 Assalamu alaikum everybody. My name is Sarah Kim and I am very honored to be here among such an esteemed group of educators and community leaders who are doing such important work to provide educational opportunities for our children. I also wanted to thank MCC for arranging this event and to bring bringing us together during such a critical time. Thank you Munir and all the MCC staff for recognizing this need that we have and doing your part to support families and the youth. El Judi Academy is a new school also. We will open our doors inshallah in about 10 days with about 34 students inshallah in grades two through six and we're doing our pilot year at the Walnut Creek Masjid inshallah. We believe that we have a unique model and philosophy which will ensure that our students are well-prepared academically, emotionally and spiritually for whatever they choose to do in the future. We are prioritizing the hiring of qualified and enthusiastic and passionate teachers who are very passionate about their subjects they teach and dedicated to the field of teaching and alhamdulillah we have a really good lineup of teachers for the first year inshallah. We carefully assembled our curriculum after a three month process of research and evaluation and we are investing in ongoing teacher development and training to ensure that our teachers are supported in their crucial role of delivering that curriculum according to a very clear and specific vision of education which Anse Sosa will be presenting in future slides. We teach all the secular subjects as well as a daily period of Arabic immersion and Quran reading and memorization. We have PE, Islamic Studies, an extracurricular clubs period and a weekly class called Leader in Me. Our team is aiming to address an educational dilemma. Parents are seeking options where their child's school will help them to instill the Islamic values in their children while simultaneously providing an excellent education. Additionally, we're aiming to provide the first Islamic school in the Tri Valley area. We initially were trying to be in San Ramon and had a hard time finding a location so we were very, very grateful to the Walnut Creek Mustard for welcoming us so warmly into their community. And finally, we recognize that schools are not a one size fit all and parents often prefer to have options to choose from so we have another goal that Al-Judi as we are developing it, we are documenting everything and our goal is to make a replicable model that within a few years we can go into other communities and help them build their own Al-Judi academies if they wish. And it is our belief that smaller community based schools can be more effective than larger schools where parents have to commute a long distance to come to bring to their child's educational center. So what is Al-Judi exactly? It's not just a school. We have three distinct components which each are receiving intentional focus and attention by our team. Al-Judi is first and foremost a school but we are also an intentional Islamic environment where our students experience peace and beauty and comfort during their school days. This environment will be developed by the way we set up our physical space at the school, the way we interact with one another, the way we dress and the way we speak to each other. We want their experience at school to be exceptionally positive so that it leaves them wanting to come back for more. And finally Al-Judi is a community. Through carefully planned events for the community and the parents we aim to build a supportive extended family for our students where they feel safe and loved and cared for by adults outside of their immediate family. We do have very ambitious goals for Al-Judi Academy and we feel that we have a team, inshallah, that with Allah's permission has the necessary ingredients for success. Our three-person team at this point is Sister Yusra and myself and Anse Sosen is our head of school. Together we have about 65 years of experience. Most of it is Anse Sosen's in education and a lot of experience also building other institutions that are still operating today and Anse Sosen, this community has benefited from her already, the MCC community. She's very well-knowledgeable in Islam and many of you have already benefited from her in that realm as well. And that's our team and Anse Sosen will talk more about the educational philosophy of the school. Our vision in these very depressing times sometimes is to raise an optimistic generation. An optimistic generation of Muslims marked by not only their academic excellence, noble character, but meaningful contribution to society because we tend to either want to protect our children and put them in an Islamic environment and try to keep them there for fear of what may happen when they come into contact with the outer world or we want them or we're not doing this exactly where they're in schools or they're in environments where they almost become one with the environment around them. And what we want is to keep them grounded solidly in their dean but at the same time confident enough to be able to interact with others and not only that but also offer meaningful contribution. We hope to do this our mission through teachers that we have chosen for their experience and their passion in teaching and their ability to teach the traditional subjects and academic subjects with excellence and rigor. We aim to do this to be able to accomplish this through five measures. Our five measures or focus areas are the first one is building an intentional environment. It's one thing to learn about Islam but it's a completely different thing