About JKB Experiential Education Foundation

The Past, Present and Future of JKB EEF – Follow Our Evolution

Our Mission

The purpose of the JKB Experiential Education Foundation is education, with the goal to provide adolescents and young adults the knowledge, skills, perceptions, and attitudes, to help them improve lives, foster social harmony, develop appropriate social behaviors, and engage in community services. 

The Foundation accomplishes this purpose through training, instruction, and involvement of real-life situations to help adolescents and young adults develop and enhance the skill sets needed to: 

  • Cope with – and apply – acceptable solutions to the problems and conflicts encountered during their high school years 
  • Intervene positively and effectively with troubled friends
  • Be positive and influential role models to their peers and younger children in their community 
  • Initiate and carry out programs within their schools to address current social issues
  • Implement positive actions to prevent undesirable behaviors and activities from occurring  
  • Integrate into the fabric of their own school as well as feeder schools to serve as viable resources for other school groups, faculty, and administrators, to help address current issues and prevent others 
  • Create a support group among these young adults to affirm themselves when needed

This program was designed to provide an environment/facility outside the bricks and mortar of their high schools that promotes successful experiential learning and the transfer of knowledge and good judgment into their lives.

Leadership Rooted in JKB

JKB Experiential Education rooted itself in leadership with Strength, Integrity, Compassion, and Service. Transformed from the J. Kyle Braid Leadership Foundation in 2015, the program continued under a new name.  The direct, student-oriented, leadership-based programming was steadfast in the application of its far-reaching influence and transformation.

Its signature 35 hours of comprehensive leadership training was complemented with two days of ROPES course challenges that dovetailed with the curriculum continued to perpetuate the transfer of knowledge to the participants’ daily lives.  

The week-long experience was life changing not only to the individual, but also to the families and their dynamics.  Included in the program were activities that promoted relationship-building, communication skills, trust, confidence, self-esteem, and creativity.

 

Our Impact

participants in the J. Kyle Braid Leadership Foundation (The Ranch) from 1996-2014

participants in the JKB Experiential Education Foundation (Monmouth College) from 2015-2018

student athletes who benefitted from Sportsmanship Summits

young leaders attended the Butler County Workshops

coaches who improved their craft in coaching workshops

JKB volunteers who made a considerable impact on students and who became difference makers in their schools, communities, and families

and growing! volunteers for our partnership with Watts of Love

The Future is Bright

With more than a decade of meaningful outcomes from its previous focus, JKB Experiential Education Foundation now focuses its efforts to leverage its alumni and further impact their contribution to humanity. 

Read More

Pain to Purpose: Teaching Teens to Lead, Foster, and Engage the JKB Way is a book for everyone who twists life’s worst moments into beacons of hope for others.

Struggles today’s teenagers face in finding identity, meaning, and hope need not be faced alone.  The JKB program’s success in creating life pivot points for a generation of young adults provides a roadmap for parents, educators, and teens seeking brighter futures themselves.  

Pain to Purpose explores essential elements of identity development, including risk-taking, resilience, skill building, service, and deep connection.  With Colleen Malany’s effort to turn her pain to purpose as the common connection, the story of JKB is explored from the perspectives of the program’s inspiration, its leaders, and its participants.