Jimmie Fryer - Superintendent, Barbour County Schools
— ACCESS MATTERS —
We believe a student's zip code shouldn't determine their opportunities. Kids in Barbour County deserve the same small classes, the same extra help, and the same shot at excelling as students anywhere else. So when we looked at Barbour County High School, we identified its weaknesses, including the loss of a math teacher midway through the year, and its strengths: a veteran English teacher who genuinely wanted to make a difference, not just in her students' scores, but in the community's perception of what Barbour County students could achieve. We provided small-group math intervention and partnered to co-teach alongside the English teacher.
The results: during the 2025–2026 school year, Barbour County reached record highs in both ELA and math, including a 22% increase in writing.
Because when you give students access to the same advantages, they stop competing with their circumstances and start competing with their potential.
Matt Blake - Superintendent, Opp City Schools
(Principal of Opp High School during the 2025-2026 school year)
— RESULTS MATTER —
Momentum isn't something you build once and coast on. It's something you have to defend, year after year. Opp wasn't starting from behind; they'd been building real momentum, and the challenge wasn't recovery, it was staying on top. They lost an English teacher and ACT teacher mid-year, but had a strong English department ready to learn how to fill the gaps, along with a stellar junior math teacher already doing excellent work. With limited time, we focused a bootcamp entirely on English, reading, and writing and supplemented their math department with Math Chops accounts to build on what their teacher had already started.
The results: during the 2025–2026 school year, Opp reached record highs in both math and ELA, including an 8% jump in math.
Because when a school refuses to plateau, they stop hoping for results and start demanding them.
Tori Adams - CTE Director, Andalusia City Schools
(School Counselor at Andalusia High School during the 2025–2026 school year)
— RELATIONSHIPS MATTER —
As Andalusia's counselor, Tori had watched students hold back — not from lack of ability, but because trying means risking failure. For teachers, the hesitation looks different: it's the fear of wasting time on advice that sounds good but doesn't hold up in a real classroom or have the best interest of the students at heart. So Olivia came up with a plan to build trust and prove the process, showing teachers and students that she wasn't just another consultant passing through, but someone who cares and is invested.
For two months, twice a week, Olivia co-planned with Andalusia's junior math and English teachers and modeled classes directly alongside them. She built real relationships and faced the daily struggles with them. Because students and teachers don't take that leap for a stranger. They take it for someone who's earned their trust.
The results: during the 2025–2026 school year, Andalusia's ELA average reached a five-year high, with the highest cohort growth of any group in five years. Reading alone grew 1.9 points, against a previous five-year best of 0.4.
Because when you build real relationships, students stop bracing for failure and teachers start pushing them to their fullest potential.
At Our booth: Meet some of the students that inspire us
TAYVEON MOORE
ABBY WESTBROOK
ABBY WESTBROOK
— Opportunity Matters —
Tayveon didn't lack ability. He lacked a full view of what was possible. When Olivia offered free ACT Prep tutoring after school at Russell County High School, Tayveon showed up every day, put in the work, and started seeing opportunities he never knew existed.
He didn't just improve his score; he changed the way he saw his own future.
He worked so hard that Olivia hired him as a tutor, and he quickly became someone the younger students looked up to. Now, he looks for opportunities to speak to students directly — showing them possibilities they might not otherwise know existed — and opportunities like this one, to show adults what's possible too.
Because when you show a student what's actually possible, they don't wait for a chance; they work for the opportunity, then come back to help paint the vision for someone else.
Today, Tayveon is a first-generation college student heading into his second year at Harvard, still weighing his opportunities: economics, computer science, and sociology all on the table. His goal is to combine the quantitative side of computer science with a sociological lens, using data to map the factors behind crime and incarceration and to better understand what drives them.
ABBY WESTBROOK
ABBY WESTBROOK
ABBY WESTBROOK
— Confidence Matters —
Throughout school, Abby struggled with truancy. School felt too overwhelming to walk into some days. When she signed up for ACT Prep as a sophomore elective with Olivia as her teacher, she expected a chore. Instead, she found a challenge she actually enjoyed.
By graduation, Abby was a speaker at the 2024 Southeast ACT Conference, addressing a packed room of adults on the various kinds and causes of anxiety students face and sharing both personal insight and data-driven ways to help them overcome it. That same year, she was named Valedictorian of her class, speaking in the center of the stadium in front of thousands. ACT prep wasn't the whole story, but the confidence she built along the way played a part in getting her there.
Because confidence isn't given; it's built one challenge at a time, until a student who used to hide is the one standing on the stage.
Today, Abby is a rising sophomore at UAB, majoring in biomedical science, inspired by a high school teacher (shoutout to Mrs. Lindsay Hall!) to pursue a path that serves rural communities where quality healthcare is often out of reach.
YANDEL BUSSEY
ABBY WESTBROOK
YANDEL BUSSEY
— Purpose Matters —
When Yandel walked into Impact for the first time, he didn't ask for a handout. He asked for a job. When Olivia asked why, he said he wanted the chance to raise his score, but he wanted to earn his way there, not be given it. Though he had already earned a 26, Olivia told him he'd have to prep with her first and asked when he could stay for tutoring. "Now," he said, and pulled up a chair. After increasing his score, eventually earning a 35, Yandel quit his job at Chick-fil-A to work at Impact and found purpose helping other students the same way.
Yandel often says he wants to achieve the most he can, not for himself, but for his family and community. That shows up in the small moments too, like when he incentivized a group of rising 4th graders to raise their grades with fishing rods, sharing his own favorite hobby with Impact's youngest kids.
Because purpose isn't something you wait and hope for; it's something you search for. And when you find it, you reach back to inspire the next generation.
Today, Yandel is a first-generation college student heading into his freshman year at Troy University, with a transfer option to Cornell University his sophomore year. He plans to study environmental science, drawn to the study of ecosystems and a strong interest in aquatic studies, with hopes of protecting aquatic ecosystems for the generations that will follow.