By Ines Kudo
Tomorrow we begin our ninth year at Tinkuy.
This year feels like A New Hope: the beginning of a new chapter in an old story, where more and more heroes from near and far, eager to claim their freedom, choose to join a growing disruptive community and build together a new path.
For the first time since we opened our doors, not a single family left at the end of the year. Some level of churn is normal, even expected, and it is also true that when a hero or a family must leave, parting ways can be the most honest and loving next step for everyone involved. That’s what makes this level of continuity especially meaningful: it builds something powerful, deepens our culture, and signals maturity.
This has also been our strongest enrollment year since 2020. We are welcoming eight new Pumas and six new families, with three more finishing their audition process. What encourages us most, however, is the character of those joining. Families who truly resonate with our mission and are ready to walk their own journey with courage. Pumas who are curious, kind, eager to learn, and ready to make friends.
This growth is chosen. It reflects the clarity and alignment we have been cultivating as a community.
With that foundation, we step into the year holding our best hopes for what is to come.
We hope Explorer and Spark Pumas continue playing and learning in a fluid dynamic between studios, with smooth transitions into Discovery. We hope new leaders emerge naturally among the veteran Pumas, and that the five incoming Spark Pumas find their place and rhythm in their new studio with confidence and joy.
We hope Discovery Pumas, now a younger tribe than before, find their rhythm and shape their culture with intention. That they integrate new voices and strengthen their English through the richness of a more international and diverse community. We hope they encourage each other to face Distraction and Resistance through kind, firm mentorship and personal determination.
We hope Ascend Pumas manage their studio with true autonomy. That they continue raising the quality of their work through deliberate practice and fewer shortcuts. That they confront procrastination and resistance with growing intentionality and grit. We hope they dare to hold firmer boundaries, and keep building something meaningful and fun together as they step more fully into adolescence.
We hope our Mapache community grows even closer. That families support one another in embracing their roles and honoring their promises, especially in challenging moments. We hope they celebrate each other's progress as shared growth, and that communication remains direct, clear, and caring.
And we hope each one of us finds the courage to face whatever trials and tribulations this year may bring. Our character will be tested, time and time again. May we meet those tests as opportunities to hone the heroic habits and virtues that shape our journey.
What each person finds here depends on what they bring with them.
Courage or avoidance.
Discipline or comfort.
Humility or ego.
Honor or deceit.
Grace or blame.
Our environment does not manufacture heroes. It reveals character.
That is what makes this adventure real.
In the nine years since we opened our doors, the Acton network has grown from fifty to more than 300 campuses worldwide. We remain the only Acton Academy in Peru, and one of the oldest campuses in the network. Through COVID and beyond, we have endured.
We will go on. We will keep growing, building a trusted path to purpose that is redefining what families in Lima believe is possible. Our hopes rest on this shared conviction: young people, trusted with real freedom and real accountability, rise to meet what is asked of them.
And so, year nine begins.
What are your best hopes?