From the Headmaster

Dear Friends of Delbarton,

I think it’s fair to say that high school seniors are difficult to impress. They have had long practice in the art of lowkey responses to all manner of experiences. Yet when our seniors first walked into St. Benedict Hall, our new library and guidance center building, on Tuesday, April 13, the looks on their faces made it clear that they were wowed. Underclassmen were similarly awestruck. Immediately, students from all grades took possession of the group study rooms, quiet reading areas, quiet study room with study carrels, and have been using them intensively ever since. After 13 months of construction, Delbarton’s first new academic building since the Fine Arts Center opened in 2006 was alive with Delbarton’s crackling energy.

The opening of St. Benedict Hall was a peak moment in this school year marked by the COVID pandemic. This new building is, above all, a sign of hope, a sign of Delbarton’s faith in God’s providence, a sign that we believe our mission of Benedictine Catholic education endures in its meaning and impact for our students, our families, our alumni, and our wider community. Our generous benefactors who made St. Benedict Hall possible clearly share that faith in Delbarton’s future, and we are incredibly grateful to them for what they have enabled us to do for our students.

While the COVID pandemic has shaped so much of our lives this past year, you’ll be happy to see in these pages of Delbarton Today that much of what makes Delbarton special continued during this year. This year, as we did in the last third of 2019-20, we used technology extensively to give our students opportunities to engage with each other and with the wider community. Consider our annual AP Studio Art Show, for example. We couldn’t stage our usual in-person exhibit this year. So, we used Adobe Spark to create beautiful online exhibits for each AP Studio Art senior, and the featured each student individually on the delbarton.org web site. These incredibly gifted students were thus able to reach a far larger audience online than they would have had the exhibit only been in person.

In this issue, you’ll also see some beautiful photographs of Brother Paul Diveny’s sabbatical after he retired as Headmaster in June 2018. The fruits of Brother Paul’s keen photographic eye have often graced Delbarton Today, and this issue will be no exception. Finally, we are very pleased to share with you the advent of our Alumni Teaching Fellows Program. Next fall, three alumni from the Delbarton Class of 2017 will join our faculty as Teaching Fellows. They will teach a class, coach or moderate a sport or activity, tutor in our new Academic Resource Centers, and learn firsthand about the art and science of teaching. Boarding schools have had such programs for many years, and this year Delbarton’s Administrative Team felt that the time had come for us to have our own version of an immersive volunteer experience for young graduates that will benefit them, and our students, in equal measure.

As our campus returned to life this spring, signs of hope multiplied. Despite the struggles of this year, our faculty, staff and students have remained committed to our mission and to the work we have been called to do at Delbarton. We clearly have much for which to rejoice, and to be grateful.

Yours in Christ and St. Benedict,

Fr. Michael Tidd, O.S.B. Headmaster

Maureen Nowak P’12,’14,’18/MGN Photography