In 2018 when Alex Cimino started her sophomore year at Riverdale Ridge High School, she was one of the first students to ever walk through its doors. The school had just opened, and she was going to be a part of the very first graduating class of Riverdale Ridge, the class of 2021.

As a new student at a new school, she had the opportunity to have a hand in establishing new programs and traditions. Alex knew she wanted to be a part of a new school in its first year. In her sophomore year, she offered her help to set up a student leadership team to provide a platform for students to express their perspectives and nurture their skills as future leaders.

By her junior year, the program was fully established and by her senior year, her school’s first student council was elected. Cimino was elected president.

“I was truly honored to be the first student body president at RRHS,” Alex said. “I hope to leave a legacy at Riverdale Ridge that can be continued for many years. It was very important to me to help build a school environment that everyone wanted to be a part of and help students accept one another including their differences.”

As president, Alex took her role very seriously. As a senior, she and her peer, Miranda Ortivez, took on the task of securing a senior class gift for Riverdale Ridge. They wanted to find a unique gift that would represent the entire inaugural graduating class of 2021 as well as inspire future RRHS students.

Alex and Miranda surveyed the senior class to get a sense of their journey and experiences at Riverdale Ridge. With the help of their advisor, Mr. Farner, and their class sponsor, Ms. LaTerra, they commissioned two artists from Fort Collins to create a mural that would be wholly unique.

After half a dozen meetings with the artists, the finished mural became a universal representation of the Raven’s experience. A work of art depicting symbolic wings, it marks the first graduating class’s flight from the opening of the school in 2018 to the school’s very first graduation ceremony.

Today, the mural hangs in the main lobby of RRHS. Every student and each class sees itself in the artwork which is filled with many aspects of a student’s high school journey including expectations, attributes, commitments and milestones. One can say that Alex and Miranda left their school the gift of insight and inspiration. Her leadership, collaborative efforts and goals helped form a piece of history that will live on at Riverdale Ridge.

Not only did she leave a positive mark at Riverdale Ridge; she plans to do the same at her new school, the University of Denver. She applied and was accepted to the Pioneer Leadership Program (PLP) at the university, which is a program that emphasizes leadership ignited by community, curiosity, courage and action.

Alex wants to continue nurturing her leadership skills in this program while also pursuing her plan to double major in criminology and psychology so she can eventually work in the field of forensic psychology.

Alex attributes much of her growth as a person and leader to Riverdale Ridge High School.

“At Riverdale Ridge, I always felt like I was doing more than just going to school and earning a high school diploma,” Alex said. “Here, I learned that if you want something, you have to work hard for it and that you can always change something for the better, no matter how small that ‘something’ may seem.”

Alex is proud to have been a part of the first graduating class at Riverdale Ridge — a school that will forever hold a special place in her heart.

“I believe in 27J Schools because 27J is a community that embraces and supports you while also encouraging you to make your own positive changes within it. It’s a vibrant community because of the unique and powerful insignia we all add to it.”