After twenty-two years at Arvida Middle School, Ms. Vivian Lugo joined the Buc Nation as a new assistant principal for the 2023-24 school year. In her time as a Viking, she balanced being a science teacher and science department chair, as well as establishing two magnet programs and becoming magnet lead. But after over two decades, she decided it was time for a change.

“I wanted the high school feel, I wanted the games and the night events. And I wanted to create interactions with older kids, so I felt I wanted that jump,” Lugo said.

In terms of change, it’s a fairly big one for Lugo. Arvida Middle School is much smaller compared to South Dade, which comes with a lot more kids and more responsibility. With her previous experience, she felt it was time to take a leap and go into this role as assistant principal.

“I’ve been in a leadership role for many years now, I wanted to have an influence on kids, I wanted to have an influence on more teachers, I wanted to have a positive impact on a community that needed my skills and my energy.”

During her time at Arvida, she was able to form partnerships with Home Depot who helped her students’ garden as well as Devon Steakhouse, which had chefs from the restaurant cook for the students using the vegetables grown for their own garden. Connections and experiences like this are why community is crucial to Lugo, and it is something that she hopes to uphold at South Dade.

“I want it to be a very comfortable environment, where we  feel comfortable enough with each other that we can talk about what’s happening in classes and what’s happening with students, and it doesn’t feel like somebody’s out to get anybody. We’re just all here for students and for students to learn and to do the best they can, to get them to graduate and just for all of us to be on the same page.”

With this being Lugo’s first AP role she has many plans in mind for her first year at South Dade.

“My goal for this year is just building relationships with teachers and staff and the administrators and students. Basically just becoming a part of the South Dade family so that I know what the culture is like, what the environment is like so I can just add my skills to that.”

It’s only the third week and Lugo has a drive and is excited to join the South Dade community.

“I invest in my school, as you can see! I just started and I’m in a dunk tank.”