Achiever Spotlight: Aniyah

Our monthly Achiever Spotlight highlights current and alumni Achievers. For current Achievers, we look at how the Friends-Boston program is impacting them today. For alumni, we see the role the program played in helping them to find success after they graduated. Their stories are part of our story, and we're excited to share them.

This month, we're highlighting a current Achiever: Aniyah*.

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Aniyah* started with Friends-Boston in early 2022 at a very difficult time in her life. Only in first grade, she was struggling with keeping her focus in school and trusting/opening up to others due to an extensive history of trauma. From her selection in K2, she was paired with Addy as her Friend (Professional Mentor).

Addy began by working with Aniyah to develop relationship building skills, in addition to independence and self-regulation skills. Core components of the Nine Core Assets we work to instill.

By consistently working on these skills, Aniyah is now able to ask for help when she needs it and is thriving academically and socially as she works through the third grade.

Addy has also worked to provide support for Aniyah's mother. Addy's helped her to build structure and stability at home with housing help, which has also helped the family tremendously. 2-Gen support is essential to our ability to make lasting generational change.

Aniyah's made a tremendous amount of progress during her time at Friends-Boston. Currently, her Roadmap Goal (goals that help to build skills associated with our nine Core Assets) is making her own slime recipe, which will enable her to practice Problem Solving, Self-Management, and Find Your Spark Core Asset skills. Aniyah's also found a space with Addy to ask really big questions, and they often have fruitful discussions on difficult topics.

When talking about working with Aniyah, this is what Addy had to say:

"Seeing Aniyah's personality blossom over the last two years has been an absolute pleasure. Aniyah is silly, hardworking, sensitive, funny, and determined all wrapped up into one ray of sunshine. From talking through big questions about the world to being slime scientists, working through math problems to goofing off in the café during snack, I feel so honored to be able to share in Aniyah's growth, accomplishments, and every day fun."

We're excited about the great progress that Aniyah's made, and we can't wait to see her future achievements as she continues on her Friends-Boston journey.

*Name changed