A B O U T
P . e . e . p.
When Lily Sumner (the founder and creator of P.E.E.P.) was a freshman in high school she was already thinking about what she wanted to do for the rest of her life and realized that this was a complicated and overwhelming topic for most of her peers. She realized that students her age, were often asked, “What do you want to be when you grown up?”, but didn’t know where to begin in answering the question. This reality prompted her to tackle this age old dilemma and so she began to develop lessons and tools to help guide her peers through a reflective experience that will help drive them toward finding their purpose with passion.
On April 16th of 2023, just two days before the Kentucky FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) State competition, Lily franticly began documenting her thoughts and ideas. She said, "I knew that P.E.E.P. could help students, but I did not know how to format the program's design.” For the next two days, she brainstormed and drafted a prototype of what P.E.E.P. would look like. Filled with excitement and determination to share her idea, she designed stickers and handed out candy to any teenager she encountered at FBLA. She wanted to get the word out and gather feedback from her peers. Although her original idea corollated with the food brand Peeps, she quickly realized that she needed to disassociate from this brand and develop her own logo and image…and that is exactly what she did.
P.E.E.P. stands for find your purpose through experience and exposure with passion. This acronym was developed through reflection and growth from Lily’s own experiences and exposure. For example, in 6th grade she would see homeless people on her way home and wanted to do something to help. This exposure prompted her to begin her non-profit called Wrapped in God’s Warmth and a driving passion to help make change. Later during Lily's freshman year of high school, her mom would say, "Experience and exposure are everything." Her mom's words drove Lily to gain exposure to as many experiences as possible. In 2021, Lily joined FBLA, and through that experience, she learned the true value of exposure to new experiences.
Lily saw the value of experience and exposure again in 2023 when volunteering at Newcomer Academy, an ESL school for immigrants. At Newcomer, she met people who changed her life by telling their life stories. She worked as a translator for 8th — 12th grade. Due to this experience, Lily developed a deep passion for Spanish; forcing her to see her purpose.
The first portion of P.E.E.P. then came to be - experience and exposure lead to passion. Lily says, "It wasn’t until one night when a friend was heading to a job shadow in the medical field, that she texted, “I’m so excited to see you finding your purpose with passion.” After typing that message, she had an ahh-hah moment and immediately wrote those words on her whiteboard. Lily applied at the end of May 2023 to present at FBLA Nationals and was selected out of 14,000 students. She presented the idea of P.E.E.P. to gauge how her target audience would take to the lessons. Lily received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback. Then as time went on, she developed P.E.E.P. as a program, with lessons offering step-by-step guidance on how to find one’s purpose. Lily has now presented P.E.E.P. at three events and will be hosting a workshop and booth at FBLA Nationals in Orlando, Florida for 18,000 students.
Click the button below to find out what P.E.E.P.’s program does.
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