Mark Lowry, Grammy Award Winning Artist Visits Five Star Life School

A special thanks to Mark Lowry, for sharing his Five Star Life experience at Olle Middle School in Houston, Texas. We were honored to have him meet our amazing students and volunteer coaches. He shared a story about Five Star Life on his Facebook page of over 200,000 followers and we are grateful. Middle school student’s lives are being changed for the better, core values are being instilled in them, and, in turn, they are going to change the world! Check out his story: 

What is your passion?  

That’s a question I asked a friend of mine last week. Van and I have been close friends most of our lives so I thought I knew him well, but he quickly responded, “if you’re gonna be in Houston next week I’ll come down and show you.”

To his surprise I had a few days off and invited him down. To my surprise he agreed on the spot to make the trip to Houston.

Arriving a little before noon on Wednesday — just in time to take me to breakfast — he said let’s go to lunch! The drive to downtown Houston gave us time to catch up and he began to share more about the passion he’s had for more than 15 years; a passion that was designed to open a window of hope to “at-risk” middle school students.

He told me a former Indiana Department of Education Superintendent of Schools referred to middle school the “black hole” because students may “physically drop-out” in high school, (7000 per school day), BUT they “mentally check-out” in middle school.

We met up with another friend and together they shared the vision of this life changing program. I could see that their passion had taken years to refine and great deal of patience to execute. The result is a program that is life changing for schools and students alike. They have developed a student program that could easily be implemented nationwide.

They drove me to Olle Middle School to see for myself the tremendous results of the Five Star Life after school program. What I saw first hand was amazing.

I heard stories and saw students who began in the program, called Five Star Life, in the fall. I saw firsthand the life changing results. I met students who have been through the program and are now helping to mentor those coming behind them.

Five Star Life is a program designed for middle school students and focused on five key areas: “at-risk” Education and Academic Support, Workforce Readiness, Mentoring, Character Education and Experiential Learning.

This program teaches core values that ignite hope and challenge students. I spoke with the schools principal who shared with me the magnitude of what Five Star Life is doing for her students and the school, parents are amazed at the results. This program motivates students, it is an investment into the turning around a struggling and failing public education system – Five Star Life is making a difference in the life of somebodies daughter, son, grandchild or neighbor. Our future is being placed on the backs of young people we invest in today. I encourage you to check out FiveStarLife.org, see the amazing stories, share their website with a friend and lets be a part of the solution by helping Five Star Life expand its program to more schools all across this nation.