to live in a mini Islamic society and when that happens you are convinced that Islam is not only something that you read about and learn about but actually something that can be practiced and can be put to action. We also aim to show them develop Aqidah that translates immediately into action and is not just something that they memorize and learn and we hope to be able to create a culture that has kindness and respect and the other thing the very important other point we have here in our environment is that we want to teach them to be goal setters and for them to achieve something in life. The other thing is excellence in academic growth. We are using the cooperative learning model. We will be having a weekly teacher development session where our students they come later in the day every Friday because the Friday mornings are teacher development for our teachers. The students will also benefit from experiential learning and we have set this the we have a plan for accreditation. We've set our steps you know we've started steps towards this as well. Fostering a connection with Quran. Quran is not just we're not only teaching them how to read with fluency but we also want them to be attached to the Quran. We want them in many cases students are put with good intention from their parents and their teachers in a program that has the focus on Hufuf and sometimes that can be too much pressure for some of the children and but here we hope to not only have them memorize the oft recited surahs but also to have them set their own goals for Hufuf and you know and as they accomplish them be able to move forward. We also have something unique. We have a unique Arabic program where it's Arabic immersion but also the curriculum has been written in a manner that within three years the students would be able to understand 40% of the Quran and from then on Shalom they will move even beyond that but this is also so they can the connection with Quran is comprehension as well. Of course any Islamic school has in mind developing good character and we you know we'll make sure inshallah that all the adults in the school are modeling the prophetic character. We will be learning about very important historic and current individuals that are Muslim that have been able to change things for the better and we also plan to implement the leader in me school we plan to be a leader in me school which also fosters leadership in our students. The last thing is creating a spirit of community. Families we need their support and and and they need the support of the school. We need each other in these times so we will be hope hope we hope to be able to create a community with our parents planning activities and we will have once a month meeting for all the parents where we discuss certain matters that are perhaps happening in the school or certain things certain concerns that the the parents have. In the many schools that I've been in I've seen that there are certain there are certain practices that really bring about success and our hope is to be able to weave these different strands that bring about great results together. One of these is the idea that it's not so much a child's grades or their intelligence that guarantees their success but a number of character traits that we need to foster in the child. The other thing is the leader in me gives children voice gives them the ability you know it teaches them to be leaders and in a language I mean this is what we're teaching is within Islam but this gives them the language that they can work with in our society and it teaches them teamwork and and and the ability to interact with others successfully. Cooperative learning is extremely important because in that case you know it's it's a tool that the teacher has to make sure every child is engaged in learning and not a single child is left out or able to hide and of course accreditation my experience in accreditation has been with Cognia but accreditation is two things number one it helps you see the big picture and not you know with the standards not forget or grow in one direction without paying attention to all the others but the most important thing is it stresses continuous improvement and this is what we hope to have. Our teaching philosophy stimulating the the develop empathy in the heart stimulating the mind strengthening the body and of course developing and upbringing the soul. We want to make sure that each child people have come to us and they've said from different you know we have students that have come to us from homeschooling or from public school or from other schools and and they wonder how we're going to be able to deal with you know students from second grade to sixth. We meet each child at the point where they are and move them forward so this is something important to us that it's not one one size fits all and again you know the whole idea of developing the essential skills of goal-setting leadership cooperative teamwork and persistence when meeting challenges is something important to us and then a world of you that does not shy away from contributing to society and gives them strong self-esteem but and healthy interaction with others. This is what we'll be able to do we ask you for a da'a and may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala give barakah for all the parents that are here and all the educators that are here and all the effort that is being forth may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala enable us to with our joint effort bring about light to this area that will put out the darkness. Thank you so much beautiful so we have two more schools inshallah