So glad it's September!

Welcome, parents & students of 02A!

For some of you, it's welcome back, and for others, it's welcome for the first time. Regardless of if you're a new or returning member of the 1502A family, I'm happy that you're here. Last year's virtual status was difficult on all of our IMSA students, as well on us faculty/staff, so I can't put into words just how grateful and excited I am to have everyone back with me in our "nest".

The first few weeks in August seemed to zoom right on by, and I'm so glad that everyone is working to get into the swing of things. As a reminder, there are certain rules & regulations that all IMSA students must abide by, but there are additional ones this year because of Covid regulations, so please make sure you're always keeping yourself familiar with both the student parent handbook (which can be found here ---> https://www.imsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021-2022-Student-Parent-Handook-USE-1.pdf); the Return to Learn & Work plan (found here ---> https://indd.adobe.com/view/9da9dd15-3dc2-42b3-9ad9-da18dfbf17d4) and your student's RC blog (which you've obviously already found here :) I'm also placing our important times of the day sheet here for our students, who should be getting fairly familiar with them already, but just in case, here's an extra copy of it....

We also ask that parents follow a specific protocol while on campus, to align with our health & safety regulations. Anytime you plan to visit with your child on the outdoor campus grounds, or if you plan to sign your child out and take them off campus, all visitors must first check-in with security and get a visitor's badge, that allows the rest of the staff on campus (including us RCs) to know that you've done what was necessary in checking-in with security, and being cleared to be here. This must be done every time a visitor comes to campus, regardless of how many times they have visited before.

In September, we have a whole bunch of exciting activities happening across campus, including an all-campus movie night, 02 specific movie nights (to align with our hall themes of different decades), Mental Health Initiative week, and Homecoming week, to close out the month! We'll have plenty more updates and information from the events in next month's post, so be on the lookout :)

Until then, enjoy one of my favorite pictures from move-in, of our lovely Resident Student Leaders (RSLs) helping move our excited underclassmen in!

Hall Community Coordinator Gabi Georgieva, A Wing alternate Liaison Karina Byers, Hall Diversity Coodinator Em Johnson, and A&D Wing Liaison Madeline Fields Halva are ready to move in our Sophomores!

Have a fantastic month, and we'll see you soon!

-- Robyn

MAY I please be done with school now?

How can it possibly be May already??

It seems like just yesterday that I was emailing all of you students & parents, attempting to give a bit of information about myself, and the craziness of the upcoming year. Fast forward 9 months, and here we are! The wing has gone through a series of fun programs, extra virtual-social activities, and a lot of fun interactions via our hall's discord. We still have a bit more fun in store for the end of the year, though, so hopefully no one is too checked out already!!

In addition to a slew of fun programming put on by our wing liaison, we'll also be having a few programs about online etiquette, and how to stay safe on various sites teens use on a daily basis, and one on budgeting, going over everything from FAFSA to taxes to savings! I like to think that the knowledge I try to give our students is the type of knowledge that can transfer over into the real world, and be things they can take with them even as they leave IMSA. 

Speaking of leaving IMSA, one last thing of note for May is going to be the last week of May, when we welcome our Seniors back to campus for a small Senior celebration. I am so beyond excited to get to see all of our Seniors back on campus, and am looking forward to getting to celebrate them, and all that they've accomplished! It's been a very quiet and somewhat sad year without them, and the rest of our students, so I'm hoping that it will bring some positivity and life back to campus. More information will be coming in our student affairs newsletters, so keep an eye out in your inbox for those!

I know everyone is itching to make it to summer, and we're so close! Lord knows we could all use the break! But, in the meantime, let's make it a great last month!

-- Robyn

Marching Right Along

 

Happy March! 2021 is already flying by, and I can hardly believe we're in the home stretch, towards the end of our school year. There's still plenty to get through before we cross the finish line, though, so I wanted to share a bit of that with you all here...

