A Letter from Our Head

Dear Friends,

Change is a welcome constant at St. Andrew’s. Everyone here knows that St. Andrew’s expects to improve each year for the sake of our students. We want better research to spur improved teaching so we can develop better artists, athletes, leaders, and learners. A decade of renovation and expansion will be capped by the opening of the Student Center this fall, because we want every square foot of our two campuses to improve each year.

Our programs have evolved just as rapidly in the past decade, based on the creativity of our faculty and the research and university partnerships of our Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning. Design thinking, international development and social entrepreneurship, and a range of new college-level electives have all entered our curriculum. Our arts and athletic programs have strengthened dramatically, and the addition nearly a decade ago of our Lower and Intermediate Schools has accelerated our schoolwide focus on collaborative learning.

This philosophy even extends to our look. After nearly two decades of having the same logo and seal, those icons are being refreshed. This is a transformational time in the school’s history and we want our look — how we present our school to the community — to represent that change. You can learn more about our changing graphics on the coming pages.

Thanks to this drive to be better for our students, St. Andrew’s has never been stronger, more respected, or more broadly successful than it is today. We have become an ambitious and innovative school that constantly asks: What’s next?

And yet the most important part of St. Andrew’s — our heart — hasn’t changed since we opened in a church basement in 1978 with 38 students and a two-shelf library. The constant heart and innovative mind of St. Andrew’s are embodied in our service learning program. Empathy — the genuine understanding of others that only comes through relationships — is the primary motivator for social justice and an essential mindset for 21st-century success. Nothing teaches empathy or stimulates moral development better than a service-centered curriculum.

From our founding St. Andrew’s has been committed to service. Community service was one the earliest graduation requirements of the school, and the school’s most enduring partnerships are service-based. Twelve years ago we formally integrated service into the curriculum at every grade level of the school, led by our flagship ninth-grade service-learning course. As you will see from the profiles in this magazine, St. Andrew’s alumni carry their love of service throughout their lives.

Thank you for supporting the hearts and minds of St. Andrew’s and our students so strongly.

Faithfully,

Robert Kosasky

Head of School