In Luna Otero’s SEED story, the director of talent management at The SEED School of Miami reflects on the significant milestones in SEED Miami’s evolution and her own personal journey. Through obstacles and triumphs, SEED Miami’s close-knit community has embodied SEED’s core values of persistence and growth.
2013: the year I was introduced to the concept of a tuition-free, public, boarding school. As I sat in my chair during a staff meeting at my previous place of employment, I listened as our VP of Programs spoke of the arrival of what we all considered the answer to all of the challenges we had experienced as a team attempting to succeed at improving academic, and social-emotional outcomes for underserved youth across the county. At the moment, it remained a thought - a possibility. However, before I knew it, I received an email informing me that SEED Miami, a gift to our community, was looking for a Director of Admissions and that was when my SEED journey began. A journey that would challenge me to grow - professionally, emotionally and spiritually.
24 hours a day, five days a week: The gift of time we provide students and families.:
We were tasked with enrolling 60 6th grade scholars in order to open our doors. We had less than 12 weeks to finalize our student application with the state, engage with over 100 families, convince them that they should trust us enough to leave their child in our care 24 hours a day / 5 days a week even though we did not have a school to show them at the time. We assisted them as they maneuvered through the governmental systems that would give them access to the documents they needed to complete their child’s application. We sat next to them in their living rooms getting to know who they were and showing them that we were invested in them and, ultimately, ensure we had enough applicants to hold a lottery by the deadline.
104: The number of names we entered into our first lottery, which allowed us to open our doors in August 2014 with 60 SEED scholars. At the onset, it seemed like an impossible task, but with the commitment of the SEED network members near and far, the relationships we built together as the founding SEED Miami Team, and the tenacity of our families and scholars, we did it. We made this gift possible - we played a small role in leveling the playing field for our most underserved children and opened the doors of Florida’s first and only college-prep, public boarding school.
As I exited the parking lot the first night we opened, I looked up through the windows of the school building and saw children getting to know each other, joyfully playing around, fixing their rooms, talking to staff and engaging freely, not knowing that they had just embarked on one of the most important journeys of their life. Eleven-year old children who walked blocks and blocks on their own to get to community events to learn more about SEED, who confronted the fears of their parents and guardians and challenged them to believe in what we were doing and advocated for themselves, because they knew this was something different. It was at that exact moment that I felt such an immense sense of pride that I played a small role in giving these children that gift and with that pride came an even larger sense of responsibility to them.
2021: The year I was honored with the opportunity to watch those same children walk across the stage as they received their high school diplomas and prepared to go off to college. Getting to that moment had not been an easy feat for any of us.
Seven: The number of locations we have called home since 2014.
For years, we would navigate between two separate locations day after day--lugging suitcases, medication bins, staff, children from one place to another.
We settled into our first home - an office where a handful of us came together to prepare ourselves for what we were about to embark on.
Into our second, because there was a vision but the universe had a different plan.
Into our third, because we were given the opportunity to be on a college campus.
Into our fourth after we grew out of our third.
Into our fifth after a contract ended.
Into our sixth as a result of being flooded and destroyed by Hurricane Irma.
And finally into our seventh, because we finally found our place.
We now exist in our home - one home - with close to 300 students.
SEED changes the odds - no matter the circumstances. We push the envelope and play a pivotal role in leveling the playing field for our most underserved youth. We do it because we care, because we know it is what is needed and we do it differently, because change never comes from doing things like everyone else. We are controversial and I love that about us.
Nine: The number of years that have passed since we opened our doors in Miami. Today we are here to celebrate the impactful, revolutionary and soul-shaking work that we have done and continue to do as a network in communities around the nation.
As individuals and as a community, we understand the responsibility that we have to each other, our scholars, their families, our local communities and generations to come and we take pride in our role in education reform. We take our work seriously and this is why I joined SEED and why I continue to choose SEED.