Rumi, 14 years old, is a Grade 9 student at Xavier Jesuit School. (It is not her real name.) She lives with her parents, grandparents, and a younger sister in Phnom Bak Village. Her parents make a living by selling food at Teuk Thla Market, which is about five minutes away from school by motorcycle. In mid-August, news came that all vendors of that market must take swab tests because one person from that marketplace tested positive. Out of 505 people who were tested, 126 came out as positive, and among them were the members of Rumi’s family. Days before

Last June 28th, four of our students, Kong Kimheng, Chandy Yury, Cheay Dane, and Chhunly Nisa, took part in the opening program of II Colloquium-JESEDU Global 2021, led by Jesuit Asia Pacific Conference (JCAP). The XJS Choir’s month-long training was done under the guidance of Ms. Katherine Cheung and Ms. Jungsoo Huh. Participating in a virtual choir was quite new for the students. Initially, they found it challenging to hit the right notes while smiling in front of the camera. Dane, Grade 9, shared that she was so nervous to sing in front of the camera. She said, “It’s my

“Brother, can we reschedule the workshop to another day when teacher Katherine* comes back from holiday?”– “I’m sorry, teachers, but you know she won’t be back for at least a month. We don’t need to worry.”“But how can we teach other teachers? They are much older and more experienced than we are. We don’t feel confident.”– “How can you say that? All of you are teachers at Xavier Jesuit School! I’m confident that our teachers have good things to share with other teachers.” This was me talking to our teachers in a meeting to prepare our very first online teacher-training