The Inner Strength Digital Platform recently went to school to be tested. For once, the students weren’t the ones being tested. They were doing the testing. And the result? We passed with flying colors!
Over four days, students in grades 8–12 at Carver High School of Engineering and Science gave up most of their lunch periods to experiment with the platform. It brings together voice and text, our curriculum, a meditation library, and AI-assisted individualized learning for wellbeing. These students are smart, methodical, and familiar with the scientific approach. Their experiments, assessments, recommendations, and questions were on point and so helpful.
One student came up to Amy and said, “I’m a teen full-stack developer. What’s your backend made on?” After they talked through the architecture, he nodded his approval. He was impressed, and believe us, that’s hard to do with discerning teens! Our lead developer’s response: “Internship for him!”
By the numbers
- 400+ user sessions logged
- Many students came back two and three times, brought friends, and used it at home without being asked
- 100 one-on-one exit conversations between Amy and students about what worked and what didn’t
What students said
They liked it:
“Yes, you need to finish building this!”
“I would use this.”
“It sounded like it was made for me, not just a generic chatbot that doesn’t understand me.”
What they tried
Students explored lessons on the brain, mind, and heart, all drawn from the Inner Strength curriculum we teach in classrooms. They tried guided meditations, breathing practices, affirmations, and a private journal, and they talked with an AI coach by typing or out loud.
All of the curriculum is hand-written by Amy, and all of the meditations are recorded by our instruction team. The AI-assisted component provides voice and responds directly to students’ questions, drawing only on a bounded Inner Strength knowledge base.
In their words
Students told us the meditations and breathing helped them calm down, sometimes when they hadn’t realized they were stressed.
“It helped me ask questions of my soul.”
“I did the meditation. It was relaxing. I was pretty stressed from Chinese [class] before this period.”
“Even though it’s made with AI, you can tell it was really thought through, and you can genuinely see the effort.”
“I think a lot of kids would need something like that.”
Students as partners
Our testers were also honest critics, which is exactly what we hoped for. Some found parts of the lessons repetitive and asked us to “make my brain work a little harder.” Others pointed out slow chat responses and features that don’t yet work well on phones.
Students left with a QR code so they can keep using the platform at home, and we’ll be back in November and December for more rounds of testing. The team is already working through their feedback, from tuning the coach’s responses to fixing bugs and planning a mobile version.
More to come!
Made possible by you
This summer, our community raised $16,466 to put laptops in students’ hands for testing, surpassing our $15,000 goal. That equipment is now hard at work. Your support also kept our testers fueled with treats and put smiles on a lot of teen faces. Thank you!
