It's not easy being new. As a kid in a military family, I was frequently the new kid in a neighborhood or school and on a team. No matter how many times I was new, it didn't feel like it got any easier. I might have felt like I could better predict what challenges lay ahead, but the truth was that being new meant starting relationships all over again.

Relationships are the one thing that is necessary for any community to thrive, and those relationships need to be based on a shared sense of mutual responsibility. This concept, mutual responsibility, suggests that we must admit we need one another, which, in turn, suggests vulnerability.

Maybe that's when strong communities arise—when we admit that something missing from the individual can only be found in others.

When I arrived at UPrep, I said that change was inevitable, but it was how we changed together that would be a testament to the strength of this community. When we join together and share a vision of what can be—a community of integrity and respect and responsibility—then we become resilient no matter what happens and no matter who else joins our community. Newness doesn't mean those values go away for are mutable, rather that we find new members to reinforce and recommit all of us to those values each year. 

When new faculty, staff, or students join us, I ask myself, "What is it that this person is bringing to UPrep and what will make them have a sense of belonging?" How can we co-create and let new people take joint ownership of this community? I think this happens when each of us recognizes that we're united by shared values.

I think about the educators we've welcomed to UPrep this year and wonder what it is like for each of them to come together in support of one another, to create trust where none existed, and to offer opportunities to forge a sense of belonging for themselves and our students. During the new faculty/staff orientation, they gathered in small groups to vision-board what a future headline about their cohort would say. One read, "Cohort 46 Leads the Way in Transforming Pandemic Education." Another group wrote, "Resilient Educators Add Breath of Fresh Air." One that stuck out to me said, "Community, Connection, Collaboration." In each of those headlines, I read the desire to feel supported by peers and key leaders, trusted by colleagues to teach the students well, and a need to make a meaningful impact on our community. 

I imagine those feelings are not unique to only the new members of our school but reside in all of us. Perhaps that is why we continually build communities and seek out others. So, as the year continues, I have challenged the UPrep faculty and staff to find connections with as many new individuals as possible. We can do this through inviting people to join in conversations we are already having and by saying yes to someone who asks, "Do you have a second?" I think genuine connection is the only antidote to what ails a seemingly fragmented and fractious society. It's the centerpiece of the table at which we all sit.