From the Head of School

Dear EHS Family,

Episcopal High School lunches are the stuff of legends, celebrated by students, faculty, alums, and parents alike! And it’s not just the chicken tenders, chicken fried steak, or mac and cheese of the old days, but also the Spanish paella, Indian butter chicken, and Venezuelan arepitas of the new. Just as was true at our founding, so it is true today: win their stomachs, and their hearts and minds will follow.

We are blessed to have a long‑serving and dedicated kitchen staff to ensure we win each new generation of EHS students—stomachs, hearts, and minds alike. Between them, Gvahn Nelson, Darlene Alexander, Maria Arias, Karen Broussard, and Susana Borges‑Pasini have over a century of service to the School. We share some of their favorite recipes for you to enjoy at home this summer. Just as we balance the traditional with the innovative in the kitchen, so we do in the classroom.

That balance of the traditional and the innovative is essential to the life of any school, and it is a balance EHS most always gets right. Compare the following two articles within: one, beginning on page 12, features five of our full time teacher-coaches; the other, beginning on page 28, features three faculty who are in their final year at EHS.

What we do every day at EHS is instill in the next generation the virtues of the school’s mission, essential to our success since the school’s inception, while building the capacity to effectively meet the world as it is and as it will be. We do it every day with our students in the classroom, on the stage, in the studio, and on the field. And we do it with faculty who model that vision and mission.

The five faculty featured in the first article have been trained and led by the faculty in the second. Michael Hunt and Alice Davidson are retiring; Eric Lerch is moving on as the founding head of Houston’s newest private middle school. And, of course, the last word in this issue comes from Associate Head of School Nancy Eisenberg and her additional 33 years of experience. Nancy has been invaluable to me in my 15 years as Head of School, as I believe she has been to many during the entire length of her tenure, and we will miss her. Between the four, they have served EHS for over a century. They leave with us a tremendous legacy in the form of the next generation of EHS faculty and staff, better equipped to lead their charges into the future steeped in the EHS way.

Michael Hunt speaks of mathematics as a “window into the very mind of God,” and he describes his work as a teacher as every day inviting others, his students and younger colleagues alike, to join him at that window and marvel at the awesome view. The individual subjects are just windows we use to communicate bigger lessons about life and the type of people we want to be in our lives,” he concludes. No wonder EHS stands out.

Have a great summer, and Go Knights,

Ned Smith Head of School