Dear familia,

On Friday, The American Dream School opened its doors for its ninth school-year. Music blasted at both our Middle and High School campuses as students in grades 6-12 were greeted warmly by faculty and gathered for the first "Family Meeting." It felt like a celebration, and it is: a celebration of students, teachers and parents together pursuing our students' potential.

Also worthy of celebration is the fact that, across the country, members of our Class of 2022 began college, just as members of our first-ever graduating class begin their second year. I'm already looking forward to the day when they return to campus as young professionals to educate our high school students about their experiences.

On a related note, I am pleased to report that in addition to scholarships and faculty professional development opportunities, this year we will be able to award emergency micro-grants to alumni whose financial needs might otherwise cause them to drop out of college. Our gratitude to everyone who has donated to the American Dream. 

Please read on for Day 1 photos and to meet both a young alumna who has already given back as an event speaker and in working with our summer program, and our innovative High School English Language Arts Department Chair.

Warmly,

Melissa Melkonian

Founder and Executive Director

If You're Here, You're a Star: Day 1 Photo-Shoot

Layla Clemente (ADS ‘21) remembers once going to work with her mom, who has a job cleaning offices. “I followed her as she cleaned up and down the halls,” says Clemente. “After that day, she always told me, ‘This is why I want you to go to school. I want to see you behind the desk.’” 

Clemente took a big step towards that goal in June of 2021, when she became one of The American Dream School’s “Triple-Firsts:” a first-generation-American, she became one of the first class to graduate The American Dream School and the first-generation of her family to go to college.

Both Clemente’s parents emigrated from Mexico before finishing high school in order to earn money to help their families. While her mother cleaned offices, her father eventually started his own carpentry business. “What my dad was able to give me, he wasn’t able to get from his parents,” Clemente says.

Clemente was a rising sixth grade student in the summer of 2014, when her parents enrolled her in a new charter school opening in their south Bronx neighborhood and promising a dual-language Spanish-English education. “Growing up, I was a good student but struggled with reading. I was used to speaking one language in school and a different one at home. The American Dream School was completely different. The teachers and students spoke Spanish and English every day and it brought out more of who I was and where I come from.”

Layla (right) as a 7th grade student in 2015, the second year of The American Dream School

Layla in 2022, as a first-generation college student, with her roommate

When Clemente was in 10th grade, American Dream launched the Collegebound program, taking her and classmates on a three-night tour visiting 10 colleges in the northeast. “A few of the schools had these places that you only pass through twice: once when you get to the school for your freshman year and once on graduation day,” she says. “I saw myself walking in and then walking out, wearing my cap and gown, taking pictures with my family.”

This past June, with her parents seated beside her, Clemente shared her story with an audience of 120 at American Dream’s inaugural ¡Fiesta for Firsts! spring fundraiser. She then spent the summer working with American Dream’s Summer Boost program while taking college courses towards a goal of early graduation. This past Monday, Clemente began her sophomore year at SUNY Oneonta, and is considering law school. 

“Growing up, there were so many things my parents could not buy themselves because they were buying us what we needed. I want to switch the roles around. I want to be sitting back in an office, helping my parents with their bills, buying them what they need.”

Faculty Spotlight: Yamilka Roque

High School ELA Chair, 10th Grade ELA Teacher

Growing up, Yamilka Roque never aspired to become an educator. Even as an English major in college, she was headed for a career in media or communications until a college internship placed her in the classroom. “I’m from the Bronx and I started to realize the impact of being a young woman of color in front of students who looked like me,” says Roque, who serves as The American Dream School’s English Language Arts (ELA) Department Chair and 10th Grade English teacher.

Roque’s father grew up in the Dominican Republic and made a treacherous journey in a tiny boat to Puerto Rico before eventually making his way to New York. There he met Roque’s mother, who was born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican parents. Each ended their formal education before high school. Roque attended 12 different schools growing up as her family moved often around the Bronx and at one point lived in Puerto Rico. She set her sights on becoming the first member of her family to attend college and earned a full scholarship to Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.

Roque relished her college experience, including studying abroad in England and traveling Europe, but it created another kind of distance back home. “People don’t talk about the bourgeois culture associated with a first-gen student returning to the neighborhood after college,” says Roque. “Others think, ‘You look like us but you don’t talk like us.’ Her experience informs her teaching: “I tell my students, ‘No matter where you are, no matter how you sound or what you’re saying, be yourself. Make a coherent argument in whichever way makes sense to you and feels natural to you.’”

In Roque’s second year at American Dream, Founder and Executive Director Melissa Melkonian encouraged her to pursue her Master’s Degree. "That pushed me into leadership and made me confident in my field,” says Roque. “It’s not often that people positioned like me–young, a woman of color, from the south Bronx–have a seat at the table, and I’m grateful.” In five years at American Dream, Roque has founded the 10th grade ELA program (when students take the critical English Regents exam), implemented student-led conferences with parents and teachers, and co-founded the Collegebound program, a multi-overnight college tour (mini-documentary on the Collegebound experience). 

“Expectations are typically put on teachers by people who are not in the classroom,” says Roque. “Here, we are trusted to make those choices. I’ve been able to create the change I wanted to see.”

Roque also sees this trust between students and teachers. “I’ve had a student open up to me about living at a shelter because their mom didn’t approve of their sexual orientation. I’ve had really deep conversations with students and I do think it’s an ADS thing. To call this a ‘family’ sounds cheesy but ADS does many times feel like it’s truly family.”