New Year, New SEL Day

Our Capital High Site Coordinator Team and Executive Director Julia Bergen pose with Def-i and DJ 13pieces and their team before the SEL Day schoolwide assembly.

We are celebrating our team at Capital High School, who last month put on the school's first ever Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Day!

CIS Site Coordinator Sinte Torrez spearheaded the effort, recognizing a post-pandemic need for greater social-emotional learning for the whole school community. Social-emotional skills are critical for students to develop for success in school, life, and careers.

"This is an example of what our team is doing to bring more positive, fun and healthy activities and role models into our schools," says Sinte.

Throughout the day, teachers were given SEL activities to choose from to offer their classes, including team-building and meditation exercises--and the whole school participated! (Thank you to Santa Fe Public Schools for capturing some beautiful photos of the classroom activities.)

Sinte also brought in Def-i, a Diné rapper from Albuquerque--and "a positive force in the broader hip hop community," says Sinte--as well as DJ 13pieces (Justin Ray) from Santa Fe for an energizing performance at the SEL Day assembly. Def-i rallied students with an inspiring message about pursuing academic and life success. (Watch a bit of his performance here!)

"I've envisioned this since last a year, so to see it through to fruition was really rewarding," says Sinte.

Our team reported seeing smiles from students and teachers all day long. We hope you join us in congratulating the Capital High Site Coordinator Team on this huge success!

Your support is what makes work like this possible. Thank you. ❤️