Our Story
Peace in Schools started out as an after-school mindfulness program offered to a few local schools by our founder Caverly Morgan, her colleague Allyson Copacino, and a group of volunteers in Portland, Oregon. In 2014, a high school principal, concerned about high rates of teen suicide, was blown away by the impact of what we were offering. When he asked Caverly “How do I get this to more teens?” She replied “Put us during the school day.” So he partnered with Peace in Schools to launch Mindful Studies –
the nation’s first for-credit semester-long mindfulness class in a public high school.
Homegrown in Portland, Oregon
The first semester of Mindful Studies, Caverly brought an outline and list of tools to share with the teens. Each class emerged organically, in relationship, in community, and in collaboration with the teens present. The class curriculum goes far beyond mindfulness basics and invites teens to explore important questions like Who am I? What does it mean to be human? How can I be happy?
Teens were so ready for what the class offered - over 300 teens forecasted to enroll in the course the first year. They craved the opportunity to be real, to go deep, to be in community with other teens as they discovered relief, possibility, acceptance, and even joy, together. Within five years, Peace in Schools grew to serve 90% of Portland public high schools. Today, we are national leaders and innovators in mindfulness education.
Since we launched in 2014, we have offered 216 semester sections of our for-credit elective mindfulness course to 10 high schools in Portland Public Schools District. Over 4,510 teens enrolled in our semester-long course during those seven years, representing 2,760 teen participant hours. Because we believe that educators benefit from mindfulness as much as their students, we launched our first courses for youth-serving professionals in 2017. Today, we serve hundreds of teens and adults every year. We continue to evolve our vision and programs to best serve teens now and into the future.
A Timeline of Peace in Schools
2013
Caverly Morgan and volunteers offer after-school programs and work with teens in local shelters. Principal Brian Chatard invites Caverly and Allyson Copacino to lead demo classes at Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School - over 300 students say they want to take the Mindful Studies class.
2014
Mindful Studies is born! Beginning with student-led transformation of a classroom, Peace in Schools partners with the Portland Public Schools district to launch the nation's first for-credit mindfulness elective in a public high school. We provide transformative mindfulness education to students at Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Rosemary Anderson and Alliance at Meek High Schools. 220 teens take Mindful Studies.
2015
Mindful Studies is a huge success! Word spreads among teens and parents in our community. We launch Mindful Studies at Lincoln and Cleveland High Schools. 1,000 Mindful Studies alumns to date.
2016
Mindful Studies begins at McDaniel and Franklin High Schools, growing our reach to teens across all communities in Portland. We create Teen Night, an after school community mindfulness event for teens facilitated by Peace in Schools Mindfulness Teachers. 1,837 Mindful Studies alumns to date.
We begin offering Mindful Studies at Roosevelt School. We create our first mindfulness courses for adults! By sharing mindfulness with teachers, social workers, school counselors, and other youth-serving professionals, we expand our vision for reaching teens by supporting a growing core of embodied educators. In the face of drastic budget cuts that threaten the Mindful Studies class, teens throughout Portland Public Schools show up to school board meetings to advocate for keeping Peace in Schools. 2,797 Mindful Studies alumns to date.
2017
2018
We add the Metorpolitan Learning Center, Alliance at Benson and Grant to the list of high schools we serve. We launch our first independent research study in partnership with Johns Hopkins University. Led by researcher Gia Naranjo-Rivera, PhD Candidate, the study is pioneering in its focus on the impact of mindfulness for youth with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). It is one of the largest adolescent mindfulness studies conducted to date. 115 students from three high schools (McDaniel, Cleveland, and Lincoln) participate in the study. Dr. Naranjo-Rivera's research goes on to win the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Partnership Award for Excellence in United States Public Health Practice. The research points to the Mindful Studies class being an effective mental health intervention for teens, and particularly for LGBTQ+ and low income students. 3,660 Mindful Studies alumns to date.
2019
Dr. Christina Bethell, a Professor at Johns Hopkins University in the Bloomberg School of Public Health, speaks to Congress and names Peace in Schools as a viable program that can support students who are impacted by trauma. In addition to Mindful Studies, we offer mindfulness workshops for 2,800 9th graders in Portland Public High Schools. We create our first online offerings for adults, including Mindfulness for Trauma: Buidling Resilience in your Work with Youth. 4,347 alumns to date.
2020
In response to the shift to remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic, we translate our entire Mindful Studies curriculum to an online format so that teens continue to receive our support when they need it most. Students report that our class helps them cope with stress, anxiety and depression during the pandmeic. We offer our virtual 8-Week Mindfulness-Based Professional Development Training to over 122 Portland Public School educators. 4,736 Mindful Studies alumns to date.
2021
Over 3,500 people join Pause for Peace - a free, three week long meditation experience. Peace in Schools begins in-depth strategic planning process with staff, board, and community stakeholders. We update our mission, vision, and values. 5,424 Mindful Studies alumns to date.
2022
Our team thoughtfully designs a new model to deliver Mindful Studies to schools beyond Portland. We gather feedback, meeting with over 40 high schools and stakeholders. The vision for the Mindful Studies Partnership Program pilot is born! 6,006 Mindful Studies alumns to date.
2023
The 2023-24 school year marks our 10th year of offering transformative mindfulness education to teens and adults! We build the foundation for the new Mindful Studies Partnership Program (MSPP) pilot, and we continue to proudly partner with Portland Public Schools to serve students and educators.
We also partner with the Sounds True Foundation to create a free Peace in Schools education series - “Peace With Youth Starts With Us: What We Wish We Learned in High School” - to be released May 2024.
We host our first ever Teen Mental Health Forum and create our Teen Advisory Board to uplift teen voices and influence organizational direction.
We launch the Visionary Investors Circle, a giving community leading Peace in Schools donors who make it possible to bring transformative mindfulness education to more schools.
2024
We officially launch our Mindful Studies Partnership Program! 10 educators from 7 schools across the west coast begin an in-depth three year training program to become certified to teach Mindful Studies to students at in their communities.
Transforming lives with mindfulness
Students, teachers and parents share their experience with our class.
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