While the assembly was big and flashy, it’s in countless smaller moments that I’ve noticed the impact of One GDS. Each morning, High School volunteers open car doors, helping to expedite the dropoff of our youngest students. At a varsity soccer game, Middle School students cheer loudly for the team that they hope to join in a few short years. And when a Middle School team takes the field, Lower School students, like the 4th graders watching from the Kamal Nashid Memorial Terrace, cheer them on (cover). Our buddy program has taken off this year after a hugely successful end-of-year celebration last spring (page 28). Hundreds of students from all three divisions participate in an initiative matching Lower School students with mentors from Middle or High School. The “big kids” feel pride in serving as role models and guides. And this is just the beginning. Plans are underway for High School students to visit Lower School classes and read aloud to our youngest readers. The arts, athletics, language learning, and more will benefit from cross-divisional partnership. Faculty and staff who previously worked on separate campuses are forming new relationships through spontaneous encounters at the coffee urn or in the lunch line. These relationships are planting seeds of collaboration that will strengthen our community for years to come.
At our best, GDS is a vibrant, mission-driven learning community. Being together means that our community is more expansive, more connected, more alive with promise and possibility. The early days of One GDS are thrilling. I can’t wait to see what’s yet to come.
