La Escuela Thomas Jefferson: Returning to School, Returning to Joy
Costa Rica, 2014

After a month-long teachers' strike over unpaid wages shut down classrooms across Costa Rica, students at Escuela Thomas Jefferson returned to school right as the country's underdog World Cup run ignited a wave of national pride and celebration. This project sits in that unlikely overlap, documenting student well-being as children moved from the uncertainty of a disrupted school year into the relief of routine and the joy of a nation rallying around its team. I focused on the small, human moments of that return: the ease of friendships picking back up, the excitement spilling into hallways and classrooms, and the quiet resilience of students adapting to a year shaped by forces far outside their control. It's a portrait of recovery as seen through a child's eye how community, celebration, and normalcy can knit a disrupted moment back together.