Raising Healthy Achievers in a Competitive World, with Jennifer B. Wallace

In today’s high-pressure world, students are working harder than ever—packing their schedules with AP classes, sports, and extracurriculars—while parents stretch their time and budgets to keep up. Yet instead of producing confident, thriving kids, this culture of nonstop striving is driving record rates of anxiety, depression, and burnout. In, award-winning reporter Jennifer Wallace uncovers the deep societal forces behind this “toxic achievement culture” and reveals the harm caused when kids believe their value comes only from their accomplishments.

Drawing on insights from leading psychologists, educators, and nearly 6,000 parents, Wallace will share how to raise kids who are both high-achieving and emotionally healthy. She will offer practical, research-backed tools to help parents shift from pushing performance to fostering “mattering,”ensuring children know they are valued for who they are, not just what they do. Parents will walk away with a new framework for redefining success and raising resilient, well-rounded kids who can thrive without burning out.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

More about Jennifer B. Wallace

Jennifer Breheny Wallace is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author whose work explores the power of mattering in our everyday lives. Through research and storytelling, Wallace examines the hidden forces shaping modern life, from the crisis of meaning in achievement culture to the essential role of mattering in personal, workplace, and societal health. 

Wallace founded The Mattering Institute, whose mission is to create cultures of mattering in workplaces and communities, and co-founder of The Mattering Movement, a nonprofit whose mission is to create cultures of mattering in schools and educational spaces. She has collaborated with Calm, the meditation and mental health app; partnered with The LEGO Group on its global Play Unstoppable campaign; and has consulted with Netflix and is a BCG  BrightHouse Luminary. She serves on the University of Michigan’s Well-being Collective Advisory Council and the Advisory Board for Making Caring Common and is a Journalism Fellow at The Center for Parent and Teen Communication at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is also serving as a guest lecturer for NYU’s Fall 2025 course, Education, Mattering, and the American Dream: Understanding Achievement Culture.

Wallace lives in New York City, where she lives with her husband and their three children.

Host or Publisher Greenhills School