Reach for the Stars!

This young man is Germán Padilla Choy, a former student who just graduated from University of Southern California Los Angeles with a Master’s Degree in AEROSPACE ENGINEERING. After graduating from High School German  earned his Bachelor’s Degree at the  Polytechnic Institute (RPI)  in Troy, New York.

German, at 24 years of age, has been hired by NASA to work in their Houston Space Center to work in their ARTEMIS PROGRAM. This is an  extraordinary achievement for any young man, but specially for a Mexican young man!

The Artemis Program is  a  government funded  spaceflight program that has the goal of landing   “the first woman and the next man” on the Moon, specifically at the by 2024.”

Imagine that! Our own Germán Padilla landing a spaceship on the moon! This is what happens when you reach for the stars. When you have a dream and work hard to  achieve it, when you persevere and are a disciplined person, anything you dream of can be obtained. So when someone tells you to “reach for the stars” you could actually do it.

I posted a video filmed by German on Lovemystudents’ page in FCB,  also in British American Institute’s page in FCB and I would like you to watch it,  German filmed it specially for you. Because of technical difficulties I could not upload it here, but you can go to either of those pages and watch it there. I highly recommend that you do.

Germán’s family moved to San Diego when he was about to enter 5tgh grade, so he could not graduate from BAI. However, he stayed in contact with some of his classmates and even attended our Alumni Reunion three years ago.

I held a chat with Germán a few days ago and he wrote…”I  have fond memories of having fun and learning lots and really liking all of my teachers and friends at British American Institute. I was very sad when we moved to San Diego for that reason. I think going to British was a great experience because I made friends that I still hangout with today and of course learned English from a very young age which definitely contributed to my success in getting into a good high school, great college for undergrad and also great graduate school and of course eventually my job.”

We are extremely proud of German and wish him further success in his space adventures and hope he keeps in touch with us so he can keep us posted.

German will be a PROPULSION SYSTEMS FLIGHT CONTROLLER, that means he will be directing the spaceship to its target, the moon.  Obviously this is a very complicated matter, one that requires extreme precision and knowledge. We are in awe of German’s talents and will be keeping an eye on him when the Artemis Program is launched.

 

 

 

DIVERSITY IS BEAUTIFUL

Look at yourself in the mirror. What do you see? What color is your hair? Your eyes? Your skin?

Everyone in the world is different from everybody else. We have so many things that make us individuals, and this is called being diverse, being different.

Can you imagine if everyone in the world looked the same? It would be soooo boring, wouldn’t it?

Yet there are some people who discriminate others because they are different,  because they have different color skin or hair or eyes or  because of the way they talk or dress.

This is not only very sad but it creates problems, because the people who are being discriminated against  feel like they don’t belong, and there are many times when they are bullied just because they are different.

One should always make an effort to make others feel good, happy and included, no matter what color their skin is, or where they come from. One beautiful thing about our world is that there are so many countries and people in each country have different  languages, traditions, customs, clothing, food, music, art and all this enriches us as human beings.

So let’s celebrate diversity! Let’s make someone from another country feel welcome in ours. Let’s accept ourselves as we are and know that each and everyone of us is beautiful in our own way!

 

 

British American Institute has been extremely fortunate to have had students from other countries and cultures enrolled, and  it still does!

Many years ago we had 6 children from India. Their fathers worked at an assembly plant here because they were engineers and they wanted their children to speak English so when they returned to their country they would be able to continue their studies  over there with no problem. You see, English is the official language in India.

We had two brothers who were from Japan for one school year. We had a brother and sister whose father was from Haiti and their mother from Romania; we had a girl from Ecuador and two sisters from Korea; we have a 3rd grade kindergarten student whose father is  from India, two brothers whose father is English, a girl from Peru and we’ve also had some American children enrolled.

It is both an honor and a privilege to have children from other countries as our students and you should take advantage and be friends with them to learn about their cultures and customs.

Varun hariharan is one of the Indian students enrolled many years ago here at BAI and I still communicate with him. We send each other emails and as soon as the pandemic is over we will meet, because he lives about an hour away from where I live.

I think it is very exciting to meet people from other countries! Here at school we have our own foreigner who is almost a mexican: Mr. Kay! And we are so happy that he is a member of our family!

Each one of us has special talents and what we are and how we behave toward others makes us unique, and this is beautiful! To have a whole planet filled with different human beings makes our earth extraordinary! Be proud of who you are!

 

 

Happy Children’s Day!

Childhood is so wonderful! Specially if you have a family who loves you, teachers who love you, friends who love you, siblings who love you…and it ends very quickly!

So enjoy the time you have now! Be creative, be silly, be adventurous, be curious; laugh, say jokes, jump up and down, have crazy hair…and if you are lucky you will continue to do these things even when you grow up.

