FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA — August 18, 2026. Peaks will open Ascent, its personal academic partner, to students at Northern Arizona University on Monday, August 24, 2026 — as a small beta, for the fall 2026 semester. Ascent was built in Flagstaff by an NAU student, tested against real NAU coursework, and launches here first — on purpose.
A small beta, honestly labeled
Ascent is one student's project, opening to a small group of students at one university.
- It will not be perfect. You will find rough edges, and some things will occasionally break. When something does, Ascent tells you what happened instead of pretending it didn't.
- It will get better. One person builds this, every week, from what beta students actually run into. Reported problems usually get fixed within days.
- Paying for it means backing a student project. There is no venture fund behind Ascent. Subscriptions keep the servers on and one student building the study tool he wished existed — and because every trial student runs on compute that student pays for, a card goes on file when you start. It is charged nothing until your free days end, and canceling before then costs nothing.
What Ascent is
Ascent starts from the semester you are actually living. Add a syllabus, class notes, an assignment, a practice exam — Ascent reads them together and hands back one connected picture of each course: what is next, what you are practicing, and what may still be missing. From there it does the thing a good coach does: it tells you what deserves your next hour, and it changes its mind as you learn.
It watches the whole semester at once. When an exam gets close in one course while you've been living in another, Ascent says so, with a specific move to make and a reason for it.
What Ascent refuses to do
Most study tools will solve your homework if you paste it in. Ascent will not, and that is the point.
When you bring your own assignment, Ascent scans it only to recognize the method it calls for — the answer stays protected. Then it builds fresh practice problems that work the same way: new numbers, new variables, the same skill. You practice on those, as many as you need, and then return to your own work knowing how to do it. Mastery in Ascent is earned evidence — you demonstrated the method — never a checkbox for having watched something.
Ascent teaches the way honest tutoring works: it shows you the method on a fresh problem, watches you do it yourself, and never does your assignment for you.
What it costs
Every new student gets their first 14 days free. The clock starts the moment your school email is verified; at the end of setup you put a card on file — $0 charged that day, and nothing until the trial ends. Cancel before then and you pay nothing. After the trial, Ascent is one flat monthly plan covering every course you are carrying, cancel anytime. Current pricing is on peakseducation.com; checkout and card handling are done by Stripe, and Peaks never sees your card number.
Who can join
The beta opens to NAU students on August 24. You create a Peaks account with a personal email — one you keep after graduation — and verify your @nau.edu address once to unlock your campus. Start at peakseducation.com.
At a different school? Tell us where you are on the learn more page and we'll let you know when Ascent reaches your campus.
From the founder
"The act of studying was never the hard part for me. I was willing to put in the time. What frustrated me was everything before it — finding material I could trust, turning it into something useful, and still wondering whether I was studying the wrong thing. I built Ascent to close that gap for the semester I was actually living, and NAU is where it belongs first. It's a beta and I'm one student — it won't be perfect, and I'd rather earn your trust by saying that out loud than by pretending otherwise."
— Ahlten Sencan, founder of Peaks · NAU Mechanical Engineering + French
About Peaks
Peaks is an education company in Flagstaff, Arizona, at the foot of the San Francisco Peaks that gave it its name. Its first product, Ascent, is a personal academic partner that turns a student's real courses into focused, relevant study. Press and support: support@peakseducation.com.