Christina Roca attributes her academic foundation to Waterside, but more than that, she credits her confidence to The School and its teachers. She recalls, “Waterside teachers not only taught us academics, but they inspired us to be our very best. They truly cared about us, and supported us no matter what, long after we graduated. They believed in me, and never let me think I couldn’t achieve something.”

Fast forward a decade, Christina has taken these lessons of the heart and paid them forward during her time at Greenwich Country Day School, Miss Porter’s School, and now Providence College. Not only did she take advantage of every opportunity, but she has sought out ways to support others in the way that Waterside teachers supported her. A double major in Global studies and Sociology, Christina has served as a mentor to first generation and students of color in their transition to college, and she fights for students from immigrant families as the president of the Providence Immigrant Rights Coalition. As a senior, she received the 2021 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Vision Award, which honors individuals whose scholarship, community engagement, leadership and service to others have advanced the principles Reverend King embodied: social justice advocacy, equality, human rights, the promotion of faith, and freedom of all people.”  And in the fall of 2021, Christina returned home to Waterside to join the teaching faculty as a second grade teacher.