WISE INTERVENTIONS

High school students completed an online module in which they first wrote briefly about ways they wished the world could be a better place, learned how many students want to work hard and learn in school so they can make a difference in the world, and then wrote about how learning and working hard in school can help them achieve their prosocial goals. Together with students in a growth-mindset intervention condition and as compared to those for whom the module focused on control content (e.g., how their lives were different in high school than before high school), this sense-of-purpose message raised core academic GPA the next semester for students at risk for dropping out of high school, and increased the likelihood students earned satisfactory grades (A, B, or C) in core academic classes.