Become an agent of change.
Foundations of Agency: A 6-Week Intensive Workshop for Anti-Mimetic Leadership
No more life hacks. Not another framework. Not another shortcut. This is a workshop to help you build the muscles of agency.
Six weeks. Fifteen ideas. Real risks that usher in real change.
What's At Stake
In an age of social contagion, developing the courage to act in anti-mimetic ways means developing real agency: the ability to act in the world, and not just be acted upon. The best leaders cultivate agency in those they lead or influence.
Today—especially with the advent of generative A.I.—our task is urgent: to be the generators rather than the generated, and to do real work that matters in the days and years to come. It's time to build that which is real.
Is this workshop for me?
Foundations of Agency is a 100% virtual workshop that utilizes a cohort-based model: you will work with other talented and emerging leaders across industries and disciplines, learning from one another as you move through the core curriculum.
Who It's For
- • Leaders and future leaders who are unsatisfied with the status quo
- • Anyone experiencing tension between their current work and life and the one they know is possible
- • Creators who sometimes feels paralyzed or stuck due to the overwhelming and complex demands on their time and energy
- • Executives, educators, parents, entrepreneurs, writers, artists and others who have a deep sense of responsibility to others
- • People seeking a talented network of peers who to help them achieve their most important goals
Who It's Not For
- • Those not willing to commit 10-20 hours per week to doing the work required in the workshop for the full 40-days (Note: it can all be completed on nights and weekends)
- • Those who do not crave interdisciplinary ways of learning and do not want to be exposed to classical literature, poetry, philosophy, or fundamental theological concepts in the pursuit of wisdom
- • Those uncomfortable at the idea of engaging in vulnerable conversations and investing in new relationships and ways of being in relationship
Three Habits of Agency
You will learn 15 key concepts and build three habits of agency:
Attention
See the forces at work in the world, and in your own life—and design a life, or your products and work, to help others see the forces affecting them, too.
Integrity
Act in ways that honor your values and preserve your integrity without falling victim to audience-capture and the convenience of lies.
Fortitude
Life is difficult. By completing the 40-day workshop, you will be well on your way to having developed the resolve to persevere in the change you would like to make.
Leave with a deeper sense of self—not just knowing what you want, but being the kind of person who can act on it.
Course Curriculum
A six-week immersive journey into the foundations of agency—and how to apply them directly to your life and work.
Section 1
Transformative Experience
A deep dive into the nature of change and the process of transformation.
Key Concepts:
- Transformative Experience
- The Nature of Agency
- The Differentiation of Self
Section 2
Sensing the Environment (Part I)
Learning how to see anew, and awakening all of the sensory faculties.
Key Concepts:
- The Sensus Communis
- Relational Triangles
- Mimesis & Anti-Mimesis
Section 3
Sensing the Environment (Part II)
Making judgments about what is real and what is fake, and choosing the truth.
Key Concepts:
- Thick & Thin Desires
- The Solid & The Pseudo Self
- Parreshia
Section 4
Entering the Struggle (Part I)
The technological world and our battle to forge a solid self within it.
Key Concepts:
- Acedia
- Discernment/Testing
Section 5
Entering the Struggle (Part II)
The new ways of living and being available within the environment.
Key Concepts:
- Value-response (Reverence)
- Generative Desire
Section 6
Building the Real
Taking real action to forge a new world in the coming days ahead—it's time to build.
Key Concepts:
- Creative Realism
- Mystagogy
Course Structure & Commitment
You can do anything for six-weeks—and it is the period required for serious habit formation to change.
Format
- • Sunday night: New "probe" + reading & video
- • Monday & Thursday (7–9 PM EST): Live sessions
- • Saturday (1–2:30 PM EST): Small group workshop
- • Slack channel for live support and connection
- • Weekly submissions + peer/mentor feedback
Commitment
- • Six hours of synchronous discussion weekly, with at least 3-6 more of offline work on your own
- • Weekly challenges due every Saturday evening
- • Every participant must commit to putting in the effort to be there for the others
Limited spaces available for our upcoming cohort.
Early applications receive priority consideration.
"To become an agent is to stop outsourcing your desire."
—Luke Burgis, author of Wanting and The One and the Ninety-Nine
"Agency isn't something you have—it's something you practice."
—Foundations of Agency
A Letter from the Founders
There is no productivity hack or AI tool that can give you real agency: the power to act boldly, navigating constraints and obstacles—real, and imagined—to create work and to craft a life of excellence and meaning.
To become an agent is to be generative—to act with intention, even when it's inconvenient, even when no one else will know. You will not walk away with a slide deck. You will walk away with a clearer self, better habits, and relationships that reflect the life you're building.
Whether you want to transform your body, your career, or your lifestyle, this workshop will help. If you want to write your first novel or start your first company, this workshop is also for you. If you want to eliminate any cope that prevents you from figuring out and acting on a vision for the next stage of your life, you belong here.
We designed this course because we've been stuck, creatively and personally, and know how hard it is to do the real work of change. There is resistance at every point along the way. The first step to becoming free is to see the forces at work, and then to defeat the negative ones and harness the positive ones for good. In this workshop, you will both learn and do.
The workshop involves understanding 15 core concepts, and being able to see how they are at work in your own life. The second component consists of active challenges—you will take major steps forward every single week to unlock your sense of agency, and your ability to exercise it.
You will be working on real things that matter to you. There is no busywork. There is only the kind of work that elevates your mind and your spirit and helps you to be in healthy relationships with yourself and with others. By the time you complete this workshop, you will find more fulfillment in the way that you spend your time and energy.
