Committed to Educating All Children

[Students finishing middle school at Aim Academy take turns speaking to the camera, one line at a time, in classrooms and around the school. Their words also appear as captions on screen.]

We came in nervous, unsure and a little shorter. Now we’re walking out taller and a lot more confident. From locker jams to last-minute projects, we’ve survived it all. We learned formulas, essays and how to deal with group projects. Spoiler alert: one person still did all the work.

But more than anything, we’ve learned about ourselves. We discovered our passion, our strength and our voice. We laughed a lot. We cried, sometimes from stress and sometimes from laughter, and sometimes because of cafeteria food. But we always showed up, no matter what.

To our teachers, thank you for your encouragement, your patience and your endless reminders, even when we forgot to do the homework again. To our families, your love has been our foundation. You cheered us on, drove us everywhere and believed in us even when we didn’t. To our friends, thank you for being the people we laughed with, leaned on and made memories with. Memories like spirit week, field trips and that one time somebody let it out in class.

We won’t forget the inside jokes or the lessons we didn’t expect to learn. This isn’t the end. It’s just the beginning. We’re stepping into a world that needs our creativity, courage and kindness. We’re ready to rise, to make mistakes, learn and grow, because we already did it once and we can do it again.

Middle school was our training ground. Now we aim higher, towards high school and beyond. We walk out these doors not just older, but wiser. Not just students, but leaders. Not just peers, but family. So here’s to the next chapter, to the dreams we’re chasing, and to the class that will never be forgotten.

[Music plays over short clips of students working together in a classroom, talking outside, in the gym and in a hallway. The video fades to black.]

[Music plays throughout the video. There is no narration.]

[Students dance in a line in the school gym, below a large painted Aim Academy mascot. Outside the school, a student smiles at the camera and flashes a peace sign. In the gym, a student in a long white robe addresses classmates seated on the floor beneath the “Aim Academy Arctic” logo. A classroom full of students cheers with their hands in the air, and a group of students dances in a hallway.]

[The rest of the video is a slideshow of photos framed like strips of film: students posing together in the gym and in classrooms, friends taking selfies, students working at their desks and writing in notebooks, students and staff holding award certificates, students dressed up in suits, students posing under colorful lights, the basketball team in white jerseys, and students outside in winter coats.]

[The video ends with a group photo of the whole school in front of the Aim Academy of Science & Technology building, followed by the Aim Academy logo.]