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Dear familia,

It is college acceptance season! You can almost hear the hum of nervous energy in our high school halls as students imagine where they will be this fall. Last year's first-ever graduating class set the bar high with 450 total acceptances. However, like a younger sibling, the class of 2022 is savvier for having observed their older peers. This class is also a little tougher, having lost more parents to COVID and illness in prior years.

Approximately 70% of the class of 2022 has attended American Dream since sixth grade. Some have since moved to Brooklyn or Queens but endure the commute in order to earn an American Dream School diploma. Nearly all--96%--live below the poverty line, and nearly all will be the first members of their families to go to college.

Please read on to meet one of these seniors (our Dreamer of the Month), a History Department Chair who draws on his past to support our students' futures, and our growing college acceptances list.

Gracias,

Melissa Melkonian
Founder and Executive Director
Photos of the Month: Observing the Little Things (Atoms)
Faculty Spotlight: Felix Sanchez
AP US History and Government Teacher, High School History Department Chair
“There had never been a guy to graduate college in my family. I couldn’t fail my family,” says Felix Sanchez, the American Dream School’s AP US History and Government teacher and High School History Department Chair. “I had to make my mother proud and prove everyone else wrong.”
 
Sanchez was born and raised in the Bronx but did not begin learning English until Kindergarten. In fifth grade, he was made to practice his ABCs in the back of the classroom with a teacher’s assistant while his peers did grade-level work. He was then made to repeat the grade. “It’s traumatic as a kid to be told you are being held back because of your language. I felt there was something wrong with me.”
 
The grandchild of Dominican immigrants, Sanchez is the eldest of eight children raised by a single mother. “My mom gave me the things I needed like shelter and a bed, but the emotional support was never there. My home was my classroom. My teachers were my heroes.” He worked multiple jobs to put himself through John Jay College, the only school he could afford, and then applied to Teach for America. He was among the 15% of applicants accepted that year.
 
After two years teaching with Teach for America, Sanchez discovered ADS. “From what I saw, the teachers looked like the students and that’s important. I wanted to work at a school that understood that someone’s story plays a role in the classroom, that where they’re from plays a role in their leadership style.” He taught the first-ever graduating class History in 10th,11th and 12th grades, co-writing each year’s curriculum. “The students saw me grow and I saw them grow. For many of them, all they could talk about was going to college. To see that unfold was just amazing.”
 
When Sanchez speaks about ADS and its students, one feels he imagines the school as a launch pad and the students as rockets thrumming with energy, awaiting launch. He loves that ADS teaches students to advocate for themselves and their educational needs, and that it sets their trajectories for higher education. “You can lose everything you have but you can’t lose your education. No matter what you go through in life, no one can ever take that away from you.”
Our Mission: The American Dream School develops academic excellence in both Spanish and English for grades 6-12, preparing students to excel in college and become leaders in their communities.