IMAGINING THE IMPOSSIBLE Priscilla Sands Head of School, Marlborough School Former Head of School, Springside School, and Former President, SCH
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en years ago, a group of educators began a wide-ranging discourse about the evolution of education and what ideas lurked on the horizon. We met often, scribbling endlessly on the glass boards that hung in my office. There were many partners in this new venture who shared the question:”What if?” We soon realized that our work and research were fueling many different iterations of this idea, which was heretofore unnamed. Our passion ultimately delivered the opportunity to incubate innovation and creativity at a school-wide level. We wanted students to see themselves as budding entrepreneurs, able to engage in design thinking and empathic question-asking. From hope and idealism SCH’s CEL was born; to paraphrase Steve Jobs, we wanted to make a dent in the universe. Or at least at SCH. The first piece of CEL furniture was a funky table hewed from one of our campus trees. It became our guiding symbol, and with the space, the table, and the enthusiasm of many, we began to plot the course offerings that would further our mission. Several teachers became early adopters. Over three consecutive summers, this core group attended The d.school at Stanford University in order to understand and ultimately train other faculty in design thinking. I remember that milestone day of professional development in 2012, when these “early adopters” trained and inspired a full house of faculty, administrators, staff, and trustees. Everyone came away believing that herein lay the possibility of disrupting education. Teachers brought it back to their classrooms while administrators employed design thinking as a way to facilitate buy-in for change. We all embraced Carol Dweck’s research into what it takes to develop a growth mindset. The Board of
CEL 10th Anniversary Book
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Trustees added its hearty endorsement, as well as expertise. Dick Hayne, former board president and founder and CEO of Urban Outfitters and all its offspring, was one of the significant visionaries for CEL. He would critique our progress and offer his advice or thoughts. It was an honor to have such a successful businessman, and a consummate entrepreneur, to guide me. Dick and I would meet in the late afternoon, and I would pepper him with all of the questions we had accumulated. He was a critical voice in this process as he had created a wildly successful brand through his disruption of the world of retail, and I wanted to learn how he did it and how he caused disruption. I was immensely grateful to have this amazing mentor as he poked holes in my thinking and planning and encouraged us when we were on the right track. He challenged us to imagine the impossible. It is hard to believe that the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership has been a living, breathing program for a decade. To those who currently work in the CEL, you have taken a nascent program and developed a curriculum that is progressive, salient, and supportive to so many students, some of whom discover their true passions in this remarkable space. It has been an opportunity differentiator in a highly competitive market for new students, and its existence has been a model for other schools.