It was 28 years ago, in March, that BAI was founded, and I still remember my students and many of them keep in touch with me, and now have children of their own.

This has been an extraordinary experience and what makes it so is YOUR LOVE!

Celebrating my birthday with Miss Tanya

Former students

The Lion King, with Luis Francisco and Monica Gallego

And here are two photos of the founders of your school when they were children!

An Easter Message to My Students

Be Brave Enough to Do What is Right

Hello everyone!

I have been talking to you about loving yourself enough,   for your own benefit and that of others. But sometimes loving ourselves requires a lot of courage.

This is a quality that one must develop in order to succeed in life, to attain our goals, to do our best, even at the face of adversity. Sometimes life presents us with difficult challenges and we must have courage to face them.

I think this subject requires that all of you discuss it with your teacher and talk about it with your parents and friends.

I really hope you follow these lessons ideas, because there will be  many times in your lives  when you will need to be a courageous person, and your bravery might even save lives!

 

Love Yourselves Enough

LOVE YOURSELVES ENOUGH

Hello Students and Teachers,

Today  I will talk  about  a very important subject, which is : LOVING YOURSELVES ENOUGH!

All through your lives you will encounter all sorts of people: people who are kind, people who are not, people who mean well and people who do not; people you can trust and people you cannot trust, people who will do good things for you and people who will not.

While you get old enough to know what  sort of people you are dealing with you should rely  on the experience of your parents, and of the people who really love and care for you.

You will always find a bully, who is ready to make fun of you; or a classmate who is not empathetic to your needs and feelings.

You have to love yourself enough to be strong, to not give in to these person’s insults, to be strong enough to ignore them or to ask them to stop being disrespectful.

You have to love yourself enough to do good things for yourself, actions that will make you a better human being, and to say words that will not harm or offend anyone else.

You have to love yourself enough to avoid talking to strangers, because if you do not know someone you don’t know if they are going to act in a kind way towards you or if they are going to take advantage of you.

You have to love yourself enough to listen to what your parents and teachers tell you that is good for you, and be strong enough to resist temptation.

There will always be classmates or people who will try to make you do things that you know are wrong. Resist! Resit with all your might! And if you find that it is very difficult to resist, tell your parents or teachers immediately, but never, never do something that you know to be wrong or hurtful.

Never, ever, accept the invitation of a stranger or even people you might know casually, who tell you they will give you candy or toys or a puppy if you go with them. Never go with anyone except your parents or a person they give you permission to go with.

If you are in a public place, like in  a movie theater, or a park, or the beach,  for example, and someone  touches you, immediately move away and tell your parents or an adult.

You should always take care of yourselves. Always love yourselves enough to do it.

We are living in difficult times, this is why you should be especially careful and respectful of your parent’s and teacher’s rules.

People who love you enough want you to be safe and happy.

So remember, love yourselves enough to take good care of yourselves and to think before you react.

I know this is especially difficult. Most of the time we just react to other people’s words or actions. But it is far better to think before we react. This  will give you time to think if what you will say is either helpful or kind; it will give you time to think if what you are about to do is good for you or not.

A long time ago, when I was in the university and I was just 16 years old there was a girl in our group who loved to make other people feel bad. She used to make fun of every other girl and laugh at them. When she saw me  she would laugh at me and say things that she thought would make me react angrily. But I always resisted.  Never reacted. On the contrary, I always ignored her. Eventually she got tired of not getting a reaction from me and left me alone.

Many years afterwards, we met at a party and she came to me and told me: “Lilian, I have always admired you, because of all the girls I teased and made fun of, you were the only one who ignored me. I am sorry.”

So many times it is better to ignore the bully, unless they are doing physical harm to you, then you should tell and adult immediately.

There is a saying by a great german author and  philosopher who lived many years ago, his name was  Friedrich Nietzsche, he  said:   “Whatever does not destroy you, makes you stronger.”

This means that all that you live through, the sad and difficult times, will make a better person out of you.

So always love yourselves enough to resist what is not good for you and to do what will make you a better human being.

 

YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Today I have a video, just for you!

YOU ARE IMPORTANT

Strength in Unity

I can’t begin to tell you how proud and thankful I’m am to ALL OF YOU, your parents and staff for the results of our fundraising campaign to help Australia!

It is a clear example of the power of unity!

We decided upon a common goal and everyone contributed with great enthusiasm to achieve it.

Here are the results/

These are DOLLARS!

Be proud of yourselves because as you can see there is strength in unity!

We can continue doing a fundraiser every year in order to help our own community and different causes!

I shall let you know next week to which association I donated the money and will publish the receipt.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

PHOTOS FROM AUSTRALIA

Everyone is trying to help the little creatures in Australia. It is very heartwarming to see the empathy and compassion!