ADS Addresses Community Needs During the Pandemic
This past spring, with the support of a community fundraising effort, ADS delivered 65 WiFi hotspots to those families in need of a stable internet connection as learning went remote. Education at ADS was delivered remotely through the fall, and the school recently began providing “The Eagle’s Nest,” a quiet space where students can come into school, safely attend their remote classes and study.

With the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, ADS hired a third social worker to provide grief counseling to students and families who have lost loved ones to the pandemic, and to address additional related socioemotional needs (more on this wonderful act of generosity and its impact to follow in January).

For Thanksgiving (pictured above), we adapted a tradition as old as ADS: Our annual Thanksgiving potluck dinner. Traditionally, faculty and staff prepare dishes for a community-wide feast. This year, our tireless operations team packaged 410 meals for our families, which safely collected them in assigned time slots throughout the Tuesday of the holiday week.

ADS continues to offer meals each weekday to students in both our Middle and High School buildings. The Mott Haven Community Fridge, co-founded by two ADS faculty members, also continues to help meet the needs of our families as well as the broader community and has grown to two community refrigerators.

We hope to shift to a hybrid remote/in-person model in February but are prepared to continue remote education as long as is necessary to ensure our community's safety.
Faculty Spotlight: Johanna Quizhpe, "Teacher of Love"
Johanna Quizhpe, AP Spanish teacher, Spanish Department Chair and Student Council Advisor, was 15 when she moved with her mother to the US from Ecuador. Her father had emigrated years earlier to drive a New York City taxi and earn enough for his family to have a house back home. For most of Quizhpe’s childhood, she saw her father for a month each year, around Christmas.

Quizhpe learned English from her classes, cartoons, soap operas and hours and hours at the library. However, “I feel I lost a bit of my identity when I was almost forced to put my Spanish to the side,” she says. “When I got to college, I decided I would become the teacher who relates to the students and who connects with them. I wanted to be the person for my students that I needed when I was growing up.” She discovered ADS at an education-related job fair and has helped to shepherd, since ninth grade, the first senior class.

Among her other roles, Quizhpe oversees the Seal of Biliteracy, which students can earn through a combination of excelling on AP exams and in their coursework, and completing a capstone project they present in both Spanish and English to a panel of parents and peers.

“I 100% see myself in most of our kids,” says Quizhpe, who ADS parents call “maestra de amor (teacher of love).” "We share the same stories. I think it is so important that ADS gives students the opportunity to develop in both languages and both identities.”
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.