When Nueva Mandarin teachers Weixia Han, Tina Zhang, Min Larson and Jamie Gao learned about food relief organization Heart of Dinner, they immediately knew they wanted their students to get involved with the initiative. 

Viewing the world with an artist’s eye. Creating projects rooted in empathy. Empowering students with iteration and innovation. 

Throughout the past year, I-Lab engineer and Hillsborough shop manager Christine Braun has been a fixture on the Hillsborough campus, using the I-Lab as her home base while teaching, leading, and planning for design thinking-related initiatives. She is also a lit club facilitator for a seventh- and eighth-grade lit club.

In the new fall 2020 elective “Colors of Nature,” seventh- and eighth-grade students explored the notion that people of color have different access to and privileges in the natural world. Through class discussions and creative journals, students reflected on how environmentalism and racism are intertwined. Eighth-grader Jax C. shares an introduction, and three students—Anika G., Kayla L., and Anjuli M.—reflect on their experience in this course. 

This morning Upper School Division Head Liza Raynal and Tom Dorrance, upper school history teacher, led an all-division meeting to respond to yesterday’s events. They both presented reflections on what happened and affirmations of what we value as an institution, most notably democracy. Read on for a transcript of Tom’s speech. 

Over the course of the last nine months, everyone in our community has worked tirelessly to ensure that we continue to offer the academic program and community experience our students and families love about Nueva. One team that has worked particularly hard, and entirely behind the scenes, is the Facilities and Operations Team. In this season of thanks, we are so very grateful to Director of Facilities and Operations Steve Osbourne and his entire team, spanning both campuses, for their efforts to allow us the safe return we have had over the past few months.

This fall, we asked many Mavericks in our community about what it has been like for them during this pandemic. As 2020 comes to a close, we wanted to share a sneak peek of their answers. Be on the lookout for the next issue of Nueva Magazine, where we’ll share even more of our Mavericks on the Street responses!

Kindergarten associate teacher Carrie Stouffer has been named Nueva’s first lower school environmental citizenship ambassador. The role of the environmental citizenship ambassador evolved from the school’s desire to build strong, responsive, and effective relationships with faculty and division heads in all three divisions.

Following his recent reelection to the California state legislature, Assemblymember Rob Bonta commemorated Filipino American History Month at an event organized by Nueva’s Filipino Club. Bonta shared how his identity as a Filipino American influenced his political career, which has been devoted to promoting social justice, inclusion, equity, and opportunity. As I listened to Assemblymember Bonta share his perspective on what it means to be Filipino, I reflected on my own Filipino identity.