The Ripple Effect of a Regular Guy

Nick Fagnano was two weeks away from starting at USC, his dream school. On July 27, 2014, he finished a volleyball game with friends at Venice Beach and jumped in the water to rinse off before heading home. A single cloud appeared. Lightning struck. The odds of his death were one in 750 million.  Today his life helps hundreds of high school students beat the extraordinary odds stacked against them.

Twelve years later, students who never met Nick say he feels like a big brother and role model. For one, Nick’s life changed the trajectory of her entire family.

Her name is Amy Godinez.

To understand Amy's story, you must understand where the clubs inspired by Nick’s character and personality meet. C11 Strength of Character Clubs are student-led, after-school programs combining strength-of-character education based on Nick’s life with Entrepreneurial Social Impact Projects (ESIPs).

Thrive in Joy hosts C11 Clubs in charter high schools throughout LA's low-income neighborhoods. The students' parents are often garment workers, laborers, housekeepers, and immigrants. Most will be the first in their families to apply to college, let alone attend.

Students from affluent homes get private college counseling as a matter of routine. For many of these students, college isn’t even an option. Thrive in Joy exists to level that playing field.

Amy was raised by a single mother working as a housekeeper, who poured everything into giving her kids a better opportunity. At her local club, Amy discovered she was a natural leader. She launched a toy drive called Winter Wonderland for families crushed by job losses, complete with hot chocolate, cookies, and singing. Then came a spring project on body positivity and reconnection for classmates struggling with the impact of social media on their self-image.

Thrive in Joy helped her prepare her USC application and celebrated when she was accepted into the Marshall School of Business on a full scholarship. Through the USC work-study partnership your RetailROI grant helps fund, Amy was hired as Thrive in Joy's program coordinator, managing college advisors while earning her degree. Her business studies took this first-generation Salvadoran and Guatemalan student to Dubai and Italy. Today Amy sits on the Thrive in Joy board as its youngest member.

Amy is one story among many. Last year one student got into UPenn. Another young woman, the student lead who followed Amy, is a childhood leukemia survivor. Throughout her hospital stays as a little girl, she kept hearing the same two words from her doctors: Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins. Her nurses and physicians were so wonderful that she decided to be that for someone else someday. When it came time to apply, she set her heart on Johns Hopkins, with its 6% acceptance rate and #7 Ivy Plus ranking among top US colleges. Her acceptance letter felt like a win for the whole organization.

The 2025 grant is funding three college application workshops for all 14 senior student leaders. Since 2021, every senior lead has been accepted to a four-year college.

But demand is outpacing capacity. When a student recently asked to launch the program at her school, the board had to say not yet. Other schools are waiting too. Your generous donations are also underwriting a digital platform to make expansion possible. Because as Nick's mom Mary puts it, the needs don't stop and twelve years after Nick’s passing, neither does the ripple.

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