By Ayana Verdi Affirmations at our school entry. I’ve never had a problem admitting that founding EcoSchool forced me to grow up. Growing up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and moving to Brownsville, Brooklyn when I was in second grade, I became familiar with surviving. Surviving gun shots on the walk home from school. Surviving teachers who took little girls on trips to the beach and then bought them new Nike sneakers on the way home. Surviving being kicked out of the h