Today we’d like to introduce you to Franchesca Thompson. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Franchesca Thompson is an accomplished educator, community advocate, and creative entrepreneur. She is driven by a passion for empowering teachers and students and providing diverse educational resources to amplify marginalized voices in the classroom. She’s the kind of person who identifies a lack in a region or community and then creates innovative tools or programs that are needed to fill that gap. With nearly two decades of experience in education, Franchesca has been recognized as a leader and a changemaker throughout her career. She is now serving as the Career Academy Coach for South Gwinnett High School. Part of her job at South Gwinnett is designed to support students by providing academic and culturally enriching experiences that align with increasing student success after high school. She works with business partners worldwide to create these opportunities for students and teachers throughout the academic year. By creating culturally enriching field experiences, all students—especially those whose parents have a more challenging time accessing these experiences on their own—would benefit. It’s possible to expose students to a broader world and support creating the future leaders of tomorrow.
She enjoys collaborating with industry partners and the community to provide students with the optimal learning experience in and out of the classroom. She has developed partnerships with a wide range of major corporations, including the Technology Association of Georgia, AT&T, Georgia Power, Georgia Pacific, Empowered, Apple, Code.org, Microsoft Academy, and Google.
Franchesca earned her M.A.T. in Business Education from the University of Georgia and is currently working on her Ph.D. in Workforce Education.
As a result of her dedication to empowering students and teachers, she created her own company, Thrive 12, to support educators worldwide with the challenges of being a teacher. Thrive 12 is an online academic hub providing diverse educational resources and innovative tools to amplify marginalized voices in education. Thrive 12 consists of resources to support diversity in the classroom, all the way to a podcast called “Everything But The Lesson Plan, with topics on self-care, classroom management, and current issues in education. Thrive 12 is the go-to place for supporting teachers in every aspect of teaching, from their social-emotional needs to the varied classroom resources needed to be a successful educator. Franchesca Thompson has always been driven by equity, innovation, and exposure. She wants to see schools serving marginalized communities thrive. She has always had a heart for supporting the underdog.
She is married to Mark Thompson, and they have three children, Onexia, Mark II, and Alyssa Thompson.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As she has worked in education, she has seen several educational challenges that need to be eliminated. The main challenge that she hones in on is Access Disparities. Disparities in access to quality programs and resources persist globally, with marginalized communities and economically disadvantaged populations facing greater barriers to educational opportunities. Access disparities in education have profound effects on students, impacting their academic achievement, socio-economic opportunities, and overall well-being. This is why she is so passionate about finding and sharing resources that will make a difference for students and teachers. She aims to help close the achievement gap by using her business to support educators with innovative resources, programs, and ideas that will make a difference in the classroom.
Franchesca Thompson knows that addressing access disparities in education is essential for promoting social justice, equity, and inclusive development. She has used partnerships at South Gwinnett to send students to Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. When a group of diverse students visit these corporations and imagine themselves working there one day, you have changed the trajectory of that child’s life.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Founder* Educator* Podcaster Fox Five Atlanta Top Five Teachers of The Year
2023 Margaret G Gibbs Educator of The Year Award
Business Innovator Award- Gwinnett
Teacher of The Year- National Foundation Teaching of Entrepreneurship
https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/everything-but-the-lesson-plan/id1696225145
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
I will say that luck has played some parts in my life, but I also believe that everything is predestined, and opportunities will arrive when the time right. I have found myself being looked over opportunities before, but the timing needed to be better, even though I did not understand that then. So, I am lucky in the sense that I did not step into those opportunities at that time because I would not have been ready. So, while luck shapes my life’s trajectory, it’s essential to recognize that it’s not the sole determinant of my success or failure. I have that control. Life is what you make it.
It’s a combination of luck and fate. I am a true believer that the universe will align to manifest your destiny. The people that I have met and have supported me along the way have been an integral part of me achieving my goals and making a difference in the community.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thrive12.com
- Instagram: msfranchesca_t
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/franchesca.b.thompson
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/franchesca-thompson95
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/5FIqTKhVEV5GLlZqouzTn1?si=8cbbe994ac7441f7
