By Sophie Hurwitz

Ariana Rubi Ruz lives next door to a circus tent. When the 14-year-old resident of Dorado, Puerto Rico, was 6, she watched the tent being built in the backyard next door. Day by day, she remembers, shed watch through the fence separating her backyard from the big top. The circus teachers eventually asked if she wanted to join and offered her a scholarship to make that possible.

That was at the beginning of the National Circus School of Puerto Rico, which is part of the social circus movement a growing group of schools around the world that teach circus arts to at-risk young people to help them build self-confidence and be a force for social good.

Ariana is one of dozens of students who spent years with the circus. Then, last summer, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, bringing 155 mph winds and widespread flooding. It crippled the roadway system and knocked out most of the electrical grid. The government initially said the death toll was 64; on Thursday it acknowledged that number was likely a little over 1,400 . And a Harvard University study released last month says Maria probably killed over 4,600 people on the island.