When I was deciding to move to California and choosing what school I would join, I never expected to fall so head over heels with a community or to have to navigate leading that community through a global pandemic - yet here we are, and it feels surreal to write a yearbook message when I don’t get to see you every day. In a way, the challenges that have been thrown at us this year have just made our commitment to our mission and vision more evident, and the ways that the community has showed up in support of each other have made me feel incredibly proud to work with you all.
We started the year with our largest incoming 9th grade class in ARISE history and our first overnight orientation. Those summer days hiking, minefield, silly face masks, and advisory challenges in Point Bonita set a tone of joy that was the perfect start of the school year.
Then came the news that the Annex renovations were not ready for us to open, and we had to delay the start of the year. This news, we thought, was the lemons that we turned into lemonade. Little did we know this challenge was nothing compared to what was to come. We delayed our start and had continued construction that seemed to never reach its conclusion. But y’all showed up and persevered, even when we had weird heat and AC issues, we made light of it all. We continued making lemonade.
I also think back on meeting many of you in those first few months, and how few of you said good morning back when I greeted you in the mornings with my overexcited morning energy. Slowly you started saying buenos dias back to me, and little by little you also started hugging me, confiding in me, and trusting me enough to ask me questions, email me, and share concerns.
I felt that when I got about a hundred text messages and dozens of emails and phone calls to report a threatening Instagram post. This once again felt like lemonade - yes the threat brought up issues and safety concerns (which we addressed), but to me it also felt like an official welcome as Head of School. You trusted me to share your concern, and you trusted that I would address it. Thank you. I humbly accept this trust and do not take it for granted.
Through soccer season, Homecoming, spirit weeks, college applications, plaza lunch hangtimes and the new couch areas you continued to build your legacy of a community that cares, a community of Warrior Intellectuals.
March came and COVID-19 turned our worlds upside down. Once again staff, students, and families swiftly adapted and moved our community online. We created google classrooms, checked in with each other, distributed over a hundred chromebooks, and developed food delivery routes for over eighty families. Students and staff then shared that our online learning plan was too much, so we took your feedback and refined it - focusing on humanizing our plan and taking into consideration the mental health and financial strain that COVID has brought on.
Arianna then led the charge in starting a GoFundMe which has as of today raised 20k. As we shared it with the community at large we were humbled by the response and support we received. I was moved and impressed when the Senior class decided to donate their funds towards the GoFundMe. This move was selfless, thoughtful, and showed leadership and deep understanding and love towards the community. Mil gracias. I know that the Class of 2020 has been most challenged by this, and that you are missing out on much deserved traditions and celebrations. I am so sorry. You deserve to be honored and celebrated for your resilience in your years at ARISE and I wish I could have given you that.
As many of you know - I am (proudly) a total nerd. Therefore I cannot help but think of a passage from Lord of the Rings where Frodo questions why he has to be the one living in a time of uncertainty and challenges. I see it as a great guide to our response in these times.
“‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.
’So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’”
As we move beyond this school year and continue to be in a global pandemic I urge you to think of this challenge: We must decide what to do with the time that is given us. I know that for me this time is a time for us to lean on each other and focus on how we maintain and build each other. We are strong because we are a community rooted in social justice. Please keep that spirit and mission with you, and know that no matter where you go beyond ARISE this is your home, you have made a mark here and you will always have our love and support.