Introducing Our Newly-Named School in Washington D.C.

There is one challenge that each of us has in common in the time of distance learning: how do we keep our families, both currently enrolled and those who will be coming to us for the first time, engaged and excited about being a Rocketeer? Rocketship DC3 is no exception. However, our engagement looks a little different as a founding school. All of our families are new, our building is under construction, and in the times of COVID-19, we are relying on virtual touchpoints to get our families excited about becoming Rocketship Rocketeers.

Our virtual school naming was our first big opportunity to bring our families together with the goal of defining who we are and who we want to be once our doors open in August. School naming is a rite of passage for all Founding Families in the first year of a new Rocketship school. We are able to come together, share our aspirations for our school and community. It’s an important milestone in our families being at the center of our new school, setting a foundation for parent power and community going forward.

There is a lot of planning and behind the scenes work that goes into hosting a memorable school naming community meeting. That planning is elevated when you think about how to make this experience memorable for the entire community who is sitting behind a computer screen. While the situation is less than ideal, we operated under the guiding principle: Our families deserve to feel welcomed, excited, and that their voice is heard throughout this process. We worked with our Marketing Team to think about how to visually make our powerpoints engaging for families. Our GCE and Start-Up team gave feedback about thinking about how to make sure families had ample opportunities to share their thoughts. We used Facebook, postcards with handwritten messages, and fancy online invitations to get the word out. Our newly hired teachers made over 50 calls to new families to not only introduce themselves but to personally invite families to this event. We prepared families who had sent their name ideas ahead of time to share their thoughts the day of. Our team invited members of our regional and larger community to participate to be a part of this experience. It was truly a collective effort to make sure that when parents entered the event they were in for an amazing experience.

On Saturday, April 25th at 12 pm, the Zoom virtual waiting room was filled with 50 members of our community, in purple, brimming with excitement ready to share. 1 hour and 15 minutes later we had over 15 names with powerful meanings that could potentially become our permanent name! I’ve never been so proud to be a Rocketeer. After coming together one last time as DC3, we voted on our final name on May 17. Now, the founding community is excited to announce our new name, Rocketship Infinity Community Prep!

When our team stepped back to reflect on this moment it was clear that every phone call, every email, every Facebook post, every time we talked about our school had connected with our families. We are learning more and more how amazing and engaged our families are and can only imagine the work that we will get to do at 5354 3rd Street NE.

Community doesn’t always mean that you have to be sitting next to each other in the same room all the time. Community is the essence of the people who are working together, who support each other no matter what and are driving towards the same goals and vision. It is clear that Rocketship Infinity Community Prep is building a family-focused school for 100 Rocketeers who will walk through our doors soon!

Always proud to be a Rocketship Rocketeer!
Angel and the Rocketship Infinity Community Prep Founding Community

Published on July 30, 2020