In the whirlwind of just one year, Sarah Broome went from being an inner-city school teacher to running an expensive and ambitious operation that helps some of the area’s neediest children.
The project is called THRIVE, and it’s a charter boarding school for at-risk students planted on the edge of downtown. It’s also a dream come true for Broome, a former Teach For America teacher who came to Baton Rouge with the nonprofit in 2008 to teach at Prescott Middle School.
At the beginning of the 2010 school year, one of Broome’s female students was killed in a street fight, a tragedy that sparked the teacher’s determination to make an impact in the lives of underprivileged children in the community.
Thus the idea for THRIVE was born. By early this year, the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board gave the green light of approval. The school is the first of its kind in Louisiana.
“This is our first year, so we only have sixth- grade students, but eventually we’ll have grades sixth through 12 students, adding one grade level at a time,” says Broome. “Eventually the students will be with us for seven years, and when they graduate, and go to college our goal is that they can be completely self-sufficient and successful on their own.”
Students live at THRIVE from Monday to Friday, and their days are filled with traditional classes, warm meals, and a variety of enriching after-school programs that provide support and structure, including arts and crafts, tutoring, and one-on-one help.
Broome says students are taught personal skills like doing their own laundry, cooking together as a family, learning how to run a budget—all necessary things for them to be successful later in life.
THRIVE also provides counseling services involving people from all over the community who come and volunteer their time to work with the students.
Despite the enormous undertaking, she was determined to push through countless obstacles blocking the path of her mission, and credits Baton Rouge’s encouraging residents for their support.
“I think that’s because we have this incredible community that encourages innovation and thinking outside the box,” Broome says. “I never looked back and never questioned it and constantly kept pushing forward,” Broome adds.
For a really long time I wanted to be Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, and then that slowly transformed into wanting to go into politics after watching The West Wing, and that desire brought me to Washington D.C. Where I ended up going to college at George Washington University and studied political science and nonprofit management.
I’d love to run disaster services for FEMA or the Red Cross because I thrive in that moment of crises and chaos. I think I would really enjoy that opportunity.
The most powerful thing for me was a mindset shift. When I just decided this school was going to be opened, it was just a matter of figuring out how it was going to happen, and this idea of “going for it” even if it seems a little insane and not accepting that failure was an option. Obstacles came up so many times and continue to even now. It’s about figuring out how to get around that particular obstacle.
This is a community that believes in young professionals and really wants to support them, more than I have ever seen before. I think that’s because we have this incredible community that encourages innovation and thinking outside the box.
I think the Bulldog is where I like to go with friends to relax and LA Boxing is what keeps me sane. Kickboxing is the only way I’ve survived so far!
Public transportation. I see so many families that continue to struggle to get to theor child’s school or the grocery store because they don’t have a car. A lot of people don’t understand what a luxury it is to have a car and how expensive it can be for poor people to pay for the gas, insurance, or repairs if it breaks down. I think that’s a big barrier for a lot of people to getting employment, and being really involved in their kids lives because they can’t get transportation.
I had to learn a lot of things on the go, and learning everything all at the same time and very quickly has been my biggest challenge. Trying to prioritize, developing myself as a professional but also trying to make sure I’m providing the right services for the kids.
What I’d really like to see in five years is that we’d have all our grade levels on board and on our own permanent campus that we’ve been able to design for our needs from the ground up. I want us to constantly prove to people that with the right resources and the right opportunity every single kid can be successful.
