Newcomer finds sense of community at Thornton High

With the 2022-23 school year coming to a close, we are excited to honor the accomplishments of students across the district. One of our students from Thornton High School has shared this story:

My name is Sikandar Shams. I am from Afghanistan. I moved here last year and it was really difficult for me. I did not speak much English, I did not know the rules to everything, and it was so hard. But now I am helping others at school and I want to do that as much as I can. I really enjoy it. I was student at Thornton high school. I helped at school with interpretations because I spoke three languages. I have many dreams and things I would like to do in my life. I want to be a criminal investigator in the future in the United States. My main goal is to help as much as I can with our community for our people and for whole America and support my family well. And I am especially grateful to my teachers who helped me in every part of this field and used every means for this journey and gave me pride and the feeling that nothing is impossible. And if we want to be successful in life, we must continue our efforts and never say that it is difficult or impossible. So I also say that nothing is impossible. My father used to say, run if you can't run, walk if you can't walk on the ground, but do something to achieve your dreams. It means that we should never give up in these difficult ways and continue our hard efforts and be a good kind and respectful person in this world. Thanks a lot!

This story exemplifies our ELEVATE Focus Area: Diverse Learning. Sharing stories of how students receive engaging learning experiences and the focused-attention they need through appropriate student-to-staff ratios and varied programming.