2.5 Years at TKS — Program Review (Student + Employee Perspective)

29 min readApr 25, 2021

I have been part of The Knowledge Society (TKS) since September 2018. Sept 2018 — June 2020 as a Student, and Sept 2019 — April 2021 as an employee.

This program has been truly revolutionary in building my network, skills and career ambitions. A few sentences won’t do TKS justice, so I’ll go right into the details of my time as a student and as an early employee (Program Success Manager) at TKS.

Why did I join TKS?

I joined TKS in 10th grade as a top STEM student with a desire to do more than what the classroom confines me to. I value creation, freedom and imagination; conventional education focuses too much on following instructions.

TKS was my avenue to explore how technology and science can shape our future.

After a year in the program, my life changed drastically. I worked on exciting projects in foreign parts of the world, developing expertise in niche fields like carbon nanotubes for pelvic inflammatory disease and being surrounded by ambitious students doing equally exciting things.

When I had the option to essentially skip grade 11 (I was ahead on courses) to work at TKS part-time, I jumped on the opportunity. I believe everyone has more potential than they’re operating at now; I wanted to help unlock that.

Ok, but what is TKS?

Technically, TKS’s one-liner is “a 10-month program for high school students teaching the skills, mindsets and networks needed to leverage emerging technologies and sciences to build the future.”

There are many, many, many parts to this program, but if I were to synthesize it down, I would say this: TKS is the ultimate precursor.

The program introduces students to concepts, ideas and philosophies that will inspire the rest of their lives — their best friends, startups, education, spouses, and SO FORTH. I will detail the precursor effect in the rest of this post.

All the logistical details are on TKS’s website (b.t.w. they neglect to tell you that in-person TKS programs have free cookies every weekend… insider secret 🍪).

👉 Now, onto the good stuff!