The Story Beneath the Soil
Rooting to Rise™ was born from the place where many lives begin to unravel: middle school.
That’s when I first started losing my sense of self. I didn’t feel connected — not to my teachers, not to my peers, not to myself and not even to my own family. Like so many others, I drifted through those years without a meaningful anchor. I endured far more struggle than I ever should have — not just because the education system failed me, but because my home life didn’t offer the tools or support I needed either.
School could have made the difference. It could have been a safe place to understand who I was and how to grow into that — but it wasn’t.
Rooting to Rise™ is a personal revolution — one that’s been slowly rising in me for years.
“There are seeds in all of us - some buried by time, some waiting for the right disturbance to finally awaken.” - Unknown
A Seed in the System
I spent nearly 15 years teaching middle school with two degrees in education and a Montessori Secondary I & II certification. I lived inside the system — and I saw both the beauty of what can work and the damage of what definitely does not.
The students weren’t the problem. The system was.
It focused on test scores, not soft skills. On deficits, not strengths. It measured success in grades, not in self-awareness, critical thinking, confidence, or connection. Very little was applicable in the real world. It skipped the part where they learn how to be human beings — to know who they are, how they learn, what they feel, what they value, and how to build a life aligned with purpose.
At the same time, I watched loved ones struggle in addiction recovery systems that were often outdated, impersonal, or misaligned.
There too, we missed the root. There too, we needed new tools.
“There is a vitality in you, a life force, an energy… and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost.” - Marth Graham
Sprouting a Vision
For over a decade, I kept circling this idea. Taking notes. Letting it evolve. Dreaming of something more holistic, human-centered, and real. But I could never quite see how to bring it all together. Until one day, it all started to flow — into something I could no longer ignore.
That clarity gave rise to what is now Rooting to Rise™ — a living brand built on personal insight and collective possibility.
It began as a soul-aligned curriculum to guide adolescents at one of the most important stages of human development and adults in recovery with the kind of personal development we all needed but never got. And it grew into something more: a platform for creative educational tools and real-world support for bringing meaningful growth into learning environments.
“Your light is not what you do. It’s what breaks through when you dare to be who you are.” - Unknown
Turning Toward the Sun
Rooting to Rise™ is more than a company — it’s a transformational framework.
A rite of passage, a mirror, a bridge, and a spark.
Today, Rooting to Rise™ offers a suite of creative tools and support systems designed to meet that journey:
a flagship pilot curriculum, reflective print and digital materials, aligned apparel, and educational services.
We follow the natural rhythm of growth — preparing the soil and exploring the roots, clearing the clouds to reach toward the sun, practicing and sustaining nourishment, and blooming, branching, and spreading seeds.
Our mission is to deepen self-understanding, sharpen discernment, build inner trust, and ignite a sense of purpose — all while reconnecting us to the world we live in, and the bodies, minds, and spirits we carry through it.
