The Loyola Experiment
An intense (and frankly a little scary) leap of faith that gave HeroBridge faith that the coming “Creator Generation” of Loyola HS Cubs could just save the world.
Father Leo & Plating Grace heading West thanks to four Loyola HS Seniors
Before we roll into this article, Deborah Connelly and I are the founders of HeroBridge, an LA based media technology firm that works with UN, faith institutions, nonprofits and corporations interested in producing and distributing media with impact. Our son Christopher (‘25) is a Junior at Loyola High School LA. It’s an amazing school with impressive young men being spiritually formed and intellectually equipped for the future. Of course, we’re parents - we’re biased - but our impressions were recently (objectively) validated thanks to four seniors we hosted for the annual Loyola High Senior Project internship. It’s a two week program where seniors get to immerse themselves in social impact projects. In our case, HeroBridge Technologies is our for-profit media production and marketing firm where we balance economic prosperity with delivering authentic social impact. Meaningfully doing ‘good and well’ can be a hard balance. So this year, we decided to put these four seniors to the test. Would they be able to find the right social-entrepreneurial balance that a real-world client would embrace?
The Mission
We’ve hosted senior interns (“Cubs”) for the past couple years, and we’ve included them in projects where they could observe and learn. Last year our seniors did an amazing job but we felt we hadn’t let them exercise enough of their creativity. You see, we know from our son Christopher that this generation is completely native to media technology and its functionality. When combined with high level executive functioning skills and service-mindedness, senior Cubs are equipped for the coming tech augmented world. This was our thesis.
So this year we decided to do something different. Something that as the founders of our own business seemed a little crazy - what if we dropped the Cubs into a live project development pitch with a brand new client that any media company would die to represent. What could possibly go wrong? Let’s find out.
The Client
Father Leo and Plating Grace is an incredible mission you can read about here. Thanks to the Cubs you will be able to meet him in person later this year! Leo is like the Greg Boyle/Homeboy Industries of the east coast - a powerhouse influencer with a cross platform following of over 300,000. His brand, Plating Grace is an incredible, high visibility mission and outlet for community formation and second chance employment opportunities.
Plating Grace is a fun, family focused, dynamic ministry seeking to bring about a future of stronger families, closer relationships, and a deeper understanding of Jesus as Food for our mind, body and soul! - Plating Grace website
The Famous Plating Grace Food Truck + HeroBridge Tech!
The Assignment
We gave the four Cubs a fairly open assignment to visioneer: Review Plating Grace and Grub, and imagine a business plan for a west coast road show for Father Leo and his famous Food Truck that would deliver: 1) ways and means to create a new US west coast support base; 2) means by which we could use social media and data technology to improve the efficacy of Father Leo’s mission for future campaigns and fundraising.
They came up with an excellent concept plan. So good in fact, that we decided to let them Shark Tank directly to the client. The four Cubs each had a topic to cover on the zoom pitch and they did remarkably well and were praised by the client (who could not believe these were high school students.)
Magis Mission Accomplished
In the weeks to follow after their internship, the HeroBridge team continued to develop the business plan, the budget and revenue models to take the concept to actionable. The essence of the Cub’s west coast Plating Grace roadshow remained the same (details to follow, subscribe below). Vetted by the client COO, CFO (who loved the additional revenues it was going to create in the winter months, thus extending the annual financial utility of their assets) and finally the CEO Father Leo who approved the campaign, and loved that Cubs were involved in the process. ‘Magis in action.’
As the plan and schedule unfolds, we will start making announcements. Some of Father Leo’s Sauces are on the way to LHS as a special thanks to the Cubs. Looking forward to throwing another batch into the deep end of the pool next year! -Frank Connelly and Deborah Connelly, #ProudCubParents (parents of Christopher Connelly, LHS ‘25).
