Sparking passion through purpose and giving youth the tools to not only survive life’s challenges, but to thrive in spite of them.
Every word in Thrivival Academy’s mission statement was chosen intentionally.
Sparking means causing something to begin. The word was chosen because of the image of a spark igniting a flame. A spark may be small, but under the right conditions it can become something powerful and enduring.
Thrivival Academy seeks to be that spark.
We cannot manufacture passion inside another person, nor can we dictate what someone should care about. What we can do is expose young people to possibilities, experiences, knowledge, mentors, opportunities, and ideas that may ignite something within them. We seek to cause the beginning of a new feeling, a new interest, a new action, or even an entirely new direction in a young person's life.
What are we trying to spark?
Passion.
Passion is an intense enthusiasm, conviction, or compelling desire toward something. Passion is what transforms an idea from something a person merely thinks about into something they are willing to pursue. It provides energy. It creates motivation. It can make someone willing to practice, study, work, sacrifice, fail, learn, and try again.
But passion needs direction.
That is why the mission does not simply say that we spark passion. We seek to spark passion through purpose.
Purpose is the destination.
It is the individual's reason for moving forward. It is the goal, calling, contribution, responsibility, dream, or deeply held “why” that gives direction to a person's effort.
Seneca expressed this idea well:
“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”
A person can be surrounded by opportunities and still go nowhere if they have no destination.
Education can be an opportunity. A mentor can be an opportunity. A job can be an opportunity. Money can be an opportunity. A scholarship can be an opportunity. A talent can be an opportunity.
These are all favorable winds.
But favorable winds are of little use to a sailor who has never chosen a port.
Without purpose, people can easily spend their lives reacting to whatever happens next. They move where circumstances push them rather than deliberately deciding where they want to go. They may take a job simply because bills have to be paid, follow a path because someone else chose it for them, or allow circumstances to determine the course of their lives.
Thrivival Academy wants young people to begin asking those questions before adulthood's responsibilities narrow their choices:
Who am I?
What matters to me?
What am I capable of?
What do I want my life to mean?
What kind of person do I want to become?
What contribution can I make?
What is my port?
Once a young person begins identifying that destination, opportunities have context. Education has a reason. Discipline has a reason. Sacrifice has a reason. Learning has a reason. Work has a reason.
Purpose gives passion somewhere to go.
That leads to another deliberately chosen word in our mission:
Giving.
Thrivival Academy exists to give young people something.
Giving means transferring something to another person without requiring them to purchase it or first possess the means to obtain it themselves. There is an important principle contained in that word. Knowledge, guidance, encouragement, mentorship, experiences, opportunities, and support should not be reserved only for young people fortunate enough to be born into families that can provide them.
We seek to freely place those resources into the hands of youth.
And youth is intentional as well.
Youth is the period between childhood and maturity, when identity, values, habits, ambitions, expectations, and beliefs about what is possible are still developing. This makes youth one of the most important periods in a person's life to begin discovering purpose.
We want young people to consider the destination before they have spent twenty years sailing without one.
Before financial obligations, careers, unhealthy habits, discouragement, and the pressures of adulthood make changing direction increasingly difficult, we want them exposed to the possibility that their lives can be lived deliberately.
But discovering a destination is not enough.
Knowing where you want to go does not automatically give you the ability to get there.
That is why we give youth tools.
The tools Thrivival Academy provides are not limited to information, job skills, or technical instruction. Knowing how to make money, start a business, obtain employment, write a book, grow food, complete school, or accomplish some other task is valuable, but knowledge by itself does not produce a successful human being.
We also seek to develop the character required to use that knowledge well.
Our tools therefore include things such as:
Integrity. Responsibility. Discipline. Perseverance. Respect. Courage. Compassion. Accountability. Work ethic. Self-control. Critical thinking. Communication. Leadership. Resourcefulness. Financial responsibility. Problem-solving. Service to others.
These are not simply rules for behaving properly. They are characteristics that, when repeatedly practiced, become habits. Habits become patterns of behavior. Patterns of behavior influence character. And character has an enormous influence over the direction of a person's life.
A young person may possess talent without discipline and waste it.
They may possess intelligence without integrity and misuse it.
They may possess ambition without compassion and harm others in pursuit of it.
They may possess opportunity without perseverance and abandon it when difficulties arise.
Thrivival Academy therefore does not seek merely to produce young people who know how to succeed.
We seek to help develop young people who have the character to succeed responsibly.
The objective is not merely that they exist within society, avoid trouble, or become self-supporting adults.
The greater objective is that they become capable, responsible, productive, respected, and contributing members of their families, neighborhoods, and communities.
So the first portion of our mission describes a deliberate progression:
We provide the spark.
Purpose provides the direction.
Purpose ignites passion.
Passion creates the desire to move.
We freely give young people the tools needed to make that movement possible.
Character helps determine how those tools will be used.
Thrivival Academy does not choose the young person's destination for them.
We help them discover that having a destination is possible, help them identify one worth pursuing, ignite their desire to pursue it, and place useful tools in their hands for the journey.
