State of Becoming partners with schools, youth-serving organizations, and learning communities to help young people build the skills they need to lead, connect, and grow beyond academics alone.
Through engaging, practical experiences, I help students strengthen confidence, self-awareness, resilience, emotional intelligence, and leadership while also supporting the educators and adults who guide them.
For Schools & Youth
The behavior problem in your building isn't a student problem. It's a culture problem. And it lives in every room.
THE PROBLEM
Your counselors are stretched. Your staff is exhausted. And the behavior concerns keep coming.
You've tried the programs. You've updated the handbooks. You've held the professional development days. And still — the same students are cycling through the same responses, the same staff are frustrated by the same inconsistencies, and the same families feel disconnected from what's happening in the building.
The problem isn't effort. Your people are working hard.
The problem is that behavior support in most schools is almost entirely reactive — responding after escalation instead of building the shared skills, language, and expectations that prevent escalation in the first place.
When a school's behavior culture is primarily reactive, a few things happen:
Students don't build the emotional and relational skills they need — they just experience consequences. Staff become inconsistent because there's no shared language or clear escalation pathway — so the building feels different depending on whose classroom you're in. Families feel blamed or left out — given information after something goes wrong instead of tools to reinforce the work at home. And leaders spend more time managing behavior crises than building the culture that would reduce them.
The result is a building that is working harder than it should have to — and getting less traction than it deserves.
The core belief that drives this work:
Student behavior cannot improve sustainably if adults are unsupported, families are disconnected, and expectations are inconsistent.
THE APPROACH (Calm, Clear, Connected)
Calm, Clear, Connected A School Culture + SEL Support Model by State of Becoming
Calm, Clear, Connected is a semester-based school culture support model designed to help students, families, staff, and school leaders build shared SEL language, strengthen behavior expectations, and create a healthier, more consistent school environment.
This is not a student SEL program with a few staff trainings attached. It is a whole-ecosystem model — because the research is clear and the experience confirms it: you cannot sustainably improve student behavior by working with students alone.
The adults in the building have to carry the culture too.
1. Student Support: Skill-Building + Behavior Reflection
Student sessions focus on practical SEL skills students can use in real school situations — emotional regulation, respectful communication, conflict response, decision-making, accountability, empathy, and repair.
Students are guided through reflection-based activities that help them understand what happened, what they felt, how they responded, what the consequence was, and whether the outcome was worth it.
This is not compliance training. It is skill-building — repeated, practiced, and grounded in the real situations students are actually navigating.
The Three-Pronged Model:
2. Family Support: Shared Language + Home Reinforcement
Family sessions and touchpoints help parents and caregivers understand the SEL language and behavior expectations students are learning at school — so the work doesn't stop at the front door.
The goal is not to blame families. It is to equip them with simple, practical tools to reinforce emotional regulation, accountability, respectful communication, and repair at home. When school and home speak the same language, students don't have to code-switch between two completely different sets of expectations.
3. Staff + Leadership Support: Adult Culture, Consistency, and Response
Staff and leadership support focuses on strengthening adult consistency, role clarity, escalation pathways, and leadership presence when behavior concerns arise.
This component helps schools move beyond procedure alone and toward a healthier adult culture — where staff feel supported, expectations are clear, and behavior response is more consistent across the building regardless of whose classroom a student is standing in.
WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT
We don't hand you a program and leave.
This is the most important thing to understand about how State of Becoming works with schools.
Districts have a graveyard of programs that arrived with enthusiasm, trained a handful of staff, and quietly disappeared when the budget shifted, the champion moved on, or the implementation got hard. The curriculum sits in a binder. The language fades. The culture reverts.
That is not what this is.
State of Becoming embeds directly in your building — delivering the program, modeling the approach, and maintaining the quality and consistency of the work throughout the engagement. Our State of Becoming fellow works alongside the lead facilitator, ensuring that the program has sustained presence, not just a strong launch.
You are not buying a curriculum. You are buying an ongoing partnership with people who stay in the building with you.
And we bring something most SEL programs cannot:
Real experience with the hardest youth population in the system.
State of Becoming has facilitated reflection-based emotional literacy programming at the Sedgwick County Juvenile Detention Facility for over a year — working directly with young people navigating the most high-stakes behavioral, emotional, and decision-making challenges imaginable. That work is funded by a $145,000 two-year grant from the Kansas Department of Corrections.
When we say we understand student behavior — we mean we have been in the room with your most challenging students, in their most difficult moments, and built something that works.
That experience is what we bring into your building.
HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS
A full academic year. One grade level at a time.
Meaningful, sustained change requires reinforcement over time — for students and adults alike. Calm, Clear, Connected is a full academic year program, not a semester pilot or a one-time workshop series. Each year focuses on one grade level, allowing deep, consistent work that builds real traction before expanding.
The program is delivered by a State of Becoming lead facilitator alongside an embedded State of Becoming fellow — a junior, senior, or graduate student in education, early childhood, criminal justice, social work, or community development, trained in the State of Becoming approach. The fellow's presence ensures sustained consistency and relationship-building with students and staff throughout the year.
