Forge Prep: The New School Coming to Livingston

Forge Prep, opening this fall in Livingston, says it aims to teach students not just what to know, but how to think and work independently

By Andrew Kapp • Spring Issue 2025

This upcoming fall, a new independent school is opening nearby, in Livingston, with a different approach to education. Forge Prep, founded by Anand Sanwal, an entrepreneur in the AI and data industry, will launch with an inaugural class of 30 students. The school’s model centers on project-based learning and an emphasis on what Anand calls “Power Skills,” which are habits he argues are largely absent from traditional schooling.

Background

Anand’s interest in education, specifically in reform, derived from watching his children go through a similar school system he did as a student three decades ago. 

“Same desks in rows. Same teacher at the front lecturing. Same model: memorize information, regurgitate it on tests, forget it 30 seconds later. Nothing had changed," he said. 

As a founder of a company in a sector constantly innovating and growing, AI and data, Sanwal explained he saw that the education system was not adapting to the changing reality with artificial intelligence.

Before launching Forge Prep, Anand studied adolescent Montessori education and reviewed cognitive and developmental research on learning. He also looked at schools he felt were doing things differently and tried to identify what the evidence suggested worked.

Academic Skills and Power Skills

Forge Prep’s curriculum is built around two frameworks. Academic Skills cover traditional subject areas: numeracy, literacy, scientific understanding, history; adjacent Power Skills address behavioral and interpersonal competencies: problem-solving, collaboration, persuasion, and the ability to persist through difficulty.

“Think of Academic Skills as what you know,” Anand said. “Power Skills are about how you act and bring yourself into the world. This is how you think, how you persuade, how you collaborate, how you persist through difficulty.”

Furthermore, Sanwal contends that conventional school systems undervalue or penalize these traits; that students who question assumptions or try unconventional approaches are often seen as disruptive rather than engaged. Forge Prep, he said, is designed to highlight them.

Learning Through Challenges

At the heart of Forge’s model are “Challenges”—project-based learning units that ask students to apply academic theory to real-world problems. Rather than covering a topic, testing for short-term recall, and moving on, students are tasked to demonstrate mastery through application.

“The problem is not curriculum but how we teach it,” Anand said. “Traditional schools don't teach for understanding, critical thinking, or retention. They teach to get through material. Cover a topic, test on it, give a grade, move on. Nobody checks whether students retained anything or can actually use what they supposedly learned. Students have near zero understanding of why something they've learned is relevant or useful.”

He additionally pointed Millburn Matters to research from the University of Southern California and Michigan State University in support of the approach. In randomized controlled trials involving more than 6,000 students, those in project-based learning settings outperformed peers in traditional classrooms by 8 to 11 percentage points on standardized assessments across socioeconomic groups.

Admissions and Enrollment

For its opening in Fall 2026, Forge Prep is capping its inaugural class at 30 students. Sanwal said that while demand has exceeded that number, keeping enrollment small is essential to maintaining individualized mentorship, which he sees as central to the model.

Moreover, rather than relying on grades or test scores, Forge Prep seeks evidence of initiative and independent curiosity. “We look for students who have productive obsessions. This might be going door-to-door to launch a lawn mowing business to spending 50 hours perfecting a kick flip on their skateboard or teaching themselves Python to build a Discord bot for their gaming community.”

When asked about steps to expand, Anand said that the current enrollment cap is to prevent “mission drift:” compromising models to grow faster, making it clear that he wants to keep the project-based coaching model from deteriorating. 

Looking Ahead

While Forge Prep’s immediate focus is on its first class in Livingston, Anand's longer-term goal is to expand to hundreds of schools nationwide. He is also in conversations with existing schools whose leadership is interested in incorporating elements of the model.

“In some communities, it will be a full-blown alternative for families seeking a school built for 2040, not 1940,” he said. “Education is nation-building infrastructure, and we're building a model that can work both as standalone schools and as partnerships with existing institutions.”

As debates over education reform persist nationally, Forge Prep represents one local attempt to rethink what school can look like. 

More information about Forge Prep is available at forgeprep.org.

The author, Andrew Kapp, is also available for more questions and concerns regarding his interview andrewjk303@gmail.com.