The Outdoor Promise
When we say Mother Nature is our favorite teacher at AGC, we mean it.
AGC's Outdoor Promise is our continued commitment to keep nature and play at the center of every student's mental and physical health, with 25% of every school day spent outside—year-round, no matter the weather.
Time in nature provides invaluable benefits for our brains, bodies, and relationships. Through this promise, our whole community can continue planting seeds of possibility and growing into happier, healthier global citizens.
Living, Giving & Growing
Our Outdoor Promise is rooted in AGC's reimagined approach to education, designed as an ecosystem that mirrors our interconnected world.
Alongside our educators and curriculum, the Academy for Global Citizenship’s sustainable six-acre campus serves as a third teacher. Every day, it invites nearly 600 students and thousands of neighbors into a more regenerative way of living.
Our Chicago campus runs net positive in both energy and water, producing 107% of the energy it uses, with outdoor spaces that turn the Outdoor Promise into a daily practice.
Learning Gardens
Every week, students spend time in our collection of raised garden beds just steps outside of the school building. From sunflowers to pollinators and everything in between, our global citizens learn how seeds become something more, meet new friends like butterflies and grasshoppers, and experience the invaluable joy of getting their hands in the soil.
Community Garden
Tended alongside our partners at Cultivate Collective, these plots provide neighbors and AGC families with dedicated space to grow food, herbs, and flowers of their own. Students explore the community plots as part of their lessons, and our local gardeners gather on the weekends to learn from each other while they nurture their new growth.
Production Farm
Our two-acre production farm grows about 10,000 pounds of fresh, culturally relevant produce each year, and also doubles as a regular destination for students to witness its seasonal progress. Harvests feed our scratch-made school meals and stock our 24/7 community fridge, providing nourishment and dignity for everyone in our neighborhood.
Promise with Purpose
In 2026, the Academy for Global Citizenship became the first project in Illinois and the first whole school building in the world to earn Living Building Challenge certification, serving as a daily reminder that our environment impacts everything.
AGC’s Outdoor Promise carries that same belief into every school day.
As we prepare for our 20th year, AGC remains rooted in purpose and ready for a new season of sustainable living.
Join us in nurturing better outcomes for our planet and our people, starting right here on Chicago's Southwest Side.
$5 — puts seeds in students’ hands to plant, water, and harvest their own vegetables, from planting to snacking.
$20 — equips a young gardener with gloves and hand tools to dig, weed, and tend the soil all season long.
$50 — keeps one student warm and dry in an all-weather Oaki suit so that rain, snow, and mud never keep them indoors.
$100 — moves fresh produce from our two-acre farm into our 24/7 community fridge to nourish neighbors any hour of the day.
$250 — refreshes a raised garden bed with rich soil and compost so it’s ready for a full year of student growing and discovery.
Any amount helps power our Outdoor Promise.