Your life is unrepeatable: if you don't do certain things, nobody else will. They will be lost to the world forever. The Foundations of Agency is designed to help you do them.
We look forward to working with you.
Luke Burgis
Co-founder, The Cluny Project
Jordan Castro
Co-founder, The Cluny Project
Become AI-proof.
Become an agent.
Tuition
Join our founding cohort and be part of something extraordinary
FOUNDERS CLUB
Foundations of Agency
$995 USD
Regular tuition: $3,500
- ✓ 6-week intensive workshop (remote)
- ✓ Weekly expert-facilitated sessions
- ✓ Personalized feedback on submissions
- ✓ Community access & collaboration
- ✓ Lifetime access to materials & library
- ✓ Ship 6 challenges that matter
- ✓ Early access to future programs
Limited spots available for founding cohort
Your Facilitators
Foundations of Agency is a virtual workshop designed by entrepreneur and author Luke Burgis and novelist Jordan Castro.
Each 40-day sprint is led by world-class facilitators deeply familiar with the experience and material.
Jordan Castro
Jordan is a novelist, essayist, and editor. His work has appeared in Harper’s, The Point, Tin House and more. He is on the board of the DiTrapano Foundation for Literature and the Arts, and his next novel, Muscle Man, is forthcoming from Catapult Press in Fall 2025.
Luke Burgis
Luke is Director of the Cluny Project and a seasoned entrepreneur, educator, and author. He serves on the faculty of the business school at The Catholic University of America, where he helps lead the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship. He is the author of Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life, and the forthcoming The One and the Ninety-Nine: Forging Identity in the Age of Social Contagion (St. Martin's Press, Spring 2026).
What Participants Say
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Provost Aaron Dominguez
"The Foundations of Agency teaches students to think and act creatively, helping to hone their intuition and become the kinds of people who can act with purpose and dexterity in their entrepreneurial endeavors as well as in their personal lives."
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Gavin Lewis
"The workshop weaves together several strands of discipline into a finely tuned narrative, all of which play out in class with the students starring as the main cast. It's like nothing you've ever seen before."
Frequently Asked Questions
Anyone in the United States over the age of 22.
Yes. All participants must apply and be accepted before the course begins. The application helps ensure the cohort is composed of individuals who are ready to engage with the material and one another in a serious, generative way.
Live attendance is important. If you miss one or two sessions, you may watch the recordings—but that should be the exception, not the rule. Please do not apply unless you plan to attend the sessions live. That said, you’re welcome to join from wherever you are—even if you're eating, walking the dog, or commuting.
No grades. No traditional homework. This is adult learning. You’ll complete weekly challenges that require real-world effort and post them for feedback, but your growth depends on your own level of engagement. The workshop focuses on habit change, creative work, and deeper participation in relationships.
We are offering a special first-cohort price of $995. The cost will rise significantly after the first two cohorts. We may offer group discounts for 3+ people applying from the same organization—contact us at admin@cluny.org for more information.
The workshop is experiential and highly participatory. You won’t be passively consuming content. You’ll be exercising your agency in every aspect of the experience. FOA’s semester-long version won the Catholic University of America’s Advancement in Teaching Award for innovation. If your organization is interested in a one-day version of the workshop, either on-site or at our D.C. campus, contact us.
No. All required materials are included. We do recommend optional readings throughout the course, but they’re not essential to completing the core curriculum.
Yes. Each group is free to choose a meeting time that works for everyone, as long as it works for everyone. Agency begins here.
Yes. If you miss more than two live sessions, your facilitator will reach out for a conversation. You may be asked to leave. This workshop relies on peer-to-peer support, and the absence of even one person affects the group dynamic.
No, we do not offer refunds at this time.
No. Each participant must apply and be accepted before the course begins.
Expect 6 hours of live sessions per week, plus 3–10 hours of personal work and challenge time. Some participants spend more, depending on the depth of their engagement.
Yes. We are actively developing a high school version and plan to offer an international option in the near future.
You’ll use Zoom, Slack, receive text message updates, access content through our Kajabi portal, and use a generative AI tool of your choice for at least one challenge.
Absolutely. We also welcome conversations about private cohorts or on-site workshops. Reach out to admin@cluny.org. For now, all individual enrollments must go through the application process.
Participants who demonstrate excellence during the course may be invited to facilitate future versions. Facilitators are compensated.
Sorry, no scholarships are available at this time. If you are accepted into the workshop and have difficulty paying the tuition, we would be happy to help promote or support your self-organized, agentic fundraising effort.
Yes, there are no payment plans available at this time. The full tuition will be due roughly 2 weeks after your acceptance notification to reserve your place in the workshop; if we do not receive your full tuition, we will make your spot available to another applicant.
"The purpose of education is to form a new subject, which is the protagonist of its own existence."
— Luigi Giussani
Join the Founders Club
Limited spots are available for our upcoming cohort starting this fall.
✦
Be part of our founding cohort and help shape the future of this transformative work
✦
Receive personalized guidance from our expert facilitators
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Join a community of like-minded individuals committed to developing true agency
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Early applicants receive priority consideration.
We’re looking for people who want to Build the Real.
Questions, thoughts, or hesitations? We welcome them. Reach out—we’re listening.
This photograph is of a bronze sculpture that my grandmother, Verna Bartnick, created. It's called "Time to Let Go", and now sits overlooking the bay in downtown Traverse City, MI.
My grandma went back to school and learned art under an apprenticeship in her late thirties—while raising 7 kids. She passed away in early 2024, but she left a strong legacy in our family and beyond.
When I view this piece of her art, I think about agency. I think about possibilities. I think about love. And that is what this course is ultimately about.
—Luke Burgis