Calm Before Me

  My Hero, My Grandmother: A Legacy of Strength and Love There are people in our lives who shape us in ways that words can barely touch. For me, that person is—and always will be—my grandmother on my mom’s side. She was my hero before I even knew what the word meant. After my grandfather passed away far too early, my grandmother faced a crossroads most would find unimaginable. With limited English, and her son already studying at Northeastern University in Boston, she made the brave decision to pack up her life and move from everything she knew to start over in a new country. She brought with her my aunt and my mother, who was just a little girl at the time. Boston became home—but it was never easy. My grandmother raised three children on her own. She didn’t just survive; she thrived through hard work and fierce determination. She worked in various jobs, eventually finding her way into immigration services, where she worked for over 15 years. But beyond her work, she raised a fa...

  Heat in Our Classrooms Is a Health Crisis—Not Just an Inconvenience As temperatures soar year after year, extreme heat is no longer a rare inconvenience or just a seasonal discomfort. It has become a public health crisis —one that is hitting our children the hardest. In cities like Boston, the impact is especially visible in our public schools. Classroom temperatures in Boston Public Schools (BPS) are regularly climbing above 90 degrees. And we’re not talking about a few unusually hot days—we’re talking about a recurring reality in school buildings across the city, particularly in under-resourced neighborhoods and communities of color. This is not just an uncomfortable learning environment. It is an unsafe one. What Extreme Heat Does to Our Students For students with asthma, allergies, or other health conditions, extreme heat can be dangerous—even life-threatening. But even for otherwise healthy children, these temperatures can lead to nausea, dizziness, dehydration, and an...