Success Stories
As the longest tenured principal in District 29 of Queens, NY, Harriet has created a loving, stable and collaborative school culture at Intermediate School 192. Since being introduced to Brain Power (BP) in 2014, she has created a model school-wide system, training all her staff in the basic Teacher Workshop, as well as training 5 Mentor teachers and 2 Leader teachers. She has created a strong student leadership group and sent two student leaders on a week-long Brain Power Student Leadership retreat upstate. Harriet also frequently attends the BP Administrative Retreats at Honor's Haven Resort and mentors other principals on how to integrate the Brain Power program into their school instructional plan.
Principal, IS 192Q
Since becoming a Brain Power Leader in December 2016, Elizabeth has worked creatively to infuse Brain Power into the school-wide culture at Middle School 343 in District 7 of the Bronx. She regularly leads Brain Power sessions for her colleagues during weekly staff meetings, created an audio file of a guided meditation for her colleagues to use with their classes before state tests. This year Elizabeth is excited to continue growing the Brain Power culture at MS 343X and to oversee her school's student leaders' Earth Citizen "Dream Projects" which aim to raise awareness of and promote creative solutions for various community issues.
Teacher, MS 343X
As the Brain Power Leader of Public School 43 in District 7 in the Bronx, Peter is working to advance and nurture the Brian Power community in his school. He mentors a group of Brain Power student leaders and leads weekly Brain Power Professional Development sessions for his peers. Peter has also made self regulating with Brain Power more accessiblity creating an adaptation of the Yale Mood Meter and the Brain Power Activity Cards! Peter has made an easy-to-use guide for finding the right Brain Power exercise to help students find the right activity to help resolve any emotional fluctuations on their own.
Teacher, PS 43X
Julian (Junior at East Meadow High School) and Reggy-Ryan (Junior at Holy Trinity High School, Hicksville) have attended Brain Power Student Leadership retreats and workshops since they were in elementary school. Now they serve as mentors to younger student leaders and are actively engaged in creating positive change in their school communities. Both young men have initiated "Earth Citizen Dream Projects":
Julian is currently working on forming a Gay-Straight Alliance to facilitate proactive communication at his high school while Reggy Ryan is piloting a project to raise funds for low income students to have access to sports equipment and recreational leagues. Both students also frequently help host community Earth Citizen events and district-wide family seminars at Brain Power schools.
Julian Quaresima & Reggy-Ryan Cadet
Student Leaders, Long Island
History of Brain Power Wellness
In September 2002, Dave Beal began teaching 5th grade at Public School 375 in Brooklyn as a NYC Teaching Fellow. While he was drawn to teaching in the wake of 9/11 as a way of empowering future leaders to create a more equitable, peaceful and sustainable world, it became clear that Dave needed help managing the stress of teaching in this high-needs environment.
To manage his own stress and energy levels, Dave began practicing yoga, tai chi and mindfulness and experienced great changes in his health and in his ability to connect with his students. Dave began incorporating regular mind-body and brain exercises into his classroom with great success and was asked by administrators at PS 375 and Bayview Elementary (in Freeport, Long Island) to develop school-wide mindfulness/SEL programs at both schools.
After helping his principals in Brooklyn and Freeport design school-wide wellness programs for three years Dave made the difficult decision to leave the classroom to share mindfulness and wellness with more school communities. He accepted a position with a wellness company named Power Brain Education, which was owned by one of Ilchi Lee’s companies. Over the next two years with PBE Dave shared mindfulness and wellness techniques with around fifty schools in NYC.
In 2009, Ilchi Lee was the subject of a lawsuit filed in Arizona from former Body & Brain employees who alleged undue influence and unfair business practices. All claims in the lawsuit were either dismissed by the Court or dropped by the plaintiffs in 2013. However, several media outlets picked up the story. The NY Post ran a misleading article, which they immediately retracted, inaccurately connecting PBE’s work in NYC to the lawsuits. Because of this negative publicity the DOE understandably suspended PBE from working in NYC schools.
In 2010 he resigned from PBE and began running private teaching and consulting practice for students and families. However, Dave never gave up on his dream of sharing wellness with schools and being part of a principled movement for systemic change within our educational system. After briefly returning to PBE in 2015, Dave realized it was time to start a new school-based wellness company. In 2016, Dave and his team created Brain Power Wellness (BPW) and BPW has worked with more than 25,000 teachers and 500,000 students in 500 schools around the world
What people are saying about BPW
We are proud to be a Brain Power district in District 12. We utilize Brain Power exercises in our principal meetings and our parent leaders lead parents in the exercises at our CEC meetings. We see the value of the Brain Power Wellness strategies to help students, parents and teachers with focus, mindfulness and emotional well-being.
Rafaela Espinal, Superintendent, District 12
The Brain Power program is helping my teachers and students to manage their stress, increase concentration, and develop the internal efficacy to create peaceful ways to interact with themselves and others.
Reva Gluck Schneider, Principal, PS 144Q
Brain Power Wellness is an awesome tool that I brought to my school to shift the way we address providing a supportive environment for our students. In our second year of implementation we are excited to have empowered our student leaders to drive this valuable program school-wide.
Judith James, Principal, PS 28K
The Brain Power program is a necessary tool to align positive energy in daily life. It fosters building healthy minds, bodies and citizens of the earth for a better tomorrow. Brain Power rocks!
Harriet Diaz, Principal, IS 192Q
For me personally, it strengthened me to go back into my classroom, and what I loved is the ability to empower my students to become Leaders in their own right, to own their own energy, their own direction, their actions, and that for me is one of the most powerful things I can do for my students to help them become future Leaders and also successful at the end of their educational journey.
Rachael Clarke, Teacher & Brain Power Leader, IS 192Q
As Teachers we need to refill our gas tank, and this workshop was the perfect opportunity for me to feel good and get energy so I can spread what I have learned to the staff and parents. It’s like shining some really bright light on the school. Teachers work so hard, I want to give them tools to take care of themselves and their students. The mindfulness and gratitude training and everyone working together was an amazing experience. I am feeling really awesome right now!
Denise Comenzo, Teacher & Brain Power Leader, PS 84K