March is CLASH month, which is one of the most exciting months of the year at IMSA. For those who don't know, the CLASH of the Halls is an event put on annually by our Campus Activities Board, in which each hall competes in a series of artistic based events, with each hall choosing a theme. Each theme is chosen by focusing in on a given color (1502 is green) and is then the central focus of each event (for example: we have a hall mural, hall movie, hall t-shirt, profile pictures, a choreographed drill routine, a talent show, a riddle activity, and more)! The final events take place the week of March 22nd-25th, just before our Spring Break (cue cheers of joy) begins after classes end on the 26th.

Until then, we're still doing a lot of fun things not just as a hall, but as a wing! We just started our whodunnit murder-mystery series Harper's Island, which is a 13 part mini-series from 2009. A handful of members of the wing have already started watching along, and formulating their guesses. Apart from that, we're also going to have our long awaited Palentine's Day event on March 4th, which will be a lot of fun activities, love language learning, and prize winning! I for one am very excited.

Obviously, the thing most present in most student & parent minds right now is repopulation. Dr. Torres made the announcement a little over a week ago that we'll begin repopulation the first full week of April, in two waves; one for a few weeks in April, the other for a few weeks in May. While I wish I had all of the answers and direction to give, I'm afraid there's still a lot that we're still figuring out -- and plenty of logistics that we have to re-examine as we go along in that process. Please be patient with us, and know that we will share whatever we can with you once we are able. I will do my best to answer questions as I can, so if you have any, feel free to send them to me. I'll do what I can to figure out the most appropriate answer, and will get back to you once I have done so. If I don't have the answer, please know that I will still have made note of your question, and will continue to try and find it.

I hope you're all staying safe, and are doing well. I was able to get my first dose of the vaccine last week, and am staying optimistic for the future; my hope for this month is that we're all able to keep finding those things that help us stay as positive as possible. 

-- Robyn

Feeling like February

Hello again! It's crazy to think that we're already our second month into second semester, and that in just a few short months, our year of virtual learning will come to an end. The students have all done a great job considering the circumstances, and I'm proud of the renewed vigor and determination that many of them seem to have going into the new semester! Students from all classes have made it their goal to stay driven and focused as the months go on, and I'm a proud RC getting to see that. Specifically, students mentioned feeling excited for certain classes or teachers, the fact that they were able to "recharge" over winter break, determination to do better in classes this semester than last, feeling more ready for the challenge of virtual learning now that last semester is over, getting into better sleeping habits, new organizational tools and plans for 2021, and simple gratitude for being halfway through the schoolyear.

What particularly warmed my heart as an RC was hearing how many students missed the "res life" part of IMSA, even while we've been virtual. I'm grateful to know that our weekly programming is a high point for so many of my residents, and that it's a fun space for them to speak freely, or even just listen & learn something different each week. My goal is to continue creating that virtual space for them this semester, in as many ways as possible. We'll continue to have our regularly scheduled programming, which will include productivity tips and tricks, and a program on respect while in our virtual state. Outside of that, myself and our wing liaison will be putting on different social programs, including a 13-part whodunnit miniseries that I'll be showing for anyone interested, and prepping the wing for our annual CLASH of the Halls event, which the students are always especially excited for!

We'll also see another of our Student Wellness Breaks coming in mid-February, giving the students another 4 day weekend to relax and recharge. The week of the 8th-12th will be an ABIC schedule, with no classes on Friday the 12th, and the week of the 15th-19th will be a DIAD schedule, with no classes on Monday the 15th. If any of that should change, I'll be sure to let you all know!

In the meantime, Happy February, and stay safe!

-- Robyn

Finally, we're ready for Finals!

Where did the semester go??

I have no idea how we got to December so quickly, but I'm grateful it's here! I know the students have been working hard all semester, and this month is when they'll get to see it all pay off. The finals schedule was released (and can be found here) and the countdown to winter break has begun -- for the students, and for me! 

