What is MVP?

The acronym MVP represents leadership in sports. Most Valuable Player, the highest honor bestowed upon individual achievement in a competitive environment. This person is seen as an unwavering leader who has trained beyond his/her physical limitations to grasp a reward that is unattainable for many. In the process, this person usually makes everyone around them better, inspiring them to believe they can achieve more than their natural gifts may allow. This can cause others to pursue their talents in a similar fashion. It is a position most admire and aspire to mimic when developing leaders in their families, communities, and in the world.

That representation of leadership is the same for this program, except MVP in this program means Maximizing Valuable Potential. Examples of great leadership are lacking for our young people in many communities around the country. A program such as MVP seeks to fill that void. It is set to do this by finding mentors and having them develop the natural leadership capabilities each candidate has and maturing it to a point of self-reliance. I chose to start the program with underrepresented students in urban and rural areas. This is because they are falling behind on every level of education and given the right opportunity, they will reveal a wealth of talent not previously shown. Statistics will show those same young people will eventually become liabilities in society instead of assets without this kind of opportunity. With this program, we aim to teach them to train their spirit, mind and body to increase discipline, integrity, responsibility, perseverance, and fortitude so they will be able to make choices that positively affect their lives and the people around them. We want them to understand their worth, we want them to maximize their valuable potential.

Program Assessment and Evaluation

Program Outcome

The goal of MVP is to develop leadership in students by maximizing their valuable potential. We have three main objectives we look to enhance with this program, academics, attendance and behavior. With this in mind, there are the four main components we aim for in our program to accomplish this feat:

  • Establish a sense of self-love and confidence through social/emotional learning
  • Identify personal strength through academics, technology and the arts
  • Generate a sense of direction in life
  • Exemplify leadership through service and ownership

In time, students will identify with these objectives through the workshops and mentorships provided in the program. Our goal is for them to develop their interest into a skill that will one day become a career of choice.

Performance Criteria

We will track quantitative and qualitative data to show progress throughout the program. This program is meant to build a long-standing foundation so students can always stand firm on their choices and be confident through their academic years.

We will look to enhance academic performance, decreased disciplinary actions, have consistent school attendance and increase community service as indicators of performance objectives being accomplished.

Implementation Plan

We have developed a curriculum that combines student interests and academic talent. Mentors that have established a career, in the students’ interest, will help guide the curriculum. We look to implement the program in schools for underrepresented populations that lack resources and opportunity for college advancement and career choice. We research each school a year in advance to seek out the needs of the students and desires of the staff. In this time, we develop mentors through the summer and install the following school year. The latter parts of this document go into further details about the workshops and mentors.

Evaluation Method

Annual surveys and questionnaires from the SOOUL staff, as well as the school, will evaluate the progress of students and mentors. We will collect data from four key areas, their GPAs, disciplinary records, school attendance and activity in community service. This data will help evaluate if they are meeting our objectives and program goals.

While there are different methods that are used when evaluating student progress in programs such as this, we feel this will be the most holistic interpretation in means of tracking progress for the students.

Logistics

We will implement the program into middle schools during their core/elective class time. The hope is to use facilities within the targeted school to hold the program. We have designed this program to transition into advance SOOUL programming for high school. The curriculum may be adjusted to fit in a high school environment.

Because the program will evolve due to technology, and the needs of the students, it’s ideal to use the end of every school year to measure how the growth of the program and what strategic planning is needed for the future. The staff of MVP, along with a school representative, will interpret the data and report it to our board, district and supporters of the program.