At Paragon Prep, the world is part of the curriculum.
As the school approaches its 30th year, Head of School Lindsay Hay, M. Ed., is leading an institution that looks nothing like the rigid academic models most parents grew up navigating. Paragon was founded in 1997 by five educators dissatisfied with Austin's private school landscape, where religious affiliation and academic rigor rarely coexisted. They built something different: a non-sectarian, academically challenging environment for students who simply want to learn — not necessarily the gifted-and-talented crowd, but kids willing to work hard.
Hay joined the school 16 years ago, training under two of the original founders before taking the helm herself and later earning a master's degree in educational leadership.
"We want kids who want to go to school for all the right reasons," Hay said. "Not have to worry about bullies, not have to worry about society's pressures of being on their phones all the time — just grow up feeling confident and become the leaders of society."
That mission is anchored in three succinct phrases: work hard, play hard, be kind. Working hard means academically challenging students in engaging classrooms; playing hard shows up in two physical education periods daily, monthly field trips, and class trips beginning in fourth grade; and being kind, a value added after the pandemic eroded students' social skills, runs through a dedicated social-emotional learning curriculum addressing anxiety and resilience. Class sizes stay intentionally small, between 10 and 17 students per teacher, letting faculty know every child by name and story.
This fall, Paragon expects to welcome 264 students, up from 225 last year. Growth, Hay attributes partly to consolidation within Austin ISD and the state's new Texas Education Freedom Accounts program. But the school's draw runs deeper than circumstance.
In June, Hay led 18 students and family members on an international trip to Japan. The latest in a string of global travel initiatives that began with a May 2024 trip to Costa Rica with 42 seventh- and eighth-graders and continued in Spain in 2025. Next summer, Paragon heads to southern France and Italy, with another trip to Costa Rica on the horizon.
For Hay, these trips are not extracurriculars. They are curriculum.
"When you take a child into a different city overnight, they're learning lessons they cannot learn when someone is there doing it for them," she said. "How do you get unlost? How do you advocate for yourself when you don't have your water bottle? Those are the skills we're building."
One moment from Japan crystallized the mission. A group of middle schoolers hiked to the Fushimi Inari Shrine — a 40-minute climb up ancient stone stairs overlooking Kyoto — among them a girl who had undergone brain tumor surgery months earlier. She made it to the top.
"That was an amazing moment in her young life," Hay said. "She was so proud of her own effort. And they weren't afraid to show it."
Back in Austin, students explore futures closer to home, too. Seventh- and eighth-graders study the ethics of artificial intelligence and build real websites for causes such as the Texas water crisis. Alumni return to teach and mentor; two current staff members are Paragon graduates.
Hay was recently named Head of School of the Year for 2026 by Education Insider magazine, a national recognition she accepted with characteristic humility.
"My career fills my cup," she said. "I just hope every kid finds that, too."
For enrollment information, visitparagonprep.com.