SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A public K-12 school held its annual fundraiser "Raise Up for Monarch" on Oct. 5 to support thousands of students facing homelessness.
Monarch School offers a unique program for families that are unhoused, and the school opened its doors to the public on Thursday to give everyone a glimpse of how they help students. The event was scheduled to begin at 6:45 p.m. on the school's Nat and Flora Bosa campus in Barrio Logan, located at 1625 Newton Ave.
This program gives students the opportunity to grow academically in a setting that offers emotional support for the students and their families.
Many students who go through here say this school changed their lives forever.
"I was very much used to moving schools, so I didn't really expect to put down any roots at Monarch, but very quickly you saw the support from the staff, the teachers and the counselors that it was something different and something you never really experienced... Like they were there for you," says Zaira Martinez.
Martinez attended Monarch School for her senior year of high school. She says her mother had just left an abusive relationship, which forced them out of their home.
When she got to Monarch, Martinez says she knew instantly something was different, from the school setting to the attention staff and faculty gave students. She says she started making friends and thinking about her future for the first time there.
"For the first time ever, I saw that there was a way for me to thrive in this setting and outside of school, and I saw a way to strive not only at Monarch, but also I started to expand my horizon where I never saw that, like, going to college and doing something for others like the way I was supported," Martinez says.
To learn more about how you can help the Monarch School, follow this link.
