CHARISSE – 12th grade

Give five phrases/words to describe your grade.
Ambitious, capable, curious, good-hearted, honest.

What color would your grade be?
Purple, because it’s a royal color.

What animal would your grade be?
A griffin because griffins have wings, they’re part eagle, part lion, and they are pretty legendary. The class [of 2022] has so many different dimensions and features to them. They can go on land, they can go in water, they can kind of go anywhere.

What is your favorite thing about your grade?
My favorite thing about the grade is how resourceful they are. They can roll with pretty much anything that I’ve seen so far. I can’t think of a better grade to bring everyone back into the building after quarantine.

What makes your grade unique from the others?
They’re slow to box themselves in and to box each other in, which is unique about them. They’ll give a person a lot of room before they write someone off or say this is who this person is. They give people a bit of space to wiggle around in there. I think that’s something we all need.

What is something in the future that you are excited about for your grade?
I’m excited for their spring, excited for them to just slow down, do school for themselves and sort of build-out their lives. They have more choices, more opportunities and they know more about what works for them. So much to celebrate this spring and I’m excited for their summer! I think that’ll be pretty incredible.

What problem do people bring to you most?
I think exhaustion. They go pretty hard, and they give a lot of themselves in a lot of areas. It’s natural to reach different levels of breaking points and want some relief.

How do you deal with conflicts people come to you with?
I hope that I’m listening and then reminding students of their strengths and their resourcefulness. I believe in their ability to problem-solve, and to make their choices.

CHARLOTTE – 9th grade

Give five phrases/words to describe your grade.
Engaged, fun, open to anything, grateful, silly.

What color would your grade be?
Our color would be blue. True blue.

What animal would your grade be?
Cute golden retriever puppies, because golden retrievers give a lot, they have fun and they like to play.

What is your favorite thing about your grade?
They’re so willing to just dive full in. They were just so excited to be here and so grateful.

What makes your grade unique from the others?
I just think that for them, they’re lucky. They got to start high school in a building and they came in just really appreciative of everything.

What is something in the future that you are excited about for your grade?
I’m excited to watch them become leaders in the school.

What problem do people bring to you most?
“The most common question is how to get help in a class.”

How do you deal with conflicts people come to you with?
I listen to them and help them figure out what they want to do.

RICCO – 10th grade

Give five/phrases words to describe your grade.
Hilarious, very social [and they have had] a unique experience of Urban life.

What color would your grade be?
I say black because the 10th grade is kind of grieving missing their ninth-grade year, I think. However, I want to do some kind of color bleed, so I’d say gray because they also came through the other side, and there’s a lot of hope. I think the gray is very much about this middle zone.

What animal would your grade be?
I would say an octopus because they have their tentacles in everything.

What is your favorite thing about your grade?
My favorite thing about the 10th grade is that they make me laugh. And they make me cry. And we laugh and cry. Together.

What makes your grade unique from the others?
I think that 10th grade has had an extremely unique experience where no other grade started over zoom and no other grade got to know each other through screens.

What is something in the future that you are excited about for your grade?

I am excited to be in senior year and senior spring when all 100 plus of them have gone through the college process. So they’ll know [they’re] all going to college, and I also am excited to talk to all of them and reflect on their experiences at different stages of their development.

What problem do people bring to you most?
Right now: ‘How do I balance my course workload for Junior year?’

How do you deal with conflicts people come to you with?
I make time to hear their concerns, reflect back on what I’m hearing, and try to help them think through their options. If it’s appropriate, I sometimes connect them with supportive folks on campus!

Riley – 11th grade

Give five/phrases words to describe your grade.
Authentic, airplane, expressive, quirky, whole earth.

What color would your grade be?
I’ll go with aquamarine. Because it’s blue, and it’s sort of an influenced blue that I associate maybe with a change of the season, sort of a spring thing.

What animal would your grade be?
Puma because it’s muscular, a little violent, but very, like regal and beautiful. At the same time, I feel like I’m not sure if a puma is a mountain lion, but like puma sounds a little cooler. And I appreciate the radicalness of the coolness of my grade.

What is your favorite thing about your grade?
I think they bring their authentic selves. And like their full self to be at Urban, which means they’re open to the things that we like to do here. They participate. They go for it. But they’re doing it meaningfully, not from a place of performance, but from a place of like embracing whatever it is.

What makes your grade unique from the others?
They have a unique graduation year to the other classes. That is true.

What is something in the future that you are excited about for your grade?
I’m excited about how they’re gonna step into the 12th-grade roll next year… [The] way this crew has plugged in in all kinds of spheres in Urban has been really awesome. For the class of 2022 to kind of finish leaving their mark and give 2023 the opportunity to do it. I think maintaining a sort of vibe or like a spiritual energy around what it meant to be a Blue. I actually think they got that or sort of almost had it when they were nines and they held it and now they’re going to be leaders of the school with that energy and I think it’s going to be really great.

What problem do people bring to you most?
It’s definitely course sign-ups right now and just doing bigger picture thinking about the academic side of senior year which is super important.

How do you deal with conflicts people come to you with?
I think listening to understand whatever it is, is key. I’m genuinely curious. I mean, I think that is kind of how I deal, I have a muscle for being actually curious about whatever the thing is.