Students at Five High Schools Start their Club Thrive in Joy 2023/2024 Journey
Club Thrive in Joy is now active at USC Hybrid High College Prep in South LA, Esperanza College Prep in East LA, Alliance Dr. Olga Mohan High School in Downtown LA, and Escuela Secundaria Liceo Angel Maria Hernandez Croussett in Nagua, Dominican Republic. In January, there will be a Club Thrive in Joy at Global Leadership Academy in Jeffreys Bay South Africa. All students are using their C11 Journey Books to reflect on their achievements and challenges as they progress through the academic year. The Journey Books will be helpful to students when it comes time to write their personal statements for college applications and to prepare for scholarship interviews.
USC Hybrid High College Prep was our pilot school in 2019. This year’s student leadership team is already making an impact. With coaching from Arianna, their advisor who is a USC college student, Nadia, Angie, Natalie, and Valeria are busy planning their Winter Wonderland event in partnership with USC’s Price School of Public Policy who will be donating 125 toys to give to families of Hybrid High students who could use a little extra help this holiday season. Along with the toy distribution, students are excited that The Book Truck will be setting up again this year, to provide every student with a teen book in their favorite genre. All this planning and executing will be great practice for the students’ big spring Entrepreneurial Social Impact Project that will be also entered in Multiplying Good’s service competition.
Esperanza College Prep launched Club Thrive in Joy in 2021 and is now in its third year. The club advisor, Anthony, is a graduate of USC Hybrid High and will be attending USC in the spring. Club leads, Stephanie and Jasmine are finding creative ways to encourage students to use the Journey Books to capture Weekly Wisdoms which are inspiring quotes and reflections on Grows (challenges that bring insights) and Glows (accomplishments that create confidence). Esperanza Club Thrive in Joy students are also planning an event that will include a partnership with the Book Truck on November 8.
Alliance Dr. Olga Mohan High is the newest Los Angeles high school to have a Club Thrive in Joy. The student advisor, Chrystal, is a USC student who supports club leads Jose and Melanie in creating a supportive and inspiring environment for students to explore their character strengths and learn from each other about the causes that they care about in the community. It’s so exciting to see a new school adapt Club Thrive in Joy in a slightly different format since club meetings are only 30 minutes–however, this club meets weekly vs. every other week.
Escuela Secundaria Liceo Angel Maria Hernandez Croussett is our first international school to have a Club Thrive in Joy. Crisbel, the club advisor, introduced students to the C11 program on October 23 during Thrive in Joy’s October mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Crisbel has been working with Thrive in Joy’s staff via Zoom for the past two months to prepare for her advisor role which she is doing while attending college. Working with a teacher at this high school in her community, Crisbel explained the benefits of the club which the teacher believes aligns with objectives of the DR’s Ministry of Education to provide students with personal development and interpersonal relationship-building tools. Students were eager to volunteer for leadership roles and were moved by hearing Nick’s story and how Mary and Jay turned their loss into a way to inspire others.
Global Leadership Academy introduced Thrive in Joy’s C11 program in August, 2023 to a cohort of young men at this school in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa. The connection was the result of volunteer consultant support provided by Retail ROI participants Mark MacLaren and Dan Grady, who have been involved in this school for several years. Mark and Dan learned of C11 at RetailROI’s SuperSaturday event last January and felt the program was much needed at this school which had lost two students to suicide in the past year. Mark and Dan guided Thrive in Joy staff and Board members in building out the program for international implementation and facilitated a pilot workshop to test students’ receptiveness to the program while visiting the school in August. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Since South Africa schools follow a different calendar being south of the Equator, C11 will be fully integrated into a Club Thrive in Joy program when classes resume in January 2024.