Mpower

Public education in the United States is increasingly focused on ensuring that all students graduate from high school and matriculate to college. Unfortunately, students themselves have demonstrated widespread academic disengagement across the middle and high school years. This disengagement is associated with a host of negative academic outcomes, including the failure to leverage their educations toward long-term goals. This article presents a youth purpose program called MPOWER designed to increase student engagement, intrinsic motivation, and ultimately college matriculation rates at an urban high school in the greater Boston area. Research and theory that inform MPOWER, as well as insights from the first author’s experience as an urban educator implementing purpose curriculum, are discussed. The article highlights ways in which youth purpose interventions, such as MPOWER, are especially relevant for underserved and marginalized student populations.