Future innovators gain inspiration for aspirations in Chula Vista
With ground-breaking public-private partnerships, Chula Vista Elementary School District is cultivating young dreamers and innovators whose understanding of their own strengths guides authentic inquiry and discovery. Michael Bruder, Chula Vista Instructional Services Coordinator in the Innovation and Instruction Department, and his team of educators are creating immersive, industry-aligned learning experiences that ignite the imaginations of 4th through 6th-grade students.
Students begin their adventure by using Thrively to unlock their strengths, share their interests, and reveal their aspirations. “Our Station experiences are enriched by being able to use Thrively to connect with students on a deeper level, so that we can unpack their strengths and interests with them and build more meaningful relationships in the time that we are with them. In addition, students become more engaged with the experience when we are able to customize it around their personal strengths, interests, and career aspirations.”
These young innovators then embark on a journey of discovery where they explore their region’s priority sectors: health care, energy/ construction/ utilities, and information and communication technologies/digital media. They learn about the work activities and requisite skills for each career pathway and have a chance to watch day-in-the-life videos about real practitioners. Before students participate in these STEAM experiences at the Innovation, Energy, Hydro, or Health Stations, their classroom teachers launch them on a path of self-discovery. We wanted our students to be able to name their strengths and claim them. Thrively gives us confidence that their strengths are surfaced with accuracy,” explained Bruder.
This accuracy is the result of decades of research conducted by pediatric neuropsychologists Jonine Biesman and Jayme Neiman-Kimel, who designed and then tested the Thrively Strengths Assessment for three years before it was launched.
“Our aim has always been to help students explore their strengths, interests and values. When we discovered Thrively, we found the perfect opportunity to align our objectives with a research-based assessment,” stated Bruder.
Career exploration, informed by self-awareness, has been wildly successful in Chula Vista. When students have an opportunity to explore passions, take intellectual risks, and engage in discovery, they are embodying the core values that drive the work of their industry-sector partners. “When students have the opportunity to explore their interests and find their passion, it helps our team to connect them with careers that they might be interested in,” shared Bruder. Once student interests are known, the innovation team helps students to create and pursue goals. Bruder sees goal orientation as a key component to helping young people pursue “what they love” and work towards their goals.
“Being able to differentiate our instruction based on the information provided from the Thrively Strengths Assessment not only shapes our interactions with our students, it also allows us to customize it to best fit them. This makes all the difference for our most important stakeholder, our students!”
Teachers found surprising opportunities to use 
For Gee, each new year begins with understanding her students’ strengths: “When we create relationships with students, it’s more likely that we’re going to help them tap into and leverage their strengths. I start my year asking my students to take the Thrively Strengths Assessment. Each student discovers their strengths and begins their year of academic and social-emotional learning on solid footing.”
Gee explained that her dissertation also looked at self-efficacy and the confidence that children build through mastery experiences–a seamless alignment with Thrively. “It all connected perfectly,” she said. “At the beginning of the school year, I told parents ‘from this point forward–and for 185 days–I will look at your children through the lens of their strengths and talents.’”
After having printed out each student’s 
Towards the middle of the fall semester, when Gee was conferencing with students regarding midterm grades, she asked an especially struggling student (for this article we will call him Jared), to her podium. “I said, ‘We both know that your grades are Ds and Fs in all of your classes. I don’t want to give you a D or an F. You are so much more than grades.’ He had his head down and said, ‘I know. I know. I gotta do the work if I’m going to get anywhere in life.’ ‘No’, I replied, ‘we can figure this out, I can give you assignments that fit your . . .’ Before I could finish my thought, he looked up wide-eyed to say, rather enthusiastically, ‘Thrively said I’m good at creativity!’ The fact that Thrively said it, and it wasn’t a teacher or parent, was somehow more credible for Jared. We invited Jared to a parent meeting where he talked about how his creativity led him to that very parent meeting, and how he enjoyed the differentiation and being honored and valued for his talents. This changed the way he saw himself–he started to thrive in the way he knew he could; he was an excellent presenter, by the way. As a school, we ensured that his oral language assignments were wrapped around his talent with public speaking. I saw a happier, more positive student in him,” shared Gee.
As the year came to a close, the exclamation mark on Fullerton’s strengths-driven culture began in the form of a commencement address at graduation. “Before COVID, every 8th-grader in our district who graduated from one of our five junior high schools received a Thrively Strengths Certificate in addition to their diploma. At the Parks’ commencement ceremony, one of our graduates who had recently emigrated from South Korea said during his commencement speech, ‘When you go to high school and things get rough and you’re not sure where you’re going, always remember to check your strengths certificate and use the strengths!’
Thrively is absolutely fundamental to our PATHfinder (Personal Actions to Happiness) program in Fullerton. Students are not empty repositories, waiting for our erudition. They come to us fully formed, with values, interests, aspirations and strengths. When we build off their assets, we help them soar.