Ignite has partnered with the Institute for Excellence & Ethics (IEE) (Fayetteville, NY) and the Center for the 4th and 5th Rs (Respect and Responsibility) at the State University of New York at Cortland to begin integrating research and practices from the Smart & Good Schools report www.cortland.edu/character.

"The partnership with IEE and the Center for the 4th & 5th Rs allows Ignite to integrate the Smart & Good Schools research into our programs", says Ashoke Menon, President and co-founder of Ignite. Even though students and staff, as well as parents, always gave Ignite positive feedback regarding the impact of the work of student mentors, we needed to make our content even stronger and more closely aligned with research-based practices for building character and culture. Ignite-Smart & Good (ISG) will bring together the best of Ignite programming with cutting-edge research and promising practices from the Smart & Good research".

Ignite will begin utilizing the Smart & Good theory, research, and practices in its work with schools. In addition, new programs will be forthcoming under the Ignite-Smart & Good (ISG) label. The first program we're collaborating on is ISG-Transitions; a high school transitions program designed to increase school retention and academic achievement.

Dr. Matthew Davidson, President and Director of IEE says, "This partnership with Ignite allows us to work with a proven provider of high quality youth-to-youth programming, giving us a vehicle for bringing the Smart & Good vision directly to schools across the country. We're looking forward to co-developing cutting-edge programming with the Ignite team."