Sara POTLER LaHayne
Founder and CEO of Move This World
The Power of Creative Expression
Sara LaHayne is the Founder and CEO of Move This World, an award winning education media company that delivers social and emotional learning multimedia experiences so that students can establish and maintain healthy relationships, build trust, and navigate an increasingly complex world.
Change has been consistent for MTW, but one thing has remained the same: a steadfast vision from a founder determined to develop skills for authentic expression and emotional management so that every student, teacher, administrator and family member is free of the limitations that we often place on ourselves.
Are you ready to Move This World?
It all started at recess one day at an elementary school in Bogota, Columbia…
Sara realized that movement could be used as a platform to promote social emotional learning skills.
When Sara first embarked on her journey as a Fulbright Scholar in Colombia in 2007, it struck her as odd that students in conflict ridden Bogota were being taught empathy and conflict resolution through textbooks. Students weren’t interested in reading about these important concepts.
They wanted to dig deeper…
In 2007, when Sara first embarked on her journey as a Fulbright Scholar in conflict-ridden Colombia, it struck her as odd that there was an attempt to teach students empathy and conflict resolution through textbooks. Not surprisingly, students had shown little interest in reading about these important concepts.
Then, one day at recess, Sara watched students in a parking lot rock out to music playing from a boombox. She saw how passionate and inspired they were through their laughter and movement. That was her epiphany. She worked with the school’s faculty to help develop a program that borrowed from what the students loved – music and dance – and incorporated the same social, emotional and civic skills described in their textbooks. In partnership with her Fulbright research team, professional educators and creative arts therapists, Sara developed and implemented the very first Move This World (MTW) social emotional learning curriculum.
After returning to the US, Sara worked with the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and the American Institutes for Research to adapt and expand the program. The curriculum was carefully developed to align to the five core social emotional competencies as defined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL).