Given its success as a high achieving, award-winning magnet school for academically oriented students in grades 9-12, Columbus Alternative High School has more than successfully fulfilled its ambitious mission in the 30 years since it was named. According to the school's mission statement, Columbus Alternative aims "to create a truly alternative and rigorous educational experience." There are no entrance requirements for Columbus Alternative. Two hundred freshmen are selected each year through a citywide lottery system, making this college preparatory school a possibility for all ninth-grade students in the city's school system. Once enrolled, all students focus intensely on the school's primary components: academic rigor; integrated studies; and the Wednesday Program, in which sophomores, juniors, and seniors participate in career-oriented internships in the community or at school. This article describes how Columbus Alternative train their students during ninth grade. It also explains how Columbus Alternative has created a culture of learning wherein students motivate the teachers and the teachers motivate the students.