tvc.dsj.org | February 19, 2019 CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
Mrs. Leather (third from right) a mentor for Archbishop Mitty’s robotics team, and Archbishop
Mitty High School students volunteered to help middle-school students at Sacred Heart
Natvity build VEX robots every Wednesday.
Classroom Compassion:
AMHS & Sacred Heart Nativity Team Up
By Selina Kim ’19
and Jennifer Prince ’19
Archbishop Mitty High School has
been instilling the values of social jus-
tice in its students since 1964 through
numerous social justice classes and a
commitment to serving the community
through volunteer work. However,
the spirit of serving does not stop in
the classroom. Students and teachers
at Archbishop Mitty never fail to find
opportunities to help those around
them, whether in the field of robotics
or in legislative advocacy.
Since November, Cathy Leather and
a handful of students from the robot-
ics team, including freshmen Owen
Leather and Stella Park, sophomore
Wonjin Lee, junior Kelly Choate, and
seniors Jennifer Prince and Natalie
Moss, volunteered to help middle
school students build VEX robots every
Wednesday at Sacred Heart Nativ-
ity School. Mrs. Leather, a mentor for
Archbishop Mitty’s robotics team, saw
an opportunity to serve and worked
tirelessly to fulfill it.
Exposing the middle-school stu-
dents to the field of Science,Technology,
Engineering and Math (STEM) through
the creation of robots has been very
rewarding for Archbishop Mitty stu-
dents, as they learn how to work with
younger children and explain engi-
neering concepts to them. The students
got to know each other through the
program and formed a bond rooted in
their shared love for robotics. Though
the program ended last month, Mrs.
Leather and the robotics team hope
that they can continue their relation-
ship with Sacred Heart Nativity School
by letting the middle school students
visit Archbishop Mitty’s robotics lab on
campus in the future.
This is not the first time Archbishop
Mitty has formed close ties with the
students at Sacred Heart Nativity
School. In the spring of 2018, adminis-
trators of the K-12 school requested that
the Mitty Advocacy Project (MAP),
Archbishop Mitty’s resident legislative
advocacy program, help the school de-
velop a junior MAP project. Five MAP
student leaders — then high school se-
niors Catherine Peterson and Timothy
Simka and juniors Aditi Chatradhi, Ve-
dya Konda, and Selina Kim — traveled
to the school in order to help lead the
first meeting and to discuss ways that
Sacred Heart students could advocate
for issues in their community. In small
groups facilitated by Archbishop Mitty
High School students, middle school-
ers at Sacred Heart discussed local
issues impacting their community.
One issue brought up was the reckless
driving on roads near Sacred Heart. In
response, students suggested speed
bumps be implemented near campus.
The middle schoolers also considered
ways to bring together the school
community.
“It was powerful to see how each
student was passionate about a certain
issue,” said Timothy Simka, a MAP
leader who helped guide Sacred Heart
students at the meeting last year and
is now a freshman at the University of
California, Los Angeles. “Whether it
was sexism, racism, or even immigra-
tion… the amount of reflection they
conducted was apparent through our
conversations. This trip for me was
sweeter than all the other MAP trips
I’ve gone on because it highlighted that
the endeavor for social justice is univer-
sal. If middle schoolers can advocate for
justice, anyone can.”
With younger students so passion-
ate about learning about advocacy
and technology, Archbishop Mitty
High School students felt the desire
to respond and support them in their
endeavors. Community engagement
and understanding are at the heart of
every act of service. By teaching middle
schoolers, AMHS students were able to
discover the core value of discipleship
at the margins.
PURSUE YOUR
PASSION
THIS SUMMER!
www.mitty.com/summer-program (408) 342-4200
Our academic and camp
experiences are available
during June and July
for students in first grade
through high school.
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