Jenny Sabados
I am an education builder committed to helping families, students, and educators step into the future of learning with clarity, courage, and purpose.
My work has never been about rejecting schools or dismantling existing systems. Instead, I have spent my career working within public schools, Montessori programs, boarding schools, and innovation labs to expand what is possible from the inside. I am fluent in both tradition and innovation, which allows me to bridge communities that often feel divided between what has worked in the past and what is urgently needed next.
At the center of my work is translation. I translate future-facing learning models for parents who are hopeful but uncertain. I translate autonomy for students who have been trained to comply. I translate innovation for educators who entered the profession with vision and now feel constrained by systems that no longer fit. Families trust me because I speak from lived experience—as an educator, program director, fundraiser, and parent of three very different learners.
I am deeply passionate about individualized learning at scale. I believe it is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Models that compress academic instruction, give students time back, and shift learning from passive consumption to active application are where I see the greatest potential. However, I also believe that efficiency alone is not enough. Time only becomes transformative when it is paired with purpose, connection, and collaboration.
In my work leading the Gates Lab, I see this daily. Once students master technical and physical skills, the hardest thing they learn is not content—it is how to work together. Collaboration, communication, empathy, and shared ownership are the real bottlenecks to innovation. Designing learning environments that intentionally develop these human skills is central to my practice.
Over the past several years, I have led strategic program expansion, shifted institutional culture, and helped raise over $10 million by aligning families and donors around a clear, future-facing vision of education.
I regularly hear the same questions from parents: Why is my child thriving here but disengaged elsewhere? Why can’t more learning look like this? These questions signal that current models have reached their limits and that the next evolution is needed.
In the next five years, my goal is to help build or launch a future-facing learning ecosystem—one that centers individualized learning, integrates real-world work, empowers educators, and earns deep trust from families. Whether through founding a new school, leading an expansion campus, or designing hybrid models within existing institutions, I am focused on owning the work of vision, culture, and community adoption.
As a parent, my aim is simple: to raise children who know themselves, trust their curiosity, and feel empowered to shape their own lives. I want them to see education not as something that happens to them, but as something they actively build.
I see the future of education not as a disruption, but as a bridge—connecting what has worked, what is possible now, and what learners truly need next. My work is dedicated to building that bridge.
Educational Leadership & Innovation
Jenny has spent her career designing and leading innovation-focused educational programs that emphasize student agency, problem-solving, and creative confidence. She works at the intersection of education, design, and institutional change, helping schools rethink how learning is structured, assessed, and experienced.
Her approach prioritizes:
- Personalized learning pathways
- Real-world, project-based work
- Collaboration with experts and communities
- Building confidence through making, iteration, and reflection
Jenny is particularly interested in how schools can evolve to better prepare students for a rapidly changing world — one that values adaptability, creativity, and purpose as much as content knowledge.
Systems Change in Education
Beyond individual classrooms and programs, Jenny is deeply engaged in institutional change. She works to shift school culture and systems so innovation is not an add-on, but a core way of operating. She believes lasting transformation happens when structures, values, and daily practice align around the needs of learners.
Her work asks fundamental questions:
- What would school look like if it were designed around students, not schedules?
- How do we honor different ways of thinking, learning, and creating?
- How can education be both rigorous and deeply engaging?
Philosophy
At the heart of Jenny’s work is a simple belief:
Every learner deserves an education that sees them, challenges them, and helps them discover what they’re capable of.
She believes learning is most powerful when it is connected to meaningful work, authentic problems, and a sense of possibility — and when students are trusted as capable contributors to their own education.
Technology, Innovation and Design in Education (TIDE)
Inside the Gates Lab: Student Innovators Pitch Their Next Big Ideas
Cardigan’s Gates Lab is buzzing with entrepreneurial energy as eighth- and ninth-grade students...
Cardigan’s Young Innovators Shine at Annual Gates Competition
Students from grades six through nine for a showcase of creativity, problem-solving, and...
Cardigan Innovation Team Wins Top Honors at UNH Design Challenge
A team of Cardigan Mountain School students earned first place at the University of New...
Cardigan Reaches Major Funding Milestone for Gates Program Endowment
Cardigan Mountain School has reached an important milestone in its long-term plan to fully endow...
Achievement Across the Board: Cardigan Excels in Competitions This Winter
Cardigan Mountain School students have been racking up impressive accomplishments this winter,...
Inside the Gates Lab: Student Innovators Pitch Their Next Big Ideas
Cardigan’s Gates Lab is buzzing with entrepreneurial energy as eighth- and ninth-grade students...
Contact Jenny