Lee High School students win National Kind Schools Challenge with 'Your Story is Mine' project

Three students at Lee High School and their teacher are winners of a National Kind Schools Challenge

It’s sponsored by Harvard University and The Kind Foundation. Three students, Christopher Burgess, Nicholas Burgess and Billy Luper and their teacher Amy Donofrio came up with the "Your Story is Mine" project

The students shared their stories of adversity with the school on a board in a hallway so others could support them using "like" stickers,or “I support you” messages.

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Donofrio has been teaching for nine years and said she wanted change and to connect with her students on a deeper level.

“For me, I had to grieve the reality that far too many youth were going through the unthinkable,” Donofrio said.

She started the Evac Movement Class, which includes around 15 at-risk boys who said they’re “At Hope.”

While in the class, the three students who headed up the project focused on topics like having incarcerated parents, homelessness and losing loved ones to violence right here in Jacksonville.

The three said it made them realize so many others in the school had struggles.

“We accomplished our goal of uniting the school,” Burgess said.

These young men are proving breaking the cycle is an option their teacher said quitting was never an option.

“When we want to give up, she keeps us going,” Burgess said.

The boys will split a $1,500 prize, and Lee High School will receive a $2,700 donation to keep the project going.

Cox Media Group