Earlier this week, upper school students donated backpacks and school supplies to children from low-income families at East San Jose’s Ocala Middle School. More than 40 backpacks were dropped off at the school, along with pencils, pens, notebooks, binders, reusable water bottles and other supplies.

The initiative was led by three students: Andrea Simonian, grade 11, came up with the idea and organized the project; senior Amitej Mehta set up the donation through his mother Nivisha’s connection with the Alum Rock Counseling Center, which assists local low-income families; and junior Kelsey Wu managed logistics to ensure the effort went smoothly.

Students initially intended to deliver the supplies inside the backpacks, but “we received a large excess of supplies to put in the backpacks, so we decided to donate the supplies in boxes instead of inside the backpacks to ensure equal distribution among students,” said Mehta. “Each advisory that participated went above and beyond what was expected, which was amazing, donating more than one of each requested item on the list.”