The crowd’s atmosphere was electric the day that Head of School Bernie Noe and Chief Financial Officer Birage Tandon stood in Blockchain Square—renamed from Red Square—and announced that Lakeside would create its own NFTs and join the Metaverse. The school has already purchased ‘land’ in the Metaverse (for an undisclosed sum), they said, and plans are already underway to build Lakeside’s virtual campus. Students will surely appreciate the chance to attend online school from the comfort of their homes. In his closing remarks, Mr. Noe stated, “Utilizing brand-new multimodal quantum-proof public blockchains will catapult Lakeside into a future of decentralization.”

In the more immediate future, Ms. Tandon says that Lakeside will be investing in NFTs (as well as creating their own) in an effort to diversify their portfolio. “Crypto and NFTs have the potential to skyrocket the value of our endowment,” she says, adding, “My job is getting boring with such stable assets. It’s time to turn up the dial on risk and add excitement.” As evidenced by the Midwinter Arts Show, Lakeside has some incredible artists among students and faculty, who will produce these NFTs. This program will also lay the groundwork for students to trade their own NFTs in the future: imagine the convenience of buying an NFT brownie to support a club instead of being encumbered by a real one.

The centerpiece of the Metaverse project is the new, virtual Lakeside campus. Fulfilling old dreams of expansion, the administration has already snatched up several acres of meta-land, which will serve as a virtual gathering place for students to regain the interpersonal connection lost on Zoom or Teams while the digital campus is being programmed. In just a few years, though, Lakeside’s Metaverse campus will open as a supplement to the physical campus, giving the school untold opportunities and flexibility in designing a hybrid blockchain decentralized curriculum.

We already have LeBron James and Larry David promoting the benefits of the blockchain in national commercials, so it’s only fitting that, in the final days of his tenure as head of school, Mr. Noe announces a bold plan to launch Lakeside further into the 21st century. HODL, everyone!