and what changed. By the time applications matter there is a real record to draw on, and the student decides which parts of it are the story they want to tell.

Between sessions

Optional text messages, off until a parent says so.

A parent can switch texting on so their student can reach their counselor between sessions. The counselor does not start a conversation between 10pm and 6am, and it changes nothing else if a family never turns it on.

What she sounds like

A counselor who follows through.

These are the messages the program sends. Nothing has gone out yet — the text program has not started — and these are the live examples filed with the carrier.

This is your counselor. Your session is tomorrow at 5:00 PM. Reply these texts, HELP for help.

You mentioned the deadline was Friday. Did you get the draft where you wanted it?

I looked into that summer program you asked about. I put what I found in the app under Opportunities.

For parents

Enough to help, not enough to read over a shoulder.

What a parent gets

  • Progress, attendance, and anything that needs them to act.
  • It is sent a day later, after the student has read it and can change it.

What a parent does not get

  • A transcript of a session, or of the texts.
  • What their child said, or the reasoning behind the advice.

Where this is

Not open to families yet.

We are building it with a small number of people we know. There is no sign up here, and no message has been sent on the text program. The consent document a family completes, and the terms that govern it, are published below before the first message rather than after.