HOS Blog: Making Lemonade

Like many of you, I had the pleasure of being in the audience for our students’ virtual production of The Laramie Project this weekend. It is an important, powerful play about the aftermath of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, exploring homophobia and community responsibility. I was struck not only by how well our cast handled the mature material, but also with how well they translated the experience to the screen. Within a few minutes, I forgot that I was in my living room watching a teenage cast. 

For years, our students in Model UN have run a tournament for middle school students from around the region. Unfazed by the challenges, this year’s crew took to Zoom and ran the tournament remotely. They gave the 225 middle schoolers an engaging experience and kept an important BUA tradition going.

I recently talked to one of our juniors who is organizing some of his classmates to serve as pen pals for seniors in assisted living during a time when we all need connection and when there are barriers to traditional community service.

We spend a lot of time these days worrying about how the pandemic is affecting our teenagers–rightfully so. It is important, too, that we celebrate the fact that so many of these young people are embracing the challenge, finding opportunities to make the most of this situation, and bringing joy to others. In the process, they are building resilience and finding purpose — making lemonade.

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