In the meantime, we'll still be chugging along, both in classes and in programming, to ensure we're getting the most we can out of the semester. We'll be doing programming focused on improving communication, as well as a few fun ones to help let off steam before finals, like telephone or Jeopardy, over Zoom :)

There's really not a whole lot to this month, except to say that we're really coming down to the end of it. Now's the time to forge ahead, stay focused, and ask those questions when they pop up (regardless of what class you're in, Sophomores through Seniors). I encourage students to take advantage of the times our peer tutors are available over Zoom, which are several hours every Monday through Thursday. Here's all the information, including links to the Zoom call, peer tutoring subjects, dates & times.

Good luck wrapping up the semester, and remember that we're almost there! And this year, we get a three week break, which I know we all really need after the year it's been.

-- Robyn

No way it's November!

It's fall, y'all! I still can't believe we've finished the first Quarter of the school year already, but that means we're a fourth of the way through. November will be a bit of quicker month, with Thanksgiving break at the end of it, so I wanted to leave the important dates for the month below...

Due to the State Holiday on election day, November 3, 2020, and the fact that the Academy will be closed that day, the following changes have been made to the calendar for the week of November 2nd:

 

Monday, November 2 – A day

Tuesday, November 3 – State Holiday (no classes, Academy is closed)

Wednesday, November 4 – D day (formerly an I-day)

Thursday, November 5 – A day

Friday, November 6 – D day

 

Similarly, the week we begin Thanksgiving break will be a bit different....

 

Monday, November 23 – A day

Tuesday, November 24th – D day

Wednesday – Sunday – No classes (Academy is closed)

Monday, November 30th – A day (classes resume)

 

Because the month itself is shorter, we will have fewer programming dates, but we're still going to be having a lot of good conversations with the time we do have. On November 5th, we will be having our Juniors only Diversity programming, and November 12th we'll be having our Seniors only Diversity programming. I promise our Sophomores won't be left out in the cold though, as Gabi & I will be putting on a series of fun social & educational programs for everyone throughout the month. I'm also going to be leaving my personal Zoom link open for a few hours one day a week, for anyone who would like someone to be there to help be a motivator to do work (I myself will be doing work too, so it'll be like a buddy system:) I know we're all counting down until Thanksgiving break, because we could all use another break, but I'm hopeful that we can at least make the weeks leading up to that as fun as possible.

Have a happy, safe & fun Halloween, and feel free to share pictures of your costumes with the rest of the wing if you decide to dress up!

 

— Robyn

It's officially Spooky Season!

Happy October, everyone! This month we'll be focusing our time in Res Life programming on a few different things, from service hour conversations, to the psychology of colors, to learning about our love languages, and more! We've already talked as a wing about a few different types of "quizzes" we'd like to take while we're virtual, to get to know one another better, and while the love language was my idea, we've also tossed around the idea of the Harry Potter House sorting quiz, the Meyers-Briggs personality test, and more. While I try to limit the amount of time we all need to be looking at our screens during programming, realistically there are so many resources online that aren't being used, and I think it would benefit us to try and utilize them.

This month, the academy as a whole will also be participating in a few fun events of their own, including our first virtual Homecoming pep rally at the end of the week. It's everyone's favorite way of finishing off the week, after a few days of friendly competitions among the classes. Our students will also be headed into their first Student Wellness Break (equivalent to an Extended Weekend, for you upperclassmen parents). I know it's something all of our students are really looking forward to, and I'm glad they'll get the chance to relax a bit, and recharge as we head into the end of the first quarter. I know we'll also have plenty of fun fall events going on, culminating in everyone's favorite dress-up day, Halloween!

These first six weeks seem to have flown by, even though as each day goes on, it can seem to drag. Our virtual status may be unusual, and is certainly taking some getting used to, but it makes me that much more hopeful and excited for when I am able to see our students again in person. We have a great wing of students this year, and I can't wait for them all to get to physically meet. Here's to the next month ahead!

-- Robyn