I posted this on my Facebook page the other day and was asked to share this here. This memory is best enjoyed if you could see our PreK/Kindergarten pictures from 82/83 and the comments we shared as we prepared to graduate in 1996 and reflect on our years enriched with diversity while at MPLS and NUHS. As some of you may know my Mom, Janet McClain taught 2nd grade at Price Lab in the well-known Unit 3 (because they had the best song and teachers - The Unit 3 Song) for many years and went on to teach at UNI before passing in 2010. As I reflect on my time at Price Lab/ NU and all the fond memories of sold out musicals, madrigal dinners, school carnivals, our many trips to state for basketball and the list goes on, one foundational memory remains constant. I felt safe. I felt safe in friendships, my learning environment, with teachers, students and staff and most importantly, I felt safe and accepted in my own skin. I felt supported, encouraged and challenged in my learning and in my personal development, pushing me beyond my level of comfort and now seeing, my teachers loved me enough to maximize my potential as a student and as a young woman. As a proud black Iowan and NUHS graduate, my heart says thank you in a position of humble gratitude for keeping us all safe and exposed to the beauty of diversity for all those years. We see now how you were preparing us, for such a time as this. As I've said to my classmates recently, they may have shut down our school, but they cannot shut down our hearts.
Aja (McClain) Moore
Class of 1996 (the best class to come through NUHS)😉
(From my Facebook post 6/7/20)
Part of NUHS Class of 1996 got together tonight to connect, to check in emotionally and to check in physically to make sure we're all ok. Not only were there tears (yes, I did cry ðŸ˜), there was joy and tons of laughter!
From coast to coast, it was so good to see my classmates and hear how they're surviving and thriving through abrupt homeschooling, quarantine living and this push for change, justice and protection in our nation. It's been 24yrs since graduation and some of us have not changed a bit!
I challenge all other NUHS classes to do the same!
