[BHS etree] MISC: CPA Ivoryana Scholarship Fund

[bhs at idiom.com]

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY to the etree, contact anniej at igc.org
[mailto:anniej at igc.org] 

In memory of our beloved Ivoryana Valentin, we would like to announce
the Community Partnerships Academy Ivoryana Valentin Scholarship for
Health Careers.  To contribute, make check payable to BHS Development
Group and write "CPA Ivoryana Scholarship Fund" on the memo line.
--Community Partnerships Academy families and staff

Ivoryana Valentin (1989-2008)
Alex Aguiar, her classmate from CP Academy 2007 said, she's like a
Valkyrie.  
It's true.   A Valkyrie is a figure from Norse mythology, a powerful
female goddess on a winged horse who carried slain warriors to
Valhalla.  The shimmering metal on her shield is said to account for
the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis.  

Like the Northern Lights, Ivoryana was rare, mysterious, powerful.  So
beautiful as to shock those who saw her for the first time.  She was
an old soul, one of the few fourteen-year-olds able to laugh at
herself when I first met her as a ninth grader.  She was too young to
die, but she was one of those people who was never going to get old
anyway.  She saw so much tragedy in her short life, but she always put
on a brave face.  She was beautiful and smart, at once delicate and
powerful, her firm voice trembling only slightly through her tears at
those who hid behind their ignorance, making victims of the already
weak.  

As a student, she was consistent, but knew herself enough not to push
too hard.  I tried to get her to take AP, but she knew that balancing
her Children's Hospital internship with her regular school work was
going to be challenging already.  So she gave a hundred percent.  In
everything.  All the time.  And I could see her in the pediatric
oncology ward, her wacky sense of humor bringing smiles to the faces
of the little kids with sunken eyes, bald from chemo.  Momentarily
replacing their troubles with bold laughter.  Her heart-shaped face
and bright almond-eyes looking into theirs.  Saying, you can do this,
kid.  Flora Russ always said, if I were in the hospital, I'd want her
standing over me.  She was a protector.

Yeah.  A winged horse.  Aurora Borealis.  Her goodness brought that
kind of light to the world.  And her memory will forever fill the
skies with flashes of brilliant color.

Susannah Bell
CP Academy English Teacher