Founder's Message - What Does HOPE Mean To You?

Welcome to my first Founder’s Message Friday! I’m Cheryl A. Bushman, founder of HOPE Academy Ranch USA. Before we begin this conversation, I want to share how HOPE began and why this work matters so much to me.

Our HOPE story began in 2011. Through TEAM HOPE, we raised money so students from lower-income families could participate in basketball, boxing, and other organized sports. For a time, we also offered an after-school program called The HOPE Center at the local ISD disciplinary alternative high school where I worked, giving students something to do and a place to connect after school.

My experience at that school eventually led me to start HOPE Academy. I saw young people with so much potential, and I became deeply concerned that the disciplinary system was moving too many of them toward incarceration. In my experience, it was functioning as a school-to-prison pipeline.

For five years, I stayed and tried to change things from within. I worked to help the students I could, but it never felt like enough. By the end of my time there, I found myself attending more funerals and visiting more prisons to see or say goodbye to my students than I ever could have imagined. These were young people I knew and cared about. Those experiences stayed with me.

I knew it was time to leave and build another way forward. On December 2, 2019, I started HOPE Academy, carrying with me the students, the lessons, and the belief that young people deserve opportunities to explore what their lives can become.

That is the part of the story behind our name. And it brings me to the word I want us to think about together in this first Friday conversation: HOPE. You know it as part of our name. But today, I’m also thinking about hope as something personal. What does that word mean to you? I’ve been wondering why my understanding of hope might be different from my children’s, or from someone I have never met. We can say the same word and have very different things in mind.

Perhaps that is because we bring our own lives to it. What we have experienced, what we are facing today, and what we long for can all shape what hope means to us. A student might hear hope and think about finishing school. A parent might think about their child finding a direction. Someone facing a difficult season might hope for a little relief, or for enough strength to take the next step. Another person might be imagining a possibility they have never had the chance to explore.

I don’t want to assume I know what hope means to my children simply because I know and love them. There's a question I would rather ask them - and I want to ask you, too. When you say, “I have hope,” what are you hoping for? Has your answer changed over the years? Is hope a feeling for you, a belief, a decision, or something you are still trying to understand?

I’m beginning this series because I want to make room for conversations like these. I’ll share my thoughts, but I also want to hear yours. Your experience may help me see something I haven’t considered.

For this first Friday, let’s start with one question: What does hope mean to you right now?

You can share a word, a sentence, or a story—whatever you feel comfortable sharing. You don’t need a polished answer. I’m still thinking about mine.

This is an open discussion. Please share your answers in the comments below or directly to my email: cheryl.bushman@thehopecenter.life

Thank you for being part of this conversation.

With hope,