Inside a sunlit classroom in Houston, a kindergartener sounds out her first full sentence while her teacher beams. Down the hall, a high school senior reviews her college acceptance letters. Across Texas — in Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and the Rio Grande Valley — moments like these unfold every day inside KIPP Texas Public Schools. The challenge has never been whether the stories exist. The challenge has been making sure the world sees them.
That's where the J.W. Couch Foundation's 2022 Storytelling Grant came in.
A Mission Three Decades in the Making
Founded in 1994, KIPP Texas has spent thirty years building something extraordinary: a tuition-free, open-enrollment public charter school network that now spans 59 campuses and serves nearly 34,000 students from pre-K through 12th grade. Born from the conviction that every child deserves a joyful, academically excellent education, KIPP Texas has become one of the most trusted names in public education across the state.
What makes KIPP uniquely positioned to address educational inequity isn't just its size — it's its philosophy. KIPP schools partner closely with families and communities to prepare students for college, career, and the lives they choose to build. The results speak for themselves: generations of KIPPsters are now first-generation college graduates, professionals, and community leaders.
But with ambitious goals to reach 100,000 students across Texas, KIPP needed more than great schools. It needed great storytelling.
From Classrooms to Screens
KIPP Texas was one of the very first organizations the J.W. Couch Foundation partnered with in its early days — and the relationship has only deepened over time. When KIPP's communications team identified the need for high-quality video assets to support recruitment, branding, and fundraising, the Foundation stepped in to fund the project and bring in trusted creative partner Tectonic Video, a team renowned for nonprofit storytelling backed by data-driven strategy.
Together, they crafted videos designed to speak directly to the audiences KIPP needed most: parents weighing the value of a KIPP education, prospective partners considering investment, and communities curious about what makes this network different.
We were excited about partnering with Tectonic to create compelling, high-quality videos that would help us with student recruitment, branding, and fundraising. The videos created were incredible! They have already helped us share our mission with many more people across the state. They also lifted our student and parent stories beautifully and showcased the amazing work happening inside and outside our classrooms. These videos will help us achieve our goal of providing a joyful and excellent education to all children in our communities."Jovanny Orellana, Deputy Chief of Development, KIPP Texas Public Schools
