Sheri Lewin

When Sheri Lewin’s 13-year-old stepdaughter came to live with her full time in 2008, Sheri realized something important was missing in Clermont—resources for teens. Years later, with her own two children entering adolescence, she still couldn’t find the programs she knew existed in other places like Jacksonville where she grew up attending the YMCA and Orlando where she volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Junior Achievement Program.

“I really struggled to find the type of opportunities that could help my stepdaughter, then my two younger children, grow and that got me thinking…” Sheri says. 

That decision led to the creation of Thrive Clermont, a nonprofit she founded in 2015 to help teens ages 13–18 gain life skills, explore careers and grow as leaders. Thrive’s first big event in 2016, a Teen Summit in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club, offered workshops on financial literacy, leadership and personal development. Since then, Thrive has grown into a year-round youth engagement program reaching 400–500 students annually.

Programs include Summer PopUps, where local professionals lead mini-workshops on everything from cake decorating and gardening to journaling and firefighting. She also coordinated an Adulting Program Series, which tackles “the hardest and scariest parts of growing up,” like personal finance, job interviews, college planning, public speaking and more. 

At the heart of it all are community leaders and businesses who volunteer time, money or goods toward the initiative and the Teen Advisory Council, a student-led group that helps design and run programs. 

“If you treat them like adults, they rise to the occasion,” Sheri says, adding that her former career as an award-winning consultant in the trading sector of the environmental industry prepared her for this venture. 

To this day, the feedback from students and parents has been overwhelmingly positive, but the real impact shows in the stories: a student from public housing who went on to Yale, others winning scholarships and stepping into leadership roles on their college campuses. 

“I get the opportunity to interact with some of our future great leaders and see their potentials up close,” Sheri says. “And to be able to serve them in any way is a privilege.” 

As Thrive marks its 10th anniversary, Sheri hopes to expand the program to reach 1,000 students a year and publish a book to help other communities replicate her model.

Next month, Sheri will be kicking off the first of many events celebrating Thrive’s milestone anniversary: an Ice Cream Social on December 13 at the Clermont Historic Village in downtown Clermont. In 2026, Thrive will present its first set of post high school education scholarships to local students. 

“They say it takes a village,” Sheri says. “And after 100 cups of coffee with people in this community, I realized I was the villager who needed to make this happen.”

www.forwardpaths.org