Q3 2025 Education Pillar Update: Wellness, Pathways, and Purpose in Motion

From July through September, our Education Pillar has focused on three things in parallel. First, giving WISE participants richer real-world experiences in wellness, leadership, and community. Second, turning career interests into practical steps through mentoring, job shadowing, and college exposure. Third, using data and storytelling to keep attention on the education gaps our partners are working to close.

SUMMER OF WELLNESS AND CREATIVE HEALING

This quarter, wellness has moved from concept to practice. At Grace Sober Living, WISE participants completed a full trauma-informed care training series led by Rev. Dr. Sanghoon Yoo, exploring trauma, resilience, recovery, and belonging through weekly sessions and conversation.

On the global stage, our team joined leaders in sport and mental fitness through the Professional Tennis Players Association’s Beyond the Court Summit, a gathering focused on mental health, recovery, and support for the whole person.

We also supported the launch of ARTFUN RX, a creative wellness platform that uses art, gratitude, and simple practices like breathing, affirmations, and tactile activities to help people build resilience and reconnect with themselves.

Together, these experiences reinforce a core WISE belief. Education is not only about grades. It is also about mental fitness, healing, and building inner tools that last.

SOCIAL NON-FORMAL LEARNING IN FULL SWING

Q3 has shown how social, non-formal learning shapes leadership and confidence. At the Just Keep Livin Foundation, WISE scholars spent the summer on hikes, Soak City, laser tag, and SPCA volunteer days, building social and emotional skills while serving their communities.

At the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Scottsdale, scholars kicked off the school year with a 50-state challenge, planning sessions for upcoming events, and a new youth club idea where older teens mentor younger members by teaching balloon animals.

Those same youth then shared those new skills on Disney dress-up day, spending time with younger kids at the Barker Branch, teaching balloon creations and building connection through play.

These are small stories on the surface. Underneath, they show WISE participants practicing leadership, public speaking, and peer support in real time.

CAREER PATHWAYS BROUGHT TO LIFE

Across Q3, WISE participants have turned interests into concrete steps toward future careers.

In California, Dalila has continued her volunteer work at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro, leading tours, educating visitors, and connecting that work directly to her goal of studying marine biology.

In Texas, Agustin’s journey has moved forward on two tracks. Through the Texas Rangers’ Power of Us Mental Health Summit, he shared his own story through a video journal, then received a game-day experience on the field in recognition of his leadership. Later in the summer, he stepped into the kitchen at Prince Lebanese Grill to explore his dream of opening an affordable family restaurant, learning directly from owner Aziz Kobty about entrepreneurship, hard work, and hospitality.

Fabian, another WISE scholar at the Just Keep Livin Foundation, deepened his interest in sports medicine and business. He completed a job shadow with the Program Director of West LA College’s Sports Medicine Department and earned a micro-internship through the Youth Business Alliance Summer Business Program.

In Arizona, Abi and Demian connected virtually with Dr. Tara Carr, a University of Arizona allergist and immunologist, who invited them to tour her lab. For two WISE scholars exploring medical careers, that invitation turns vague interest into a specific future path.

Each of these stories shows how our profiling data in the WISE portal links to action. Interest in medicine, hospitality, marine biology or sport becomes real when a scholar visits a lab, steps into a kitchen, walks a college campus or stands on a professional field.

LEADERSHIP, EXPOSURE, AND BIG STAGES

This quarter also brought higher visibility for WISE scholars and the program itself.

Brayden from the Boys & Girls Club represented the Barker Branch and the WISE Scholarship Program at the National Keystone Conference in Chicago, joining more than a thousand teens for leadership and postsecondary planning.

Our WISE Times Square feature in New York highlighted the Earn to Learn framework and our vision for building global citizens, placing WISE on one of the most visible stages in the world.

Through sports partnerships, WISE scholars experienced women’s leadership in real time at the LA Chargers Women in Sports Day, and the energy of the WNBA at an LA Sparks game, where teamwork and confidence on the court matched the skills our scholars practice in their own lives.

At the same time, The Steele Family Foundation team joined the Social Impact Summit in Los Angeles, listening to leaders who use media, philanthropy, and influence to shift outcomes for young people.

DATA AND ADVOCACY FOR ARIZONA YOUTH

Q3 also brought new data that underlines why this work matters in Arizona. The Arizona Alliance Landscape Analysis on youth needs reported that Arizona ranks last in the United States for overall public education, second lowest in school funding, and below the national average on on-time graduation, especially for students facing economic barriers.

For our WISE team, those numbers are not abstract. They line up with what our Senior Scholarship Administrators see every week in schools and programs. The same quarter that produced those statistics also saw planners and WISE stickers handed out at first meetings, new homework spaces under development at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale, and assessment reviews at Grace Sober Living that gave participants clearer strategies for focus and learning.

The Education Pillar continues to treat data as a call to act, not a backdrop. Each assessment result, activity log and story feeds back into how we target support for the next quarter.

GLOBAL GRATITUDE FROM INDIA

To close Q3, our team received a reminder of why this work started. In Tamil Nadu, India, students from St. Xavier’s Academy, the school built through our Sacred Trust Project, sent a birthday message to Michael Steele, sharing songs, smiles, and thanks for the education they now receive.

That message linked two ends of our Education Pillar. A school first introduced to the Steele family in 2013 is now full of students who see a different future for themselves. Their gratitude sits alongside the journeys of WISE scholars in Arizona, Texas and California, who are building their own futures through the portal, our partners, and the relationships around them.