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Juliana Esparza '18 founds non-profit to help at-risk high school students
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August 24, 2017
Photo courtesy of Juliana Esparza '18
Hope. It’s a word that resonates with many because it speaks to possibility and potential. While it’s something that anchors many people in the world, it’s also something that many lack.
Juliana Esparza, a Frassati Catholic senior, recently founded a non-profit for at-risk high school teens called Live It Out. The organization’s main objective: to cultivate hope.
“Sophomore year at the school I transferred from, one of my classmates, who had little motivation to reach her goals, dropped out,” said Esparza. “That year I was driven to give more of my time to teens that felt like my classmate. I wanted to share the hope that has opened many doors for me. Last September, I filled a whiteboard with the dream of forming a nonprofit that would give teens hope and help in discovering what they’re capable of. If every teen, let alone person, knew how much they are capable of, the world would no longer be hindered by the fear of rejection.”
This idea to spread hope, said Esparza, was, in many ways, motivated by her experiences at Frassati Catholic.
“At Frassati Catholic High School, we strive to live according to the Beatitudes and to be fearless leaders that swim against the tide,” said Esparza. “Frassati played a crucial role in the formation of the organization. We receive so that we may give and at Frassati I received the gift of knowing that Christ is at our side. He is our hope. In short, what Live it Out does and we strive to do as an organization is to transmit hope. We strive to transmit hope to teens so that they may develop good actions, good habits, and good character, something that I learned in my Ethics courses at Frassati.”
In September 2016, Esparza officially founded Live It Out to meet what she felt was a glaring need in the community: a support group for at-risk teens. Her model centers on the idea of peer-to-peer support: “Live It Out is different from many organizations that help reduce the dropout rate because it is run by teens for teens.”
Photo courtesy of Juliana Esparza '18
Live It Out takes aim at reducing the high school dropout rate that leads to more than 1.2 million teens dropping out of school in the United States each year. By cultivating hope, the organization also aims to foster community leaders “by offering teens communication, leadership, and creativity skills so that they may discover their potential.”
After months on fundraising and garnering support, Esparza’s vision came to life this past June, as Live It Out hosted its inaugural summer camp from June 12 – 16 at Sam Houston State – The Woodlands Center. The camp, led by 30 teen volunteers, hosted 25 at-risk teens selected from a pool of applicants. Each teen selected received a scholarship to attend the camp.
The camp developed a leadership curriculum with the help of a program called Youth Potential Development (YPD), run by Franco Soldi, an international motivational coach who has worked with more than 30,000 teens in Europe, North America, and South America.
Having established a successful model and a strong foundation, Esparza aims to continue to grow the organization going forward.
“Live It Out is for others and it was made to spread. Our goals for the 2017-2018 academic year include growing Live It Out’s annual camp to 200 participants, gathering more volunteers, organizing follow-up events, and developing an app for smart phones. Thinking big, we want to grow nationally and internationally over time.”
It’s a vision that inspires one thing: hope.
Learn more about Live It Out at weliveitout.org.
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About Frassati Catholic High School: Founded in 2013, Frassati Catholic High School serves the families and parishes in the north Houston area of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. Administered by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation from Nashville, TN, Frassati Catholic High School prepares students to walk on the path of true happiness through a robust college-preparatory curriculum rooted in the Catholic faith. The school currently serves students in grades 9-12. For more information about Frassati Catholic High School, contact Kyle Smith, director of communications, at 832-616-3227.
