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< Back Julia's Story Julia reflects on what her life might look like in sixty years. She explains her values and emphasis on how she strives to be someone her family and others can lean on. 00:00 / 03:43 Jonathan: “When somebody says to you ‘in 50 or 60 years you will be in your late 70s’ and let’s assume that you're moderately healthy, what comes to your head?” Julia: “So trying to look into the future like that, I say what first comes to mind is thinking about my family. Um, I have an older sister who right now is 24 so 60 years from now, she’ll be 84. And then I have two younger brothers, one who is about to be 18 so he’ll be 78 from now. Then I have a youngest brother who just turned 14 so he’ll be 74 but I hope that 60 years from now we’re all still close together–I hope we’re all still around. But um, I see family being a big part of my life. I always love looking forward to going home. I’m from Eastern, Mass. so if I want to spend a weekend back home I have that ability to just drive back. Um, I hope that that’s the kind of relationship that I have 60 years from now. I hope that I’m able to still hold onto that connection with my siblings.” Jonathan: “Do you think that this family relationship is equally as important to your brothers and sister? Do you think they would say the same?” Julia: “I hope they would say the same! Um, I’m not positive I mean my older sister–she is very–she heavily prioritizes relationships with people so outside of family she is very much so always putting herself out and trying to stay connected with her friends from highschool and from college. On the contrary, I’d say I’m the opposite of her. I like having friends and I love knowing people but also I’ve always been a busy person and I’m okay with doing my own thing and if I know people and have people to hang out with that’s great but if not, I’m still okay with continuing to be individual. I think I will continue to keep a strong relationship with my siblings and if I have a spouse, them–being able to keep a strong relationship with them and their family ‘cause I love having big get-togethers and catching up with people. And I value the relationship with a few people as long as it's a strong one and genuine.” Jonathan: “Assuming that–maybe it’s the wrong assumption–but assuming for the moment that your partner/you’re married or whatever in 50 or 60 years, how important is it that that person be close to your siblings?” Julia: “Um, I think it’s pretty important. I mean, right now I’m in a relationship and I don’t know what 60 years will look like but I’ve been in a relationship for almost 3 years and I value being very close with his family and they are people that I’m very close with and I wanna have a really close relationship and be someone that they can turn to if they need anything!” Previous Next

< Back Rachel's Story Rachel discusses feeling like she didn’t belong in her hometown community or as she transitioned to college.She talks about her social anxiety and reflects on what it was like to break free from this. She wants people to pay attention to college students’ mental health. Scroll to listen 00:00 / 05:31 Previous Next

< Back Dennis' Story, Fall 2022 After the Vietnam War and having to put his future plans on pause, Dennis found himself in the city of Boston, not New York, working in education, not pursuing his studies at law school and gaining confidence all along the way. 00:00 / 03:35 Well to set the stage. I was in college from 1967 to 1971, and those were very tumultuous times in this country, much of it having to do with the US fighting an ultimately disastrous war in Vietnam and the growing resistance to that war effort. But I was going through a process of trying to figure out what I thought about all this, and I concluded that I was just morally and conscientiously opposed, that I did not want to participate in this war, and there's a process of becoming a conscientious objector. And I went through that process, and my draft board said, okay, we find that you are a conscientious objector. So that meant that if my draft number came up, I wouldn't be put into the military and sent off to fight the war, but I would be asked to do some form of alternative service. At that point, I had been admitted to law school. I was going to be going to NYU in Greenwich Village in New York, was all excited about heading to New York, pursuing the law. I made the estimation that my number would come up so that even if I started law school, I would have to stop law school in order to go do my alternative service of some sort. So I made the decision to just defer and to instead take a job that would qualify as alternative service if my number came up. And I was very interested in urban education, so I decided I would be a daycare teacher on a Head Start program in Boston. So I took that job. It turns out that my number didn't come up, so I could have, in retrospect, gone to law school and just stayed there and moved in that direction. But instead I wound up teaching. And though I discovered that teaching itself wasn't necessarily my cup of tea, but I got involved in other aspects of urban education issues. I became the director of a community school, and then I became involved in other organizing efforts around education in Boston neighborhoods, and I became involved in a variety of youth services and the funding of youth services. So I wound up getting just totally fascinated with the life of neighborhood organizations in different Boston neighborhoods, particularly Jamaica Plain where I lived for 20 years. And there were a few years where I thought about, am I going to go back to law school or not? And at some point that just kind of faded, and I wound up headed in different directions, following my curiosities, following my interests. As I look back on those years, I realized that I developed a sense of confidence that I could change directions and still land on my feet. And that sense of confidence, that sense of agency, has served me well ever since. And as I look back on it, though, I would like to say, oh, it's because of my ingenuity and my smarts, and that may have a little something to do with it. I recognize that so much of this was the privilege that I had, the wonderful education that was made possible for me by my parents. I had a financial backstop. But knowing that there was a very good chance I would land on my feet. Those early years helped give me the confidence to be able to make changes like that knowing how fortunate I was to be able to bring that attitude to things. Many, many people were not and do not now have the kind of background handed to them and the privilege and access handed to them that makes that possible. Previous Next

