{"id":2141,"date":"2017-03-23T17:54:09","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T17:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/?page_id=2141"},"modified":"2017-03-23T20:36:29","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T20:36:29","slug":"letter-from-the-student-editorial-board","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/letter-from-the-student-editorial-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from the Student Editorial Board"},"content":{"rendered":"

We realized that we had power in the sense of writing and created a powerful piece of work. Not only does this prove that we aren\u2019t \u00a0quitters but it also proves that we can work together to benefit the community. \u00a0This is what high school should look and feel like.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n

We are the first graduating class of the Margarita Mu\u00f1iz Academy, the only two-way bilingual high school in Massachusetts to date. We hope that the proposals in this book will be taken seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n

As seniors, we may not benefit directly from any changes Boston Public Schools decide to make, but we hope that the proposals in this collection will be taken very seriously. Many of us have younger brothers, sisters, cousins and friends in the school system\u2014we want them to have access to a richer and more engaging high school experience. <\/span><\/p>\n

We are the voices of minorities. We come from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, M\u00e9xico, Colombia, India, Guatemala, Barbados, Honduras, El salvador, Cuba, North America and Haiti. Some of us were born here, but many of us were not. The fact that many of us started our education in our homelands gives us added insight \u00a0into what about our high schools works and what needs improvement.<\/span><\/p>\n

We were surprised when our teacher Ms. Laura Gersch<\/a> announced, \u201cWe are going to write a book!\u201d She was very excited. We were not. We felt overwhelmed. Most of us were completely new to the kind of research that this project required: first, we were required to seek out and evaluate a variety of texts from academic journals to newspapers and magazines. Then, we contacted and interviewed experts, from \u00a0vocational students to school principals to \u00a0directors of Nonprofits to Boston\u2019s Superintendent of Education,Tommy Chang. Our attitudes changed as we became engaged and learned more about our topic. We could not have done this on our own. We were fortunate to have tutor support from 826 Boston from beginning to end. They worked with us in groups, one-on-one, and online, empowering us to find our own voices.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another big obstacle for our class was to write our proposals full drafts in both English and Spanish. Each of us were faced with the challenge of writing a proposal in a second language. The translation process was very collaborative \u00a0Our Spanish teacher gave us resources on the web to help us translate, but our classmates were way better resources than any website. Native Spanish speakers were able to help their classmates with translating phrases or words so the meaning of our proposals stayed consistent. Although, we worked together to translate, it took our class about two weeks both inside and out of class to complete this task. By the end of this process we all felt that we had two versions of high quality work. <\/span><\/p>\n

Before we knew it, we realized that we had power in the sense of writing and created a powerful piece of work. Not only does this prove that we aren\u2019t \u00a0quitters but it also proves that we can work together to benefit the community. \u00a0This is what high school should look and feel like. \u00a0As we go on to college and careers such as teachers, nurses, scientists, musicians, and mathematicians, we will take both the skills and confidence we developed over the course of this project out into the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Margarita Mu\u00f1iz Academy Student Editorial Board<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are the first graduating class of the Margarita Mu\u00f1iz Academy, the only two-way bilingual high school in Massachusetts to date. We hope that the proposals in this book will be taken seriously. As seniors, we may not benefit directly from any changes Boston Public Schools decide to make, but we hope that the proposals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2141","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1789,"url":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/about\/","url_meta":{"origin":2141,"position":0},"title":"Letter from the Teacher","author":"admin","date":"May 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Attendance Would Be 100%\u00a0is a collection of writing on high school redesign; it is also an artifact of redesign. It documents the challenge presented to this year\u2019s seniors at the Margarita Mu\u00f1iz Academy to envision high school from the student perspective. The authors of this book are the first graduating\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1612,"url":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/blog\/","url_meta":{"origin":2141,"position":1},"title":"About the Project","author":"admin","date":"May 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Welcome to the accompaniment site of\u00a0Attendance Would Be 100%, an 826 Boston Young Authors Book\u00a0Project. 826 Boston is a nonprofit youth writing and publishing organization that empowers traditionally underserved students ages 6-18 to find their voices, tell their stories, and gain communication skills to succeed in school and in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2133,"url":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/foreword-by-dave-eggers\/","url_meta":{"origin":2141,"position":2},"title":"Foreword by Dave Eggers","author":"April Wang","date":"March 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This book is important on many levels. First, it's a work by students about issues, in and out of school, that affect them, and this is intrinsically important. It's as rare as a red moon when we actually ask young people for their opinions about the workings of the world\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2138,"url":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/credits\/","url_meta":{"origin":2141,"position":3},"title":"Credits","author":"April Wang","date":"March 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Congratulations to the first graduating class of the Margarita Mu\u00f1iz Academy! Isabella Conde Aguirre Franlin Almonte Ver\u00f3nica Anguiano Ver\u00f3nica Arana Lauris Isabel B\u00e1ez Priscilla B\u00e1ez Wilfredo B\u00e1ez Marfry E. Cabral Willis Calderon Anthony Lucas Cruz Carrillo Diego Casta\u00f1eda Giancarlo Guerrero Castillo Stephanie Castillo Esther Franchesca D\u00edaz Clase Lorian De Lahoz\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P7wVLn-yx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}