Celebrating Lunar New Year

In the aftermath of the pandemic, Christine Mitchell’s faith in the goodness of others flagged. She saw the same disillusionment in her students. Their school community is an isolated one, with little diversity in race, culture or worldview. Covid exacerbated this insular attitude and emphasized the social and emotional challenges teens already face.

“I felt beaten down by our society and hoped that an experience like this fellowship would bring the sparkle back to teaching others; it was still there, just harder to keep bright.”

In honor of Lunar New Year (beginning Saturday, February 10), we share this visual documentation of Christine’s trek to Bhutan, the Southeast Asian country with a negative carbon footprint and a Gross National Happiness index, to help students mirror and develop a greater sense of communal compassion through deeper thinking, reflection and planful action.