As of the 2015-2016 school year, SHS was home to students from 52 different countries. Both our community and our country are rooted in diversity, the quintessential melting pot, and this is largely attributed to immigration.

Some students may wonder why they ought to care about this issue. After all, it is safe to assume that students and staff at SHS live in the US, at least at the moment. And yet, the fact that we live here is precisely part of the reason that this topic is critical for all of us.

Immigration was, at some point and in some form, a part of all of our origin stories. Immigration is a key character in the story of our country, our families, and for many of us, our own lives.

The United States has closed itself off from immigration many times in its history, and based upon the position of the current administration, it seems that we are heading down that path once again.

But in today’s increasingly globalized world, we cannot help but feel that it is long past the time for any country to successfully shut itself off from the infinite possibility that comes with new people and new perspectives.

Closing doors does not help us move forward. Building walls will not help us understand one another.

Further, immigration is not about policy.

It is about extending the opportunity to strive for a better life as well as the opportunity to experience friendship with someone with a different language but the same sense of humor.

It is about the progress achieved when a scholar gets paired with the institutions to change the world and the progress achieved when an individual broadens his/her understanding of that world.

It is about people. Our hopes and dreams and stories and impact and the way each and every new immigrant makes a difference in this country and this community, and that is not something that should be stopped.