Sofía’s Blessings

2013. First year of BRIDGES at MCS, and *Sofía’s first year at MCS, too! Recently, she wrote an essay about that year, remembering the trepidation of the first day, her joy when teachers started class with prayer, the adjustments to new procedures and more challenging academics. She quickly made many friends but was faced with more conspicuous cultural differences in a less diverse student body. She had to explain to her classmates the contents of the homemade lunches her mother packed -- delicious to her, yet so foreign to them. She had to try to catch up with her peers’ understanding of English grammar, while tempering her frustration in a Spanish class entirely too easy for her.

These days, Sofía is a well-adjusted sophomore with a great report card, a heart for the underdog, and dreams of becoming a nurse, the first in her family to attend college. She continues to find great joy in morning prayers and loves Spanish for Spanish Speakers class, where we celebrate her bilingualism, and empower her cross-cultural leadership. I can always count on her to encourage younger students, because not too long ago she was the new girl in grade 4.

In her essay, Sofía concludes: “To attend this school has been a blessing! I think if I had never come to this school, my life would have been different~ I wouldn’t have the friends I now have, I would have never learned to read and write in Spanish, and I would have never learned much about what Christianity really is.”

*Her name has been changed to respect her privacy.