Josh Dahn

Co-founder, Ad Astra / Astra Nova school

Josh Dahn co-founded Ad Astra, the experimental grade-less school Elon Musk started on the SpaceX campus in 2014, and went on to lead its successor, the online Astra Nova school, and co-found the education startup Synthesis. His project- and ethics-based, first-principles approach to teaching is the practical expression of Musk's interest in reinventing STEM education for a new generation. Ad Astra began as a tiny school for the children of SpaceX employees that replaced grade levels and rote testing with collaborative problem-solving, ethics debates and hands-on engineering. Through Astra Nova and the education startup Synthesis, Dahn has worked to scale that model to thousands of students worldwide — the on-the-ground vehicle for Musk's stated belief that how children are taught to think matters as much as what they are taught.