Women's Empowerment Week Begins!

Tomorrow is the first official day of Women's Empowerment Week, however, our opening assembly was last week. Two students and one teacher spoke about their experiences with becoming empowered and how they learned to feel strong and confident in themselves. Each speech was incredibly thought provoking and inspiring. The SMA dance company (SMADCO) has been working on a hip hop dance to "Freedom" by Beyonce, however due to some time constraints, could not perform at the opening assembly, but plan to perform at the next opportunity! Seeing my peers and an authority figure up on our stage explaining how they became part of a community and found their place was inspiring and necessary for young women in this world, and I am incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to see that.

Tomorrow, as women's empowerment week begins, we will have many workshops and activities to help empower women and give them the tools to take care of themselves when faced with sexism or any degrading attention in their lives, and we will have a drive for femenine hygiene products. I'm incredibly excited to see how supporting and storng my community is, and to witness my generation of women standing up and empowering each other.

Winter Musical

Every year, at the end of February, a portion of the school walks into the mayhem that is tech week for the SMA Winter Musical. And yet, every year, it is worth it. The musical is always a success, and we have our Theater Director, Shannon More, to thank for that. This year, our school is performing "The Sound of Music." The opening night show was a huge success, and the second show drew an enormous crowd as well. Personally, I was in awe most of the show. Our school has always been strong in the performing arts, and this year, about a third of our entire school (just over 700 students) is a part of a choir in or outside of school. This staggering number of very talented singers was well represented in the musical! Iris Cohn, who plays Maria, performed beautifully and engaged the entire audience seemingly effortlessly. Fiona McInnis, Samantha Lahey, Grace Hermes, and many other very talented actors and singers contributed to the incredible performance with their stage presence and palatable love for the show. Furthermore, the dancers, set, backstage crew, makeup/hair, and costuming was equally as impressive and carried its weight in the performance as well. I'm so honored to have been present for such an incredible performance that so many people put effort and time into, and I know that the next three shows will be huge successes.