The Liberty Learning Foundation began with a question: How can schools, community leaders and businesses work together to ensure our next generation understands their important role in America’s future?
They found the answer in the dynamic Super Citizen school program that teaches character-building, financial literacy and career development –across the curriculum – and through the lens of great American ideals and civic responsibility. But getting those resources into the hands of cash-strapped educators posed a challenge. So the foundation found donors – and quickly realized that donations alone wouldn’t guarantee success. Students had to be excited. … They had to be immersed in an experience that rallied the whole community – and would beg to be repeated year after year.
So the Next Great Americans Bus Tour was born – and the foundation began kicking off the Super Citizen Program with stirring theatrical performances. They worked with sponsors to place volunteers in classrooms – and orchestrated emotional Graduation Celebrations that saw student “Torch Teams” honoring local heroes from the stage.
This all-hands-on deck movement has created an overwhelmingly successful model for teaching, inspiring and empowering Our Next Great Americans. In 2012, Georgia Pacific teamed up with Liberty Learning Foundation and the Southern Christian Leadership Council to bring the Super Citizen Program to M. Agnes Jones Elementary. The results transformed the school and set a benchmark for implementation statewide: