Early in her career as an educator, Sarah Broome realized that many students needed more attention and support than they could get either at school or in complicated home environments. She got to work creating a safe place where students could come and spend all of their time focused on learning, comradery, and just being children.

It took years of exceedingly hard work and determination, but her efforts have culminated in Thrive Academy, a residential school in Baton Rouge that takes students from across the state. During the day, they learn in a state-of-the-art facility with trauma-informed educators and support staff. After school, they retire to the 180-bed dormitory to focus on study and play.

Thrive serves children from backgrounds which often include homelessness, gang violence, domestic violence, and other types of trauma. However, through thoughtful construction of an educational program that provides structure, high-expectations, emotional counselling, athletics, food security, dignified shelter, and much more, the school is able to instill or restore hope for a brighter future.

In 2019, after years of Sarah’s determined leadership, Thrive reached one its most significant milestones to date: its first commencement ceremony for a class of bright, enthusiastic students with unlimited promise.