Did you know that mentoring youth helps to increase their likelihood of graduating from high school while also decreasing the likelihood that youth will initiate abusing illegal drugs and alcohol use? Well, it's true. But building student success goes behind just mentoring. It's about creating an environment that evokes passion and curiosity. In doing this, where should you start?

On this new episode of Change Starts Here, host Dustin Odham chats with a guest with many accomplishments as an Entrepreneur, CEO of Student Success Agency, Author, and Speaker. EJ Carrion discusses how to nurture success for students and what tools are out there to help support students’ journeys. Odham and Carrion talk over…

• How to create an environment and a concept that asks thought-provoking, curiosity-rekindling questions

• Why it is essential to reframe students' concepts of success in education

• Which methods help empower students to wake up with purpose and passion

"I think kids are more engaged in school when [that] agency is given to them to have the freedom to build. [When] their educators and school leaders are giving them the permission to lead the discussion of school for themselves, for the community, and even just where the world's going to go," said Carrion.

A first-generation college graduate, Carrion graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor's degree in Journalism. His passion for education and inspiring youth to pursue their dreams has led him to found his own companies as a motivational speaker and author and as the co-founder and CEO of Student Success Agency, a digital student support services platform founded in 2012.