< Back Saddaf's Story Saddaf talks about the role religion played in her life growing up and now, discovering it for herself, she talks about how she struggles with it in college. She touches upon navigating two identities being a first-generation Pakistani Muslim American. Scroll to listen 00:00 / 04:57 Previous Next

Sofie talks about her experience being diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 12 and how it affected her and her family. She discusses how it inspired her to pursue her future career and the importance of empathy in the medical field. Sofie's Story Sofie talks about her experience being diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 12 and how it affected her and her family. She discusses how it inspired her to pursue her future career and the importance of empathy in the medical field. Scroll to listen Sofie's Story 00:00 / 03:25 So even at a young age, I think that I have overcome a lot in my life. What comes to mind for me is my struggle with being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. In the 6th grade when I was 11 years old I was diagnosed with diabetes. And, it's kind of just become my new normal but that does not take away from the fact that it's a very hard thing to deal with. Not only did it affect me, it affected my family. We kind of had to learn how to take care of my body because I did not have full control over it anymore. We had to learn these calculations to eat and I had to learn how to test my blood sugar and take shots every day. Eating wasn’t normal for me anymore I had to take an insulin shot to eat. But most of all, I think that it's taught me to be empathetic and to be more curious about the human body which is why I want to go into nursing school. But I think that knowing about a health issue such as diabetes firsthand, really really translates into your career. So my endocrinologist, which is my diabetes doctor, is a type 1 diabetic herself and it’s had such a huge impact on my life because not only does she have empathy for me and can, you know, understand my struggles but she relates firsthand because they are struggles that she’s gone through every day of her life. I want to have that impact on my patients, I want them to see me, and see me being successful and healthy and say to them you know you can do it I know that in the moment it doesn’t feel like you are going to get through this but you are. And that's another thing that you know as a nurse you have to be aware of people’s circumstances and do those little things for other people like you know, it's not just about treating them it's about making them feel that comfort that you know they’re cared about and they’re loved. And that's something that my parents both taught me and it's something that I think you know they definitely had a huge impact on my choice to become a nurse for sure. So I think that just because I’m young, I don’t think there’s an age on wisdom. I don’t think that wisdom has any age I think that I’ve been able to become a lot wiser because of my experiences. I think that you know, being a young person that has overcome a lot of health issues, it’s has taught me to be thankful for all of the little things. I want other people to be able to feel that as well. I think that even though again I’m young, this has totally shaped me into the person I am today in every single way and I think that being a young voice for other diabetics or other people in public health has allowed me to share personal experiences with my classmates, with my professors and its allowed me to have this voice that other people don’t necessarily have. I also think it's important to show people like that if we view our struggles as growing experiences, learning experiences, they can open up so much opportunity. And I’ve learned a lot about myself, about public health, and about everything just because of diabetes and I’m super thankful for that. So that’s why I feel that it's important to share my story.

