Full Sail Stories

Full Sail grad Jessica Brown founded the Agape Roots Foundation in 2021 after her son Gabriel was born and diagnosed with Beta Thalassemia, a form of Sickle Cell Disease. The foundation provides a community for those diagnosed with the disease and their families, offering support in the form of blood donations, care packages, and even storytime sessions for younger patients. Their hope is to bring comfort and positivity to affected families while spreading awareness about the diagnosis.

After learning from her sister, a registered nurse, that many current medical studies lacked information about the disease, Jessica began her Full Sail journey to pursue a degree in instructional design, educating herself on journalism, marketing, and communication in order to further the foundation’s outreach.

“I wanted to create other credits and educational information for the medical community, as well as the general public. So, that’s why I started at Full Sail.” Jessica explains. She recently graduated in February 2024 as the program’s valedictorian and advanced achiever. “I use those skill sets every day now in my current role.”

She recently returned to the university with the Agape Roots Foundation to host a volunteer opportunity in collaboration with Full Sail’s Pure Motivation team, during which volunteers put together care packages, or Thrive Packs, complete with holistic and medical tools for families affected by Sickle Cell Disease. Through the Agape Cares initiative, families will receive the care packages on Juneteenth. Participating students were able to earn Community GPS credit at the event as they helped pack boxes with thermometers, oximeters, and even self-care kits for fathers and sons.

Full Sail volunteers helped the Agape Roots Foundation assemble dozens of "Thrive Pack" care packages at the Full Sail Treehouse.

“When I started [the foundation], it was a dream of mine to do this care package initiative,” Jessica says. “We don’t want people to just live day to day surviving; we want them to thrive… We wanted to equip people with knowledge, with resources, with support for at-home life because not everybody has the same set of finances. Not everybody has the same hand dealt to them, but that should not limit the care that they’re able to receive.”