B.I.O.N.I.C. Alumni Tell of B.I.O.N.I.C.’s Impact on Them in School and Years Later

B.I.O.N.I.C. Alumni – Carissa Sweetman, Sunhee Jung, Meagan Tracey, Hailee Beck, Gage Crispe, Alex Escalante

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I think a video is worth at least 10,000.

In the 14 years that I led B.I.O.N.I.C. Teams at Green Mountain High School (10 years) and then Pomona High School (4 years), over 1,200 B.I.O.N.I.C. Team members reached out to over 140,000 peers, families, school staff, and community members going through tough times to let them know they are “seen,” they “matter,” and people care. But how did those experiences impact our B.I.O.N.I.C. Team members?

Watch this video to hear how being on the B.I.O.N.I.C. Team impacted six of our B.I.O.N.I.C. alumni: the life skills they learned, the leadership skills they gained, and how what they learned is still impacting them up to this day – 16 years later. They are still impacting this world, their communities, their businesses, their churches/organizations, plus their families and friends! These people helped start a movement that is giving kids and others hope during the difficult times in their lives.

Our B.I.O.N.I.C. Team members (elementary through college) are often seen being awarded some of the top awards and scholarships in their schools, colleges, and communities. Years ago when I was a school counselor, Katie Kramer – the President and CEO of the Boettcher Foundation – one of the top premier scholarships in Colorado with a full ride to any Colorado school of their choice – stopped me at a school counselor conference saying, “Sandy, I am coming to your B.I.O.N.I.C. Team workshop today because I’ve got to find out what you’re doing with B.I.O.N.I.C. The scholarship applications we are seeing from your B.I.O.N.I.C. students almost seem unfathomable to be able to develop that level of leadership skills to have that kind of impact at their young age. I need to hear about your secret sauce in developing leaders!” Katie came to our workshop and the next week “B.I.O.N.I.C. Team” was added to the drop-down list on the leadership section of their application next to “Student Council” and “National Honor Society.” Our B.I.O.N.I.C. Team leaders continue to win the top awards and scholarships in their schools, communities, higher education institutions, states, and countries.

What is our secret sauce in impacting our own B.I.O.N.I.C. students’ lives while they are impacting the world around them? When they see the immediate impact of their outreaches over, and over, and over again, confidence wells up inside them to give them the courage to keep reaching out. When they do an outreach to a family who lost a loved one, immediately they see the impact of their action. When they go up to a bullied student to let him or her know it was wrong, they didn’t deserve it, and there is support for them at school, they see fear melt away on the bullied student’s face knowing people have their back instead of not wanting to come back to school because of fear or humiliation.

I was so moved when I went to the leader training for the Frontier Elementary Elementary B.I.O.N.I.C. Team Leaders. The B.I.O.N.I.C. Leaders from Cimarron Middle School were there to train the elementary leaders. I was blown away when I saw the Kindergarten leaders saying in their little voices, “Hi I’m Maria, welcome to Frontier Valley. I’m glad you came to our school.” Tears welled up in my eyes thinking of what their future can look like after learning those types of skills at such a young age and the impact they will have the rest of their lives!!! I’m still blown away every time I remember that moment at that little school in Parker, Colorado! This movement is picking up momentum across the world!