Katherine talks about her family heritage and values and how that impacted her views on the world. She discusses how her upbringing and playing music with her siblings brings them closer together. Katherine also details how the values that she was raised with are still instilled in her and are instilled in her children as well. Katherine's Story Katherine talks about her family heritage and values and how that impacted her views on the world. She discusses how her upbringing and playing music with her siblings brings them closer together. Katherine also details how the values that she was raised with are still instilled in her and are instilled in her children as well. Scroll to listen Katherine's Story 00:00 / 04:28 My family of origin story comes from both my parents who told me the stories of how they grew up and their parents and grandparents. For my parents, their families were very important. Both of them came from English backgrounds and they were farmers. They raised cattle, they kept the sense of animals and planting even when we no longer lived on a farm, but it is important. That is part of my family theme and values is to be really connected to the land and animals. When we were growing up our values always had to do with good health, lots of exercise, and taking care of your pets before you took care of yourself. Who needed your support and help before you were doing your own thing? Values really had to do with honoring family and being totally transparent and honest about what was going on with you, being a good communicator that was kind of a core family value, and doing your best. I have 4 siblings, all about 2 years apart. It was very organized, our lives were very very organized, I guess you have to when you have a big family like that – my parents were both teachers so they expected us to have a certain routine to get up and make our beds, practice and do homework, we all had to keep track of what we were responsible for. We all played instruments, we all had to practice, my mom would start the egg timer for about an hour before we went to school, we had to practice our instruments. As we grew up and we left home, and we went to college and got jobs and got married and had our own children the relationship with all of them at the time have change over time. In that period, it was really important for our kids to know each other so that now as they are adults and they have families, they have cousins that they feel quite connected to which is kind of wonderful, we do a lot of sharing of our lives together. We all go to the same island in Maine in the summer, so 3 of my siblings built and also my family too we built our own little houses there, kind of near the log cabin so that more of us could be there at the same time. It’s a wonderful place for family gatherings and lunch picnics on the rocks, swimming in the quarries and biking around the island, lots of fun things we do together. I take my violin and my younger brother plays the cello, brings his cello, my sister is a singer, but she also plays the keyboard too. It's really fun to play together, we often say wouldn’t our mother be delighted because she's the one who made us practice, its paid off for her because we are still doing it. The basic values that I learned from them I think are still there, are still the core values, but we do keep connected, that’s important. We now passing on the cabin in Maine, the log cabin to our own children so that means the cousins will have to figure out how to work together to keep the boats in good shape and keep the cabins clean and enjoy that place with their children, with our grandchildren. It's kind of a multigenerational process in Maine and that’s where I keep connected to my sibling's. It has been fun as we met and talked to explore family a little but because that to me is the most important set of relationships certainly that I have and I think that most people have, my kids probably pass on the same values to their children too Things that they learned as they were growing up, they keep connected through each other, keeping connected and learning through each other is just really really important no matter what the ups and downs of one's life might be.

Barbara discusses the important friendships that she has maintained in her life, and how over a lifetime of working in film and theatre, she has maintained these relationships while also achieving her dreams of working on set. Barbara L's Story Barbara discusses the important friendships that she has maintained in her life, and how over a lifetime of working in film and theatre, she has maintained these relationships while also achieving her dreams of working on set. Scroll to listen Barbara L's Story 00:00 / 04:23 “Friendship has always been really important to me, so I’ve done what I needed to do to keep those friendships. I have 3 girlfriends from high school that I still am in touch with a lot and go away with every year for a girl’s weekend, and a girls week when we turn 40 and when we turn 50 to some place really great. So that has been a real highlight of my life, that I have these wonderful friends from high school. As I said I have a friend that I am in touch with quite a lot, she was here this year visiting, that I know since I worked in San Francisco, a very good friend that I know that was a girlfriend of one of the grips. And we are still friends even though she lives in Oakland now, and friends in New York that worked on The Outsiders, that are still very good friends, that are a couple. He worked in casting, and she was the set nurse, who eventually became a costumer. So there are those folks, but then when I would be away on location, which I was a lot, if I was working in New York it was a lot easier obviously to keep contact with my friends, when I was living in New York. I was on location a lot and there was no cell phones, no internet, no email. So, the only thing you could do is call or write letters, and I did both. I was sort of able to keep in touch with postcards, but then I would get back to town, after having been gone for maybe six months, and you know, you start calling people and you don’t know how long you’re going to be there, maybe a month, maybe six weeks till I start again, maybe it’s only going to be three weeks and I’m going to be gone again. So, by the time you set up, you call them, maybe you find out what is going on with them, you plan to get together for dinner, and poof you’re gone again. Or if they are people that are working in film, they are gone again. My friend who was in casting, he stayed in casting a long time, and if he was in the middle of casting something, the only way I would see him was if I was willing to go to a play with him or see a new comic that he was thinking about casting in something. And that would be the only way I could see him because he was basically busy from morning to night. Everyone and everything was a little bit that way, with everyone that I knew, so it was lonely at times. I would sometimes be in a different time zone, and wonder “who can I call? I’m feeling lonely.” And I had an important relationship in college, but it really wasn’t until I was forty that I had another one that was more than a sometimes thing. When you’re in town, or you’re both in town, and during a film. In some ways, it made me be my own agent, you know have a lot of my own agency because I was my most consistent companion. It was just me; I was the only one who was always around that I could rely on. And I felt independent in the world and strong. We were talking about packing earlier, but I would have a plane ticket in my purse a lot of the time, and I would be able to pack in a pretty small bag and be gone for a month because I was just so used to living out of a suitcase. And I just felt good in the world, and I felt, having made it my own way with no one else helping me, besides my white privilege that is, I was able to have gotten myself to that position and I was happy. I kind of took it for granted in a certain way that I had done it, I did not always think about how I had done that for myself, but I was happy just having to gotten to where I got. To where I could choose the films I wanted to work on, where I could expand my role and do more producing and do script supervising sometime which was really fun. Being on the set and dealing with more of the actors, the director, and the camera people, it really was like my dreams come true.”

