In case you weren’t around, Indianapolis had a pretty crazy start to the winter season. Snow, snow, thaw, more snow, tons of snow, and then flurries. IPS was out of session for a while, Butler University was closed for a lot of the semester break. I lost power and heat. It has been an unorthodox beginning to a new semester, one that I think is egregiously mislabeled as “spring” semester.

All that aside, we’ve dug out of the snow, and we’re back at Shortridge with a new crop of diverse mentors. But before I tell you all about that, a few scenes from the end of the fall semester.

If you’ve kept up with us the past two-and-a-half years, you know that every year we throw a holiday party at the end of the fall semester. This is when we really pull out all the stops: spiral ham (hand-carved!), homemade desserts, soft drinks, and presents, of course.

Though some kids may scoff at the idea of getting a book for the holidays, our students seem to love it. Some popular titles this year: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and The Rose that Grew from Concrete by Tupac, among others.

The holiday party this year was a resounding success. The room was packed, and we got a really nice group photo out of all the organized chaos.

But now that the blizzard is over, school is back in session, which means Exclusive Ink is officially back in session, too. Be sure to check out the Our Team section of the site to meet all the new mentors as well as the newest on Exclusive Ink, our group’s official blog for student work.

More to come after the first week. In the meantime — in case you missed it — here’s a link to a short video documentary about our mission at Shortridge High School: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VcDi4CSm2Y.