About Us
Our Mission
Heart of a Champion seeks to transform culture by providing the necessary resources to educate, motivate and empower students, teachers, families and groups in core principles essential to lifetime personal development and maximized performance.
Introduction
The Heart of a Champion Foundation is a non-profit organization that offers educators an innovative and effective approach to developing character in the lives of their students. Our mission is to address the current crisis of character in our nation by reaching the hearts of students with engaging stories of individuals from the world of sports, history, the arts and other areas of life through group mentoring.
Background/Research
Heart of a Champion was founded in 1997 in response to a growing need for character development in our nation’s youth. Nearly four years was spent solely conducting research into current approaches to character development in students. The results were alarming. Specifically, we found that most programs 1) lacked engaging materials, 2) lacked substantive content, 3) weren’t consistently implemented and 4) failed to gain measurable results. We have addressed each of these shortcomings to form what we feel is the most effective approach to character education.
Our Approach
Heart of a Champion teaches students about character using a program that consistently reinforces positive character traits by giving examples of persons with high character. These stories are told through quality print and video stories that engage all students. Our program focuses on nine core character traits – Commitment, Leadership, Perseverance, Teamwork, Respect, Integrity, Responsibility, Self-Control and Compassion. Each month students learn about a different trait that is broken down into four weekly lessons. Each lesson involves one video story, one print story, one group activity, and group discussion questions.
Outside of the weekly lesson, educators are provided with numerous reinforcement tools including posters, certificates, student ID cards and others. By consistently teaching and reinforcing these nine traits, educators are able to form a culture of character on their campus.
Each lesson involves one video story, one print story, one group activity, and group discussion questions that are facilitated in a group mentoring setting.
Outside of the weekly lesson, our group mentors are provided with numerous reinforcement tools including posters, certificates, student ID cards and others. By consistently teaching and reinforcing these nine traits, educators are able to form a culture of character on their campus.
Results
Each participating school is encouraged to complete both a pre- and post-assessment to measure the efficacy of the program. Based on this student survey, we’ve measured significant attitudinal and behavioral shifts in a period of just nine months. We’ve also received data that indicates academic improvements as a result of the program. To learn more about our program results please review our results page here.
