GROWING INTO YOURSELF

The programs Mallory Brabrand ’23 experienced at Collegiate have challenged her to apply her skills to something that transcends any letter grade.

Mallory Brabrand ’23 will tell you she’s the quiet student in class, always focused, working with her head down, driven, but invariably friendly. “I love school, and I’m just very focused on academics,” she says. “I feel like Collegiate, really beginning in the Lower School, instilled in me a passion for discovery, for learning, and that passion has remained since I came here in Kindergarten.”

But with always-inquisitive, ever-engaging teachers and captivating programs, Mallory, over the years, has become more than just a strong student in the classroom. She’s found a new kind of drive, a register of curiosity that looks outward, setting her gaze on the verdant pathways beyond Collegiate.

This transformation happened both organically and dramatically. Organically because Collegiate faculty and staff seek to nurture a student’s interest, encouraging them to grow. Dramatically because any degree of self-discovery arrives unexpectedly, at unknown junctures, and comes bearing surprising revelations.

Pushed to pursue a student endowment grant by her col- lege counselors, Mallory found herself in France the summer before her Senior year. It was a mild summer night in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, just outside the Centre Pompidou, that odd metal-framed structure holding masterpieces by the likes of Kandinsky and Mondrian, and Mallory and a group of four other American students were looking for a place to eat dinner after a long day. A longtime French student, Mallory noticed her French was the strongest in the group, but she seldom spoke colloquially outside a classroom setting. Would she be able to speak with a restaurant host and request a dinner table for the group?

“We walked up to a restaurant, and I was just really shy, but the group of friends I was with pushed me forward and asked if I could make a dinner reservation for everyone,” Mallory explains. “Because Collegiate’s French program is so strong, I was confident in my language skills, but, in the situation I was in, it became a matter of applying what I had learned and then pushing myself out of that comfort zone.”

Mallory secured the table. Then came the matter of ordering dinner. “The whole group then asked if I could order for them, and the next thing I knew I was having a full-on conversation with the waiter,” she recalls. “The spontaneous nature of the whole experience really pushed me. I didn’t expect to be in a situation like that, but I suddenly realized that Collegiate had been preparing me for this my whole life.”

Her time in France was a culminating experience, and the French program she had been involved in throughout Collegiate served as preparation. Without fully knowing it, she was ready for the world; she just needed a little push. “I was familiar with French culture and politics because that’s what we discuss in class. I was comfortable in the language. I realized then that Collegiate teachers give us broad, world-wide perspectives so that we are prepared for moments like this. We are prepared to have this kind of global conversation.”

Mallory has carried that confidence into her Senior year, now applying herself in other Collegiate programs. For the past two semesters, she’s served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Torch, the School’s yearbook publication. It’s another role that’s challenged her to grow into herself. As an editor, she’s had to learn to speak confidently and work in partnership with a team.

Working on the Torch, Mallory says, is one of the many classes Collegiate offers “that doesn’t really feel like a class.” Instead, it’s a course that provokes interest, a program that challenges students to apply their skills to something that transcends a simple letter grade. “When our team is working on the Torch, it feels like we’re just doing things we’re passionate about,” Mallory says. “It’s a class where you can just explore what you’re interested in. And then, at the end of the class, you finish with a tangible product, a yearbook that will be viewed by everyone, and that’s really rewarding.”

Her most rewarding experience during her Senior year, though, has been her work within the International Emerging Leaders Conference, a Capstone course that, for Mallory, cultivated her interest in international relations and Francophone culture. The program reaffirmed for Mallory her passion for global politics. It was a class, for her, that felt more important than a class; she felt that she and her peers were really working on something important.

The skills she brought to the Capstone — her drive, her fluency in French, her under- standing of cultures outside the United States — were always there, constantly being refined as she made her way through the Lower, Middle and Upper School. And with each program, something like a light would go off within her head, telling her that yes, she was on the right track. “It’s really unique that Collegiate has these classes that allow students to explore something they’re curious about,” she says. “For me, those classes have made me recognize who I am as a student, and because of that I’m excited for what the future holds.”