Welcome!

 
 

Do You Empower Youth

Merge Education segued out of the nonprofit sphere after 20 years of direct service with Youth Advancement Through Music & Art (YATMA). YATMA was a Seattle-based nonprofit that served over 2,500 vulnerable youth nationally, including community-based and therapeutic treatment settings. 

Merge Education’s materials are designed around a simple insight: people are better able to grow and learn when their unique strengths are developed.

Venturing Together: Empowering Students to Succeed focuses on how adults can learn to notice, support, and develop students’ strengths through real relationship.

SETS: Student Evaluation & Teaching System gives teachers and program leaders a structured way to notice, support, and document growth as it happens—changes in confidence, steadiness, participation, self-direction, and other abilities that often go unseen by traditional measures.

The books in The Magic Heart Series support the same strength-development approach through story. They show young people facing real difficulty and discovering—through practice—that they can remain steady, speak clearly, and act from their own inner ground. Published in late 2025, Bullies, Blaze, and Bravery is the first in the series.

All support the same outcome: human development that is real, durable, and grounded in lived experience rather than labels or scores. Since this development leads to independent thinking, we consider strength-based human development to be "a sophisticated approach to promoting democracy." 

 
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Bill Rossi
Bill was an educator and a BluesJazz pianist. He worked with a talented team of teachers, psychologists, and software developers to create SETS.
Mary-Helen Rossi, Director
A creative writer, Mary Helen is passionate about empowering youth to learn who they are. She is currently publishing the first book in The Magic Heart series.
Dalton
Dalton Lucas, Software Developer
A creative software developer, Dalton has perfected SETS so it's the simplest, swiftest, and most user-friendly software on the planet.
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Christina Lengyl, Community Relations
Christina is a writer, editor, and educator who has worked in corporate, academic, and non-profit settings. She loves to find and foster the light in people and ideas, and she believes empathy is our most essential skill.