Two semesters. One cohesive arc.
Semester 1 — Building the Foundation
Establishing shared language, skills, and expectations across the grade level. Whole-group sessions, family engagement, staff support, and leadership consultation begin here. The goal is to build the shared culture before targeting specific concerns.
Semester 2 — Deepening and Targeting
Continued whole-grade reinforcement combined with focused targeted intervention for students with recurring behavior patterns — not medically diagnosed, but consistently struggling. The second semester deepens what was built and addresses the students who need the most support.
The program is tailored by school level — because elementary, middle, and high school are not the same problem.
Elementary School Universal whole-grade delivery both semesters. Parent and family engagement included throughout — families of younger students are more accessible and the home reinforcement component is essential at this stage. Semester 2 adds targeted small group work with recurring behavior students within the grade.
Middle School — 6th Grade Mirrors the elementary model. Sixth graders are developmentally still very similar to upper elementary students — concrete thinkers, still forming socially, and highly responsive to the universal whole-grade approach. Parent component included both semesters.
Middle School — 7th & 8th Grade A hybrid model. Semester 1 begins with a whole-grade foundation — building shared language and expectations across the grade. Parent engagement is included in Semester 1. Semester 2 shifts toward a referral-based targeted intervention model as the population trends older and behavior patterns become more entrenched. No parent component in Semester 2.
High School Referral-based from day one. High school students with recurring behavior concerns — fighting, chronic classroom disruption, teacher and administrator referrals — are the primary population. Sessions are small group, reflective, and skill-building in nature, grounded in real situations students are navigating. No formal parent component. The framing shifts toward workforce readiness, post-secondary preparation, and life beyond the building — because high school students need a reason to engage that speaks to where they're headed, not where they've been.
District Pilot Partnership
For districts ready to understand what Calm, Clear, Connected looks like across school types — we recommend a three-school pilot: one elementary, one middle, and one high school, running simultaneously during the same academic year. This generates clean, comparable outcome data across three distinct populations and gives district leadership a clear picture of what system-wide expansion could look like in year two.
The three-school pilot is scoped individually based on school size, grade selection, and district context.
Investment
All engagements are scoped based on school type, grade level, program structure, and organizational context. Investment is not listed publicly because no two schools are the same — and the conversation about fit matters more than the number.
WHO THIS IS FOR
This work is the right fit if:
You are a district administrator, superintendent, or principal who understands that behavior is a culture problem — not just a student problem
Your building is spending more time responding to behavior crises than building the culture that would reduce them
You've tried programs that didn't stick and you're ready for an embedded partner who stays in the work with you
You want your staff, families, and students speaking the same language and operating from the same shared expectations
You are ready to address the adult culture in your building alongside the student culture
This is not the right fit if:
You are looking for a one-time assembly, workshop, or motivational program
You want a curriculum to hand off to existing staff without ongoing outside support
You need a program that can run without an embedded facilitator
ABOUT THIS WORK
Why State of Becoming does this work.
Young people do not arrive in crisis. They arrive underprepared — for the emotional complexity of relationships, the pressure of academic expectation, and the reality that nobody taught them what to do with the feelings that come with both.
The same is true of the adults around them. Staff are underprepared for the behavioral complexity of today's students. Families are underprepared to reinforce at home what schools are trying to build. And leaders are often underprepared to build the adult culture that makes consistency possible building-wide.
Calm, Clear, Connected exists because every part of that ecosystem deserves support — not just the student sitting in the office after something went wrong.
This work is grounded in the same Heart+Mind Framework that guides all State of Becoming engagements: the belief that sustainable change requires solving for both the human experience and the operational reality — simultaneously, and with care.
Ready to talk about what's happening in your building?
Whether you're a district administrator exploring options for next school year or a principal who needs support now — the first step is a confidential conversation about your building's specific culture and what a partnership could look like.
No pitch. No pressure. Just an honest look at whether this is the right fit.
Tell me a little about your school or district and what you're navigating. I'll be in touch within one business day.
What Our Partners Say
The Mind Over Mood sessions have been a meaningful addition to our programming. Students consistently engage with Candice’s activities, metaphors, and hands-on tools. We’ve seen increased openness and emotional awareness in the boys who participate.
ShaQiyla Banks, Sr. Independent Living Trainer, Sedgwick County Department of Corrections
Candice Smith has been an incredible partner, delivering State of Becoming mindset programs that align with our community's mission for hands-on, personalized learning.
Through classes like Youth Mindset Labs, Leadership Launchpads, Becoming Circles, and Kindness in Action, she creates spaces where students feel seen, supported, and encouraged to grow. Her interactive activities and storytelling help students practice emotional intelligence, confidence, resilience, and kindness in meaningful ways.
Candice connects naturally with both students and families. She leads with compassion and clarity, empowering young people to recognize their strengths and navigate challenges with confidence.
We are grateful for her dedication to nurturing young leaders and building a culture of kindness. Her work continues to make a profound impact on our community.
Molly Brown, Program and Events Manager, Learning Lab Wichita