< Back Jesse's Story, 2021 Jesse shares a story with Kelly about his trip to Bhutan and the lessons helearned from his Buddhist practice. 00:00 / 03:09 I've been a Buddhist my whole life. And I had been working with a teacher who had a very big impact on my life. I studied with him for about 13 years and he died in 1987. And I was kind of grieving and wondering, you know, where do I go from here? I felt kind of lost. I just had this idea of going on a retreat, maybe not a retreat, but a pilgrimage, to Bhutan, which is nearIndia. And because that was a place where he had spent some time and it had a very powerful impact on him; it changed his life. So I figured I'd go there and just experience that place as he did. I didn't want to do it alone. It's just that I don't like traveling alone. So I looked for some of these tours, that were going to Bhutan, which there aren’t many of because it is kind of out of the way. And it's kind of expensive to get there. So I was looking for some tours, and I found one in a Buddhist magazine. These people went exactly where I wanted to go. They're going to India and Bhutan and Nepal. And the guide was a Buddhist painter. It sounded interesting to me. And I contacted them and signed up. There were about 10 of us on the trip. And they were all Sufis for some reason. They were American Sufis and their main goal was going to India, where they had a temple that they were going to. My main goal was to visit a particular monastery where he spent time in Bhutan called Taktsang monastery. And it's just on a cliff. It's just like a flat cliff.And it's this, these buildings on the side of it are quite amazing. It's a very disorienting place because you're up on the side of a cliff, you know, and you just like space all around you. So it's quite remarkable. I almost didn't make it. I got sick in India. And I was in bed for a couple of days. And I was really worried that I wasn't going to make it to this monastery because that was the whole goal of this trip. You know, I was really getting kind of bummed out. But the fever broke. And the next day I was able to get up and go and we hiked up, it's about a three hour hike up to the monastery. And I was really hurting. And you know, I've been sick in bed for a couple of days. I was dehydrated. It was a tough climb. But luckily there were some horses that were going up and down to the monastery. And a fellow was with one of the horses and he just took a look at me. He goes, “Want to ride the horse?” And I agreed to do it. It took me up most of the way if not all the way, but most of the way, and I was able to get there in spite of being really sick. I beat most of them up there because of the horse. I don't know exactly how tall it is. But it's pretty steep. The monastery in the distance and it's up on this cliff. The closer you get the more you see these paths right along the edge of the cliff. It's pretty wild. It wasn't that scary. No, it was always a fairly wide path. You have these VISTAs you could see forever but it wasn't actually treacherous. It looked hard to get to but it wasn't that hard to walk there. Previous Next

