• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

SLA Media

SLAMedia is a publication of the news for the Science Leadership Academy community. Writers come from the student body in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. We work in unison to create a functioning paper with biweekly postings on a variety of events.

  • News
  • Features
  • Sports
  • A&E
  • Op/Ed
  • Multimedia
  • About

Column: Does the Spirit of SLA Exist on 22nd and Arch?

March 28, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Aidan Williams

Guest Writer

I am a transfer student. I began my freshman year in a school in Ireland, and moved back to Philly before the start of sophomore year, settling into SLA. For all of sophomore year, I lived only about 7 blocks away from the school, making the commute extremely simple. I love the location, but location for this school, I believe, is all about convenience.

The building is falling apart. There are holes in the walls, the ceilings leak, the floors are covered in a thin layer of God-knows what, and we’re missing a fourth floor. The entire building seems to be on its way out, and sometimes I am surprised that the building has not already caved in.

For me, this is a short stop down a long, long road. I’ll spend three years of my life in and out of this building, and then I may never come back. Though it has been a pleasure learning the ins and outs of the halls and rooms, how to get from place to place, where to hide, where to be, etc., I, myself, do not have a  particularly strong attachment to the school. My spirit does not live on 22nd and Arch.

However, when I consider the school itself, a bastion of cultures and origins, like a warm little center of Philadelphia, drawing in the fullest diversity of all students, I see the gravity of the building itself. Or maybe not the building, but holding a place in center city, promoting accessibility and possibility for all students, is the power of SLA.

Does the spirit of SLA live on 22nd and Arch? No. Buildings come and go. The spirit of SLA lives in the opportunity it provides its students. Perhaps that exists in center city, or perhaps it can exist elsewhere. However, I believe that, as much as I loved the location, SLA will continue to exist no matter where it is.

Filed Under: Op/Ed

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

* Copy This Password *

* Type Or Paste Password Here *

95,331 Spam Comments Blocked so far by Spam Free Wordpress

Primary Sidebar

FacebookInstagramTwitter Snapchat

Features

Wardrobe of SLA

By Harper Leary Staff Writer Philadelphia is a diverse city, and the student population of Science Leadership Academy reflects that fact— not just with their identities, but also with their fashion choices. If you walk down the hallways of SLA, your head will turn every which way to get a glimpse of all the different […]

How the Pandemic has Changed Live Events

By Maya Smelser & Anouk Ghosh-Poulshock Staff Writers Everyone remembers their first concert. But when the pandemic hit, many tours were canceled or rescheduled. There was a hiatus from live music as people adjusted to their new lives– so many teens missed out on their early concert experiences..  In the past few months, however, concerts […]

How Are SLA Students Are Dealing With Their Last Quarter?

Leticia Desouza Staff Writer After a long yet quick year at SLA, students from different grades have experienced many new things they weren’t able to experience during the 2020-2021 online academic year. After almost 10 months of being back in school, students have encountered difficulties and new experiences that further molded how the rest of […]

Philadelphia High Schools Now Starting At 9am

Lia Dunakin Staff Writer The School District of Philadelphia recently announced that all Philly high schools will start their instructional day at 9AM beginning in the 2022-2023 school year.  The reason given for this huge change is simply, sleep. Teenagers tend to get tired later  at night, and starting school at early hours can be […]

Shared Facilities: SLA, and Benjamin Franklin High School Encounters

Andre Doyle, Cameron Booker, & Leticia Desouza Staff Writers SLA and Ben Franklin began their co-location in the Fall of 2019 — but only this year have the two schools started to truly operate in the same space.  Not all of the facilities are used by both schools — most academic spaces are entirely separate. […]

Copyright © 2022 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in