Dear familia,

On June 24th, during a beautiful evening ceremony at the Bronx Zoo, we graduated the 80 members of our second-ever senior class. As I shared from the stage, this year has been one of the most inspiring years of my career at American Dream. Watching our senior class rise up after COVID, in the strongest, most passionate way possible, gave me life and helped me realize that our school was helping place our students on the right path for their future.

Whether you supported our inaugural ¡Fiesta For Firsts! spring fundraiser, otherwise donated funds, time or expertise, made a helpful introduction or simply kept up with our newsletter, I wish to thank you for your support this past school-year.

Below, we share photos as well as the voices of Class of 2022 leaders. We also recognize volunteer leaders and organizations whose contributions have been vital to our growing success.

Wishing you a happy and peaceful summer,

Melissa Melkonian

Founder and Head of School

"At ADS we have three slogans. Somos un equipo. Somos familia. Somos ADS [We are a team. We are a family. We are ADS]. This year, I’m adding Somos campeones [We are champions]. We started earning medals and trophies very, very early on at ADS at debate tournaments. We added more medals with Science Olympiad, Soccer and Football. This year, we continued to grow that tradition with the flag football trophies and the baseball championship trophy.

"But we are not a sports school or a debate school- we just happen to be good at a lot of things.  We are good at art, good at dancing, good at being leaders, good at getting college acceptances. We are good at passing AP exams, especialmente en Español. One thing that we are great at, though, is this so-called Seal of Biliteracy.  This class surpassed last year’s class and had 52 students earn the Seal of Biliteracy. 63% of our graduating class earned a Seal of Biliteracy."

"You see, speaking Spanish is not a liability, but rather an asset. Speaking another language- fluently at that- connects a lot of us to our family, our culture. Our school was designed intentionally for both students and parents- with a passion and drive to maintain a piece of who we are as a driving force of who we will become. This school believes deeply in holding on to our language, our culture, while adding another language, another culture. Valemos por dos [our value is doubled with a second language and culture]."

"ADS is not about passing your classes and moving on. It’s about creating experiences and opportunities that will transform and inspire our entire community. ADS is about changing the trajectory of our students and their families, changing their destinies."