Marylou Davis (76) talks with her granddaughter, Abigail Horan (21) about the pivotal moments in her life which sculpted the path to the life she has today. In the interview, Marylou discusses how moving from Florida back to Massachusetts where she originally lived was a tough decision, but ultimately worked out in the end because of the relationships she fostered once arriving back. Marylou's Story Marylou Davis (76) talks with her granddaughter, Abigail Horan (21) about the pivotal moments in her life which sculpted the path to the life she has today. In the interview, Marylou discusses how moving from Florida back to Massachusetts where she originally lived was a tough decision, but ultimately worked out in the end because of the relationships she fostered once arriving back. Scroll to listen Marylou's Story 00:00 / 03:24 Well I think the most pivotal point in my life is when I basically had to make a big decision because of being now a widow. My husband passed away. He died young at 57. And I was living away from my hometown we had moved to Florida and my decision was did I want to come back to Massachusetts because this is where I had friends I had a family I have two daughters one in Marco which is where we lived in Florida and one in Massachusetts my daughter who was having grandchildren who were living in Boston moved back to the area where we are from that is the decision I had to make. When she was coming back I knew that I wanted to go back home. That was always my thing ya know I wanted to know my grandchildren and be able to have a connection with them we lived there for nine years What are some of the important lessons you learned from this big decision to move home? Well, the lesson that I learned is that I could live on my own ya know because you always think about this part of your life are you going to be able to live on your own I had to find an apartment, I had to find a job I had to work and you know I had to make a new life for myself. Even though I did have friends you know but I did reconnect with people too and that was a big turning point in my life you know I was all set to have this one apartment it was going to be in Dartmouth but my mother in law was still living and I had to take her to the doctors one day we went to her doctor her doctor lived in this beautiful mansion of a house in New Bedford Mass and he knew me he knew the family he knew the situation after he examined my mother in law he said to me well Marylou you have a job and I said no I do not have a job I’m looking for a job he said well do you have an apartment I said well I do have an apartment that's going to be in Dartmouth he said well I have an apartment upstairs and I would really like you to look at it I was in Dartmouth I lived in Dartmouth for 20 years So I was thinking oh I don't know if I could live in the city you know but after we got done he said take the key go upstairs and look at the apartment So I take the key, I go upstairs I look at the apartment I fell in love with it It was a huge apartment I mean it was two bedrooms, high ceiling all freshly painted everything was included, the electric the hear. The doctor his name is David had a brother that I knew was his brother because I worked for him years years ago and he was manager of a store in the city and when I had this apartment I kept saying to myself cause I would see Steven every once in a while at the stores but I hadn't seen him in a long while of course but I said ya know if I ever see him I want to tell him where I live in his brothers apartment and of course, his brother knew that I knew him but so I did see him one time he changed jobs and I went up to him and I told him and low and behold I didn't know that he was going to be my second husband I lived in that apartment for three and a half years

< Back JoAnn's Story 00:00 / 04:23 So, the name of this story is like dancing through my life. And the most vivid memory I have from elementary school in Springfield, Mass was in fourth grade, my teacher let us bring in our favorite records. And at the end of the day, I don't remember if it was Thursday or Friday, every week, he let us dance in the classroom. So, I mean, I was a good student. Everything was fine, you know, academically, but that's not what I remember. You know? So, also, I danced in my living room at home with my mother and my sister in the nineteen fifties watching American bandstand. So, I have dance in my background. However, somehow, by the time I got to college, I forgot about all of that. And I, you know, I was required to take two semesters of phys ed, at UMass in 1966 when I was a freshman. And so, I you can see I wasn't very athletic. In the meantime, I was assigned to a room with three people, which was meant for two people in dorm in in in Tower Number 2, which was in Southwest. And it was pretty wild. You know, I didn't get enough sleep, and it was pretty nerve wracking, really. So, I got mononucleosis in my second semester of freshman year. And I don't know if you know what it is. It was known as the kissing disease then, but it's a virus that passes through saliva or something or rather a lot of kids got it. So, I had to go home, recover with my parents, and then I went back to school. But before I went, my doctor told me that if I didn't start to exercise, there was a danger that I would never be strong again because it's, when you have mono, you're very tired. So, he suggested I take more phys ed. So next fall or, you know, when it was time to register for the fall, I wanted to take a phys ed class. So, I found out that there was only one section that still had space for me, and that was modern dance. And I honestly didn't know what modern dance was. I'm sorry to say. I wasn't exposed to it. So, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. And I walked into the class in September of sixty-seven, and, you know, the first few classes were okay. A teacher from New York City, Marilyn Patton, had come to UMass. And, so I had her as my teacher, and what she did one day is she had us go through the movements that we could imagine from the time we were in the womb and then very slowly being born and learning how to crawl, learning how to sit up, learning how to eventually walk. And we spent maybe forty-five minutes going through this, what's called developmental movement, ex experience. And when I stood up, I felt more alive than I could ever remember feeling before. It was a real change of consciousness. So, from that moment on, I started dancing. But I always took dance classes in the evening during my twenties. And then when I was about 32, I discovered an organization called Dance New England. And what it was a confederation of dances all over New England. So, I started going to them, and I became one of the organizers of the Hartford dance, which was called Dance Hartford. And I became very close to the people who I danced with and worked with. So, it's become a huge part of my life where most of my friends over the years have come through the dance community, and that's still true. And, you know, I wish you all happy dancing. I fully recommend it, too, to connect with people, stay healthy and fit, and be happy. Previous Next

