Beyond Rainbow
Following RCS Students After They Graduate
About Omega
The Rainbow Seven Domains™
The Powerful Impact of a Rainbow Education
Building a Strong Foundation
“Rainbow has never given me an identity to conform to, but rather a platform to create my own upon.” – Rainbow Alumnus
These words reflect a critical core value of the Omega Middle School experience, “Know Thyself.”
This phrase celebrates the expectation that Rainbow graduates matriculate to their higher education institution of choice poised and prepared. Every student has built the skills of discernment and advocacy to navigate the new landscape of High School and beyond. Acutely aware of the increasing complexities of the modern world, Rainbow has designed a curriculum that not only provides exceptional intellectual discipline but also ensures that students are prepared with the dispositions necessary for holistic thriving.
Beyond Rainbow
Every Spring, we welcome our alumni who are graduating from high school back to campus to honor this next big transition in their lives. Each student is given a singing bowl and the following passage as a reminder of all we aim to instill in them beyond our doors.
“When you hear the singing bowl chime, it is a reminder to come home – to return to your heart. May you remember the lessons of the heart you learned during your time at Rainbow. For we will always remember you. You are a marvelous wonder. As you venture into the world, remember who you are. If you ever forget, use the chime to bring your heart home.”
For many of our Alumni students, this is just one of their moments to return to campus and reconnect with their Rainbow journey. From serving as a summer camp staff member to attending our seasonal events, our alumni return to Rainbow and share themes of gratitude and revelation about how their experience here has impacted their journey into young adulthood. They remark on how prepared they felt for the academic rigor of High School, how empowered they felt to advocate for their needs with their teachers, and how grounded they felt when encountering the social opportunities and pressures of larger school settings.
Building a Strong Foundation
Rainbow Community School incorporates different principles to create a unique, holistic approach to education.
The most notable additions in our stated core principles are the emphasis on the natural world, creativity, and an explicit emphasis on the spiritual development of children. Rainbow has a minimal technology model to help facilitate imaginative, experiential learning throughout their primary school years.
Rainbow incorporates a strong inclusion of parents and family in the educational framework as a key part of the learning community.
Holistic Education
Graduates from Rainbow Community School then carry this deep appreciation for the natural world, their spiritual foundation, the balance of working with technology and without it, fostering tight-knit relationships in their wider community, and a capacity for Changemaker thinking into their high school years and beyond.
When they graduate from high school, the education and preparation they receive from Rainbow prepares them for the demands of high school and beyond.
Rainbow has been educating my three children since 2014. My eldest, by 5th grade, was a published poet, thanks to the support of Rainbow, and is now looking at BU for her higher ed. My younger daughter and son have been at Rainbow Community School for the past 4 & 7 years. The seven-domain holistic education model builds on so many varying and complex human development models, and has excelled in educating our youth in empathy, social justice, community, and academics with PIP, and tailored curriculum based on student needs, or world events, sets these children up for resilience in a world that is constantly changing. That is it, developing able Change-Makers, and peaceful warriors! We love you, Rainbow, so much gratitude in all the ways, for a hopeful future.
– Zachery A., Parent Review
Rainbow has been educating my three children since 2014. My eldest, by 5th grade was a published poet, thanks to the support of Rainbow, and is now looking at BU
for her higher ed. My younger daughter and son have been at Rainbow Community School for the past 4 & 7 years. The seven-domain holistic education model builds on so many varying and complex human development models, and has excelled in educating our youth in empathy, social justice, community, and academics with PIP, and tailored curriculum based on student needs, or world events, sets
these children up for resilience in a world that is constantly changing. That is it, developing able Change-Makers, and peaceful warriors! We love you, Rainbow, so much gratitude in all the ways, for a hopeful future.
– Zachery A., Parent Review
Following RCS students after they graduate
The High School options in Asheville are diverse, and Rainbow students have reported experiencing success regardless of the setting they choose. Transitioning to their local public high school, exploring specialized options like Nesbitt, or matriculating to a college preparatory environment like Carolina Day School or Asheville School, our students thrive.
Data collected from SILSA and Asheville High School is one example of how the transition is assessed. These schools analyzed the GPA data of 29 Rainbow (Omega) graduates, from freshmen through seniors, and compared them with the overall SILSA student population. The results show that Omega students’ well-rounded academic preparation enables them to excel in high school.
