Dear familia,

The following is an excerpt from my opening remarks at our first-ever Commencement ceremony on Saturday, June 26th at the Bronx Zoo. On that day, we graduated 98% of the members of our senior class, 95% of whom had already registered for their first college classes. The education and the community support we provide at ADS are changing the lifelong trajectories of students from the south Bronx and their families today and for generations to come.

Whether you have donated funds, your time or your expertise, made a helpful introduction or simply maintained an interest in our community's success by reading our newsletter, I want to thank you for joining us on the journey to this milestone. Below, we also recognize volunteer leaders and organizations whose contributions have been vital to our success.

I hope you enjoy,

Melissa Melkonian
Founder and Head of School
"In the past few weeks, I have heard people say that 'Melkonian’s dream is a reality.' I actually never dreamt this.
"I dreamt of opening a school for English language learners, immigrant students and children of immigrants. A bilingual school. I wanted to demonstrate that speaking Spanish was not a liability to academic success but rather an asset. I wanted to demonstrate that when you pour love into a community, the return on investment is infinite. That was the dream. The reality was that I got a family instead.
"I don’t know schools where 100% of the staff will work with students at all hours of the night, beg to open school on Saturdays for the students, and work after-school to bring in dynamic opportunities for students to help them to become better versions of themselves. I don’t know schools where the students’ response to my text messages requesting their help, be it with moving boxes, creating spreadsheets or distributing food on a Saturday, is always two syllables: 'GOTCHU.' And I have never seen a school where the parents support and trust the faculty and staff with all of their heart.
"ADS was opened with the idea of bridging the opportunity gap by providing access to an innovative, equitable, bilingual education in the south Bronx that would take middle school students and create college graduates. We had the odds against us from the beginning.
"And then, last March, the pandemic hit, and we lost so much. We lost so many lives: we lost family, we lost friends. We lost income, we lost hope, we lost patience, we lost the ability to make sense of anything. What we did not lose was our sense of belonging, our sense of family at ADS.
"Through our work together--educators, parents, students, friends--we were able to earn 450 college acceptances. We have a graduation rate of 98%. And 95% of our graduates have not only committed to going to college, but have gone so far as to register for their freshman courses.
"What we achieved would have been nearly impossible alone. We did it as a family."
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.