Submitted by Spring Street International School
Spring Street International School is graduating its 24th class of seniors. The school’s mission is to send kind, intelligent, informed, humanitarians into the world who have dreams and that follow their dreams. This year, we have students going to colleges both near and far with many students going out of state.
The class of 2019 earned more than $1 million in merit scholarships collectively. The school’s Rwandan senior Paradis earned a full ride scholarship to Washington and Lee University valued at $280,000.
May 1 is signing day, and the class of 2019 is making difficult decisions about where they will spend their next four years. We are proud of their accomplishments, and we want to congratulate and celebrate them as May 1 approaches.
Senior Georgia Smith had the following to say about her Spring Street teachers.
Ted Hope
“I came into constitution class a couple of weeks ago planning to tell Ted my great grandmother was in the hospital and I needed my homework early. Instead of talking to me about homework, Ted told me that I should take a walk outside and see the world through the eyes that I have right now because they were not going to last forever.
“I am really grateful to Ted because at that moment he saw that I did not need constitution class but rather to see the world through the lens I had while my great grandmother was dying.”
Kate Small
“One time I cried to her about the injustice of being dyslexic in this world. She told me that she was going to make me a writer. I did not know if I liked that because words and I have never been friends, and most of my education we fought one another.
“Kate told me to pace around her classroom and talk to her about all the things I wished I was able to write over the years. She typed my thoughts into her pink computer and sent them to me later that night. When I read them over I realized that Kate had given me the gift of words. That was something I had never experienced before. Kate put the power back in my hands to be able to articulate myself using words, and I had gone my whole life without ever experiencing that.”
Last story
“My little sister came home from parent-teacher conferences this week and said, ‘I wish I could see myself the way my teachers see me.’ And this is when I realized that what sets Spring Street apart is the way that our teachers see us. They do not just see us as academic minds or brains. They see us as whole human beings. They also see us as who they hope we will become, not just who we are now. This is what I hope all students will get to experience.”
