Upper School News

It's not every day that high school students have the opportunity to watch multiple versions of Godzilla or read chapters and chapters of manga or discuss the importance of Hello Kitty as part of an academic class. 

In Amber Carpenter’s upper school creative writing class, students have been exploring flash storytelling. They wrote three vignettes or fragments that provided instructions on how to care for an adolescent in the year 2021.

In the midst of the towering stacks of books in the Writing and Research Center (WRC), the new collection team has been hard at work evaluating the diversity of the collection. 

The upper school Groove Workshop band produced their rendition of "What's Going On" to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the classic Marvin Gaye tune.

Upper school student council arts representative Tomo recently launched the Nueva Art Collection, a place to share, explore, and document all of the artistic talent and creativity of the Nueva community. Judith Worrall caught up with him about the creation of this virtual art gallery.  

Over the past semester, students in English 10 have been immersed in a unit focused on eco-poetry. Throughout the year, teachers and students investigate a variety of issues brought on by colonialism, post-colonialism, and globalization.

“Poetry is political and subversive. It has the power to spark conversation, inspire change, and make a profound impact,” said Amber Carpenter, upper school English teacher. 

"You are a motivator, a positive force, and an inspiration to us all. Thank you for setting the bar so high and for bringing such HOPE and deep empathy to this community.”

Imagine receiving this appreciation message . . . how would you feel? Valued? Appreciated? Loved? All of the above? The special sentiments above were written during Kindness Week, a tradition that Director of Social Justice and Equity Alegria Barclay started four years ago with the help of then Kindness Club President Anna Sandell ’18.

On the morning of Thursday, Jan. 21, Nyle Fort spoke to upper school students about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy, what it means to be an activist, and how young people can get involved in social movements. 

The organizer, minister, and scholar helped set the tone for the rest of the day’s programming, designed to explore Dr. King’s conception of justice and introduce Nueva students to young social justice activists. 

We recently interviewed Sean Schochet, upper school Science of Mind teacher, and the peer consulting team in the high school to hear about the warmth, friendship and support this outstanding group of young people offer Nueva high school and middle school students.