As I studied the faces of my classmates, frantically searching for another face interested in the stimulating discussion on escape velocity, I suddenly realized that I was temporarily engaged in a futile exercise. My classmates were not interested, and as a result, my teacher began to waver in his explanation of long-distance travel concepts. I realized, with something akin to horror, that the general apathy was beginning to affect me, as I had to stifle a big yawn. Now, perhaps such a thing would be common in many schools across the country. But my school prides itself on being the exception to the norm and, more often than not, achieves its goal of attentive, engaged, and motivated students. Our project-based program provides the ideal opportunity for any student who wants to do more than the endless repeating a grade often inherent in typical high school. At the end of each term, we have something concrete, a portfolio or model, to show exactly how we designed our own restaurant or organized a manned mission to Mars. “Club Mars” was the project for the second quarter of the junior year. Hence the revision of the exhaust velocity equations. During the first quarter, we sent unmanned space probes to analyze the Martian environment and transmit the data to Earth. Now was the time to transport ten thousand people to the red planet, establish a colony, and maintain peace and harmony among the inhabitants. I liked the principle. To “set the stage” for the project, in my social studies class I was asked to define the value system of my group's utopia by ranking the importance of ten qualities that make a successful city. The list included health care, pollution... middle of paper... but never made it. People would object to the idea of ​​a society of “smart people,” even though that’s not even my intention. Edutopia would work well in theory, but just like with communism, not in practice. I'm not intimidated by the fact that my dream company is unattainable. Instead, I'm just happy to realize what's important in my life: education. Before discovering that Edutopia was my idea of ​​heaven, I never realized that education was so important to me. After the project was completed, I re-examined my career and life goals. I always loved English and writing and thought I would end up in publishing. Then I thought about education, and now I plan to become an English teacher. The "Club Mars" project changed my educational aspirations and allowed me to better understand my own value system. It really made a difference in my life.