Dear Kehillah Community,

As you might have seen on Kehillah’s Instagram last week, on National Signing Day, I committed to the University of Michigan Women’s Gymnastics team. Go Blue!

I've been working towards this opportunity for years: I’ve been involved with gymnastics since pre-school, and I had my first competition in first grade. It has been quite the journey with ups and downs, and a highlight includes signing my National Letter of Intent last week. During my time at Kehillah, I’ve had opportunities to share some of my gymnastics stories with others, and a theme that has consistently emerged is that, thanks to Kehillah, I never had to choose between my education and gymnastics.

When I joined Kehillah as a first-year, balancing morning and afternoon training with academics was challenging. Thanks to the support of Dr. Pellant, Ms. Anders, Ms. Carbery, Mr. Smith, Mr. Brownstone, and my flexible teachers, we designed a creative class schedule to accommodate my training. Instead of pursuing a homeschool program, as most of my gymnastics peers do, I was able to experience exceptional teaching and educational opportunities at Kehillah.

For example, I get to challenge myself in classes like AP Physics with Mr. Grabowski (a.k.a. Mr. G). I love his teaching style and how we use interactive labs to understand the concepts we’re learning. What I respect most is his ability to create a trusting environment where students can be confused, struggle with the content for a while, and then, with his support, reach that exciting “a-ha” moment that makes it all worthwhile.

Being a student at Kehillah also teaches me a lot about who I am as a learner and how I can use the resources available to me to discover and create. This is a great example of experiences I might have never had on my own and that I would have had to give up at other schools to pursue my training.

In the last panoRAMa, the Service Club leaders spoke about how Kehillah gives students the space to learn about the world around them. Kehillah also gives us the space to learn about ourselves. I’m not Jewish, but I quickly found that the knowledge, history, and values we examine in Jewish Studies are universally relevant. Through Ms. Elman’s Warriors and Prophets class, I came to realize that I don’t need to be an expert in a subject in order to contribute to a collective learning environment. Sharing my findings from a research paper with a group of women at a Passover Seder challenged me to have the courage to take an intellectual risk that proved rewarding rather than scary. This realization has helped me want to share my voice with the people around me and has made me more confident as a student and as a person. To me, these moments are what Kehillah is all about, and why I prioritize school. Kehillah makes me a better student, athlete, community member, and person.

Even though gymnastics is outside of my life here at Kehillah, my friends, family, and teachers gathered in the MPR last week to help me celebrate this special moment in my life. I said it then, and I will say it now: I am so grateful for Kehillah. The school’s commitments are not just words on a website. When Kehillah says “everyone has equal access to learning” and “everyone’s unique talents are valued equally,” I can say from firsthand experience that the school puts that into action every day. And because they do, people like me are able to pursue their passions and create their dreams. I look forward to taking in and celebrating the next six months of my journey here at Kehillah.

Thank you!