Our SAFE Ambassadors demonstrate and reinforce honorable character matters and model exemplary behavior on behalf of the student body, families, neighborhoods and organizations. These energized AEHS students are pictured below with sponsors Dr. Mahoney and Mr. Soriano as they prepare for the new school year.

* SAFE = Student Assistance and Family Empowerment program

These four students recently traveled to Washington D.C. on a special trip. All of our AEHS students had the opportunity to write an essay about the importance of Washington D.C. and its impact on their personal lives. Their essays stood out over all others.

As part of their trip, they laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Seen below, they are holding their certificates of excellence signed by Mr. Bill Sublette, School Board Chair.

From the left: Yashira Balado, Nathaneal Jean, Salome Cuevas, and Jonathan Vega

The wreath left by our students at the Arlington National Cemetery on behalf of Acceleration East High School and the changing of the guard (July 2018).

 

Source: U.S. Dept. of Labor - Please click here for the 2018 second quarter data table.

NEVER GIVE UP

Once, a young school boy was caught in a fire accident in his school and was assumed that he would not live. His mother was told that he was sure to die, for the terrible fire had devastated the lower half of his body. Even if he were to survive, he would be a cripple throughout his life.

But the brave boy did not want to die nor did he want to be a cripple. Much to be the amazement of the doctor, he did survive. But unfortunately from his waist down, he had no motor ability. His thin legs just dangled there, lifeless.

Ultimately he was discharged from the hospital. But his determination to walk was indomitable. At home, when he was not in bed, he was confined to a wheelchair. One day, he threw himself from the chair and pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs behind him. He reached the picket fence, raised himself up and then stake by stake, he began dragging himself along the fence, his resolve to walk undeterred.

He did this every day, with faith in himself that he would be able to walk unaided. With his iron persistence and his resolute determination, he did develop the ability to stand up, then to walk haltingly, then to walk by himself and then to run.

He began to walk to school, then run to school, to run for the sheer joy of running. Later in college he made the track team.

In February 1934, in New York City's famed Madison Square Garden, this young man who was not expected to survive, who would surely never walk, who could never hope to run - this determined young man, Dr. Glenn Cunningham, ran the world's fastest mile.

The lesson for our students? This is a brilliant testimony to how one can bounce back even when all odds are stacked against you. Please, never give up on your goals.

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We are very pleased to welcome back our dedicated teachers this week and look forward to next Monday's return of the students. This will be a wonderful school year and I hope to see many members of our school community at this Thursday evening's Meet the Teacher. Make it a great week!!

Douglas K. Loftus, Principal

Acceleration East High School

Tuesday, August 7, 2018