It starts with partnership

The Liberty Education Foundation exists to serve the 19 schools, 12,390 students and 2,145 educators in the LPS 53 School District in Liberty, MO. Founded in 1995, the Foundation ensures that the entire school district can shine brightly by enriching education experiences through grants, awards and targeted programming.

The Liberty School District also promotes a robust graduate profile. This is their ‘true north’ of what a successful student will look like at the end of their time in LPS. They will be entrepreneurs, professionals, academically and culturally savvy, and persons of high character.

The Education Foundation had already been partnering with Better Humans for a robust Leadership Academy. They loved how we incorporated activities into lessons and brought together diverse groups of students. In 2022, the Education Foundation approached Better Humans with a very specific question: How do we help move the needle on the skills of our graduate profile in a way that is fun, engaging, and impactful? This question evolved in the THRIVE Leadership Institute.

THRIVE is a 3 day mini-conference open to sophomore-emerging senior students. Each day is broken into portions focused on the graduate profile and combines community partner curriculum with Better Humans’ unique educational activities.

Possibly one of the greatest achievements of THRIVE is that this event does not occur in a silo. For each section of the graduate profile, we identified team building activities to activate students prior knowledge of topics such as communicating clearly, thinking win-win, or building trust on teams. They then hear from a community speaker from a diverse range of sectors such as fashion designers, business owners, civics educators and hospital chaplains. Each portion of the program is then capped with choice. There are 3-5 workshops available and students get to choose where their interests lie. They meet more community partners, gain more knowledge around skills like emotional intelligence, financial acumen, or resume development. THRIVE only thrives because of the robust partnerships that have been built in service of preparing students to be their best humans when they graduate.

Creating the curriculum was the easy part. As one might expect, the students were where the challenge began in earnest.

My mom signed me up for this

Please take a moment to imagine the most ‘typical’ high school student that you can. Do you have them? How tall are they? What are their passions or hobbies? How do they want to change the world?

Typical really isn’t a fair word to use when describing today’s high school student. They bring such a wide range of abilities and personalities to the table that is unmatched by generations before them. Odds are however, they are really looking forward to summer and a break from school. As the MC for THRIVE, I like to connect with students and ask how they found themselves walking in the door for our June summer program. Sometimes students are thinking about building their resume. Sometimes students heard from a peer or teacher about how awesome of an experience this would be. At least 50% of the time, I hear “my mom made me”. Full disclosure, I LOVE that answer because the unwritten text is ‘impress me’. While parents can get students through the doors, they can’t force their students to engage and they certainly can’t force their students to have fun. As an educational designer, I love the challenge of finding ways to make learning so fun, students forget that they didn’t want to be there in the first place.

What we love most is how the learning sneaks up on the students. The games and activities are so well-crafted that students walk away having built real skills and insights, often without even realizing it in the moment.

Shine Bright

I want to spend the rest of this time focusing on one student in particular who highlights why our work at Better Humans is so important.

Let’s call him Jake, and he is a 5’7” high school sophomore who is still fairly new to the Liberty community. His mom thought this program would be good for him and 3 days sounded better than a full summer of school or getting a job.

For the activities at THRIVE, students are continually mixed up into different groups so that they don’t spend the whole time with their friends. Jake tended to sit alone because he didn’t know anyone…yet!

During the first activity, students are asked to use tubes to transport balls around the conference space. The robes come in a variety of shapes and sizes and Jake chose a small u-bend. Through the activity, he commented that he didn’t think he could help much because his piece was so small. Eventually, one student said, “wait, let’s use Jake’s piece to give us a chance to stop the ball!”. From then on, he was the most valuable person in the room with the most unique piece.

Debriefing the activity, Jake and others acknowledged that they thought he was useless, until they realized he was useful. One girl commented, “this makes me want to take a look at other people like Jake that I initially dismiss as ‘not my people’. He had something we really needed and I didn’t see it at first. I want every team to have a Jake.”

From then on, Jake came to THRIVE and had a group to sit with and, more importantly, a group that saw how important he is. He even began to see it himself. It is this inner confidence that allows Jake, and students just like him, to shine during our programs.

Leadership is a disposition, not a position.

At Better Humans, we are the first to acknowledge that our participants will likely never need to complete the tasks we ask of them in their regular lives. However, these unique challenges are what allow the space to build psychological safety which then creates a foundation from which we build the dispositions of leadership. For Jake, it was self-efficacy. For his new friend, it was taking the time to know others outside of your silos.

What could the disposition be for your team?