A $43,000 grant from the Northland Foundation will help a University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) professor and a local preschool to evaluate an innovative early childhood curriculum focused on holistic development.

The new curriculum, Flourishing Foundations for Summit School, was developed by Professor Rhea Owens in close collaboration with Summit School Directors India Salter and Nate Byrne. Together, the team saw an opportunity to strengthen early childhood education and enhance learning outcomes at the nonprofit preschool.

For Owens, whose research centers on positive psychology, the project will realize one of her long-held goals.

“As a graduate student, I dreamed of creating a strengths-based early childhood education curriculum to help in the process of positive early development in a place where we can reach a lot of children—the school setting,” says Owens. “Young children grow and learn so rapidly, so there is a lot of potential to have a positive impact early on.”

Grounded in Owens' expertise in positive psychology, the birth-to-pre-K program integrates social-emotional learning (SEL) so children can build essential skills like self-awareness, self-regulation, and problem-solving alongside core academic areas like language and literacy, STEM, art, and social studies.

Additionally, the curriculum emphasizes “strength spotting,” a practice where children's unique strengths are recognized and named. It also encourages the regular expression and modeling of gratitude and kindness in the classroom.

Owens brings both professional expertise and a personal connection to the initiative as a Summit School parent and board member.

Summit’s teachers learned more about the curriculum during a fall in-service training. The curriculum evaluation will roll out later this year and into early next year, with ongoing teacher and parent feedback.

A synergistic relationship

UMD alumni and students make up much of Summit’s staff and volunteers. Salter (‘19) started working part-time as a teacher while completing her major in human biology and minor in early childhood education. Nearly a decade later, having progressed from classroom educator to director, she is excited to strengthen the partnership between Summit and UMD, including creating meaningful opportunities for students in the university's new Early Childhood Education major.

Throughout her career, Salter noticed a persistent gap in available teaching tools. “We know so much about what supports healthy development in young children, but there is a shocking disconnect between what research recommends and what educators have the time and resources to implement,” she explains.

For Salter, early childhood education extends well beyond traditional academics. “Academic readiness matters, but it's only one part of the picture. We are helping children build lifelong skills like self-awareness, resilience, curiosity, confidence, and kindness.”

Flourishing Foundations was designed specifically to bridge the gap between academic theory and daily classroom realities.

“We wanted to build a research-grounded curriculum that isn't just good on paper, but is realistic, doable, and beneficial in practice,” Salter says. “If we can provide a framework that takes some of that burden off early childhood educators while maintaining high standards, teachers can focus on what matters most: meaningful interactions and relationships with children.”