What Educators Actually Need to Feel Purposeful Again with Glen Gerreyn | Season 4: Episode 6

It’s the start of a new term. And if you’re honest, some of your staff are walking back into school running on empty, not because they don’t care, but because they’ve lost sight of why it matters.

What educators actually need to feel purposeful again isn’t another wellbeing afternoon or a gratitude wall. According to this week’s guest, it’s a reconnection to vision, and that’s something a school can teach, build and sustain.

In this episode of Well-Led Schools, I’m joined by Glen Gerreyn, speaker, author, youth advocate and founder of The Hopeful Institute. Glen has spent more than two decades working in schools across Australia and worldwide, and his work is grounded in one powerful idea: that hope is not a passive feeling. It’s a skill. It’s a strategy. And it can be taught.

Glen’s story is a remarkable and inspiring one. A state champion sprinter who developed a severe chronic illness in his early twenties ended up on a disability pension and rebuilt his life from the ground up. In 1998, he was named Young Australian of the Year, and since then, he’s worked with more than 300 schools globally and developed the Hopeful Schools Framework, a practical approach to embedding hope, purpose and agency into school culture.

In this conversation, we talk about the three elements of Charles Snyder’s Hope Theory, goals, pathways, and agency, and how Glen translates that into the work he does with young people. We explore what happens when students lose their sense of vision, why disengagement is often a hope crisis in disguise, and what schools can do to build a culture where students believe their actions actually matter.

We also talk about what all of this means for leaders and teachers. Because you can’t pour from an empty cup, and the same principles Glen uses with students apply just as powerfully to the adults in the building.

In this episode:

• Glen’s personal origin story: from elite athlete to disability pension to Young Australian of the Year
• The three components of Hope Theory: goals, pathways, and agency
• Why disengagement is often a vision crisis, not a behaviour problem
• The Hopeful Schools Framework and how it works in practice
• How to shift mindset from ‘why me’ to ‘what now’
• Why purpose and meaning matter as much as curriculum in education
• What leaders can do to build hope into school culture systemically
• The role of character, storytelling and identity in student engagement
• How the rise of AI is reshaping what schools need to prioritise

About Glen Gerreyn:

Glen Gerreyn is a speaker, author and youth advocate who has dedicated his career to building hope in young people and the educators who work with them. After overcoming a serious chronic illness that ended his career as a state champion sprinter, Glen rebuilt his life through purpose, resilience and connection to meaning, and was named Young Australian of the Year in 1998.

He is the founder of The Hopeful Institute and has worked with more than 300 schools across Australia and worldwide. His work draws on Charles Snyder’s Hope Theory and translates it into practical frameworks that schools can embed into their culture. He is also the author of Men of Honor, a book on sexual ethics and character development for young men.

Links and Resources

• 50 Book Summaries for Educators: www.thehopefullinstitute.com/the-hopefull-institute-book-summaries/ 
• 7 Infographics (burnout, procrastination and more): www.thehopefullinstitute.com/explore-our-7-latest-infographics/ 
• Well-Led Schools Partnership Program: adriennehornby.com.au/school-partnerships/ 

Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honoured that you’re here and would be so grateful if you could leave me a review on Apple Podcasts or your preferred podcast app, so that we can inspire and educate even more people together.

Connect with Glen via:

• Website: www.thehopefullinstitute.com/ 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glengerreyn/
• Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/glengerreyn/ 

Connect with me via:

• My website: adriennehornby.com.au
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adrienne-hornby-a4126a205/
• Email: hello@adriennehornby.com.au