< Back Noleen's Story Noleen describes her and her family’s migration from Ghana to the U.S., navigating constant transitions before finally settling in Massachusetts. 00:00 / 04:35 So I will be telling the story of my migration from Ghana to the United States. So from what I remember, it was just a random day. I was in either second or third grade, and my parents pulled me out of school, my siblings and I out of school, to go and take passport pictures. My parents were going through the paperwork process and just getting everything together. I remember that after third grade, my dad was like, "Okay, so we're gonna take a trip to the United States.” And we're like, we were so excited. We left Ghana, like I wanna say, a month after school had ended. We, you know, took a trip here. Everything was so smooth. We got here, it was, it was a totally different world from what I was used to seeing. We had a blast. We lived here for, I wanna say, about two months. And then, um, my parents had at some point decided that they didn't wanna live in Massachusetts. My dad decided that it was best that my mom should live in the US and move somewhere else. And then my dad would take my siblings and I back to Ghana to continue schooling until my mom, you know, was settled down. Cause he didn't feel like it was best for all of us to move together to start a new life somewhere else, where we didn't really have anyone. So she moved to Chicago, and we went back to Ghana. Um, but when I got to school, school had already started. So it was like a, maybe like three weeks, three weeks or a month into school, and I just got there, and everyone was like, “Oh my god, where were you?” And you know, with African tradition, people usually don't like to say what they're doing unless things are actually set in stone. So my parents like, you know, keep things a secret, like don't tell them, like, any details, don't tell anyone, anything. Then my mom decided that she didn't wanna live in Chicago cause she felt like it was not the best fit for us. So she got into contact with her friend, and she moved to Texas, and she lived in Texas, she felt like, you know, life there was very different. She liked it, but she still didn't feel like it was the best decision. And then she eventually wanted to actually come back to Ghana. Now things get a little chaotic here. My dad was like, you know, to keep our status active, we would need to live in the United States. So my mom had to make up her mind. Then my mom moved back to Massachusetts. We took another trip to the US, and we lived here for, I wanna say, like a month, and then, um, we went back to Ghana after that because things were still not settled. We went back to school. I started fifth grade, and I think this time, though, I did get to fifth grade when it started, and I knew that this was probably going to be the school year that would be my final school year in Ghana. Um, I still had to keep everything a secret. And then now things are really, really set in stone as time went on. My dad would pull us out of school to go through the immigration process, um, take us to do paperwork. Now we're doing immunizations, gathering all our belongings so we would move to the United States. Near the end of the school year, my dad had written a letter to the school telling them that we were not going to come back anymore, but this was just with the administration, like this was when no one else. I remember the last day of school, I was really sad. I felt like I had no proper closure with people that were around me because I, again, was told to keep this private, so no one knew what was going on. But I decided to tell a few of my friends. I told about one or two people that I actually was moving to the United States and was never going to come back or at least not return as a student to the school anymore. And I remember I was just really trying to savor all my last moments with my friends because I knew within like a month we would be gone. So now school ends. Um, now we started, like, you know, packing, finalizing everything, and then the day came where my dad, my two brothers and I, we moved to the US. And I will say it wasn't really like a hard difference because first of all, we lived here for a few months, so we kind of expected, you know, what was going to happen. Like it wasn't anything totally new experience, because in our little short moments during our trips here, we did, you know, move around, we did explore stuff, so we knew what to expect. So it wasn't really like a hard transition for us at all. Um, I remember I lived in a really big apartment, so a lot of people that were young were my age. And that's how I started meeting connections here. I wanna say maybe like a month before sixth grade began, they took us to do paperwork with the, I forgot what it was called, but they took us through the paperwork to begin school. And then I was like, oh my god, wow, like things are actually, you know, starting. And then during the summertime, I had a blast. I was making memories with people that I kind of still know today. And it's been, honestly, a blessing. Previous Next

< Back Raphaella's Story Raphaella encountered her science teacher, who had doubted her ability to handle honors courses. Her English teacher Miss Young though, supported her, and in the right moment as well, giving her the affirmation that she was capable of being able to take honors courses and signing off on the honors english course. This action allowed her to excel in these courses and give her confidence back within her potential. 00:00 / 04:40 Previous Next