IMPACT REPORT
Carrying the Mantle of Leadership Message from the Board of Trustees Chair Todd Gorelick ’82 Leadership. The theme of this issue of Perspectives is among the ideals to which Country Day has always aspired. In these pages, examples of Country Day leadership are a rightful source of pride.
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HE WORRIES of playground scrapes and the pressures of college admission sometimes blind us to the fact that each and every Country Day student is already among society’s most likely to succeed. Which schools in our community are educating tomorrow’s leaders? Country Day heads anyone’s list. That is both an extraordinary endorsement and a grave responsibility. Our classrooms and athletic fields are the training grounds for future parents leading their own families. Country Day 12
PERSPECTIVES
students will one day fuel our spirits in concert halls and places of worship. They will lead businesses paying wages to scores of employees, and they will be champions in science and medicine, improving the quality of life for countless people.
What does it mean to carry the mantle of leadership? Visitors to the newly opened Purdy Center for Science and Math and Hance Lower School Learning Center might
conclude state-of-the-art facilities are an essential part of the mix. Indeed, those new buildings rank among the best of their kind in the nation. Yet, a visit to our dining hall or older classroom buildings is convincing proof that Country Day is an educational leader despite the handicaps imposed by an aging physical infrastructure. In respect of facilities, the best evidence of our leadership resides in the messy construction underway. Leaders are not perfect; rather, they are always perfecting. Just as we seek always to improve Country Day as an institution, so do we strive to inculcate a passion for advancement through learning in Country Day students. Leaders are learners. Virtually every aspect of the life awaiting our graduates is undergoing rapid, and quickening, change. Thus, Country Day Ready now requires much more than acquiring advanced subject matter skill or knowledge. Becoming a flexible and lifelong learner, curious and eager to gain new knowledge and develop new skills, is more essential than ever. To cultivate learning passion and excellence, teachers and coaches seek to foster in students two signature leadership qualities: humility and confidence, in balanced measure. Only the confident take risks, whether writing a poem for the first time or stepping onto the field with a tough adversary; only the humble seek unfamiliarity and challenge as pathways to improvement. Leaders are equally confident and humble. Country Day’s commitment to raising children to be leaders and lifelong learners has been a winning formula. In the past year, Country Day students led the pack yet again. The Class of 2018 included a Morehead-Cain Scholar (our fifth in six years), 12 college athletes, and $10.6 million in scholarship offers. All 22 of our International Baccalaureate graduates were awarded that prestigious, internationally recognized, diploma. Student actors and actresses won state and regional awards, and our state champion Odyssey of the Mind team
