In 2023 UEF partnered with Mount Madonna School (MMS), a private school in California, to create and test pilot the Flourishing Child curriculum. The social-emotional learning curriculum is anchored in Loving, Learning, and Playing (LLP) to lead a Flourishing life, and offers activities to enhance LLP for elementary, middle and high school students.

Lisa Catterall, a key author on the curriculum, has worked as a lead researcher in STEAM education through the Centers for Research on Creativity for the last thirty years, and was excited to bring together proven lessons from MMS, UEF, and Centers for Research on Creativity to the project. She states, “The school’s roots, founded by a conscious community, where people sought self-development, give MMS a unique perspective to offer expertise within the framework of human flourishing.”

The currently accepted framework for social-emotional learning (SEL), the CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning) standards, were authored by experts in psychology and school counseling. Most curricula that have been established for SEL address deficits such as poor behavior and poor outcomes at public schools. The Flourishing Child program is designed to support human flourishing for all students.