COMMUNICATION
Family Experience
Family experience
OVER THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS, FEEDBACK from parents has indicated the need for connection. Families seek normalcy, routine, and academic gains at Marburn but not at the expense of other pieces of school life that are so important to students: friendships, growth, and exploration that can be forged outside the classroom. Fostering community is sometimes challenging when families are coming to Marburn’s campus from 31 school districts from around central Ohio.
Lower Division students, Cora and Sara, arrive at school for their first day with their mom, Consuella.
for all families and has also been working directly with Marburn’s PTO (MPTO) to help facilitate activities to help build connection and community, including parent coffees and family game nights. Celeste helps check in families at Marburn events.
Despite the pandemic restricting some in-person connection points, she embraced the opportunity to make a difference through activities like virtual reading sessions during Marburn’s online Book Fair and virtual trivia nights.
That’s where the new Director of Family Experience role comes in. Celeste Stevenson, a passionate member of the Admissions team for eight years, was asked to shift her role in October of 2020 to take on this new position. Recognizing that relationships with families do not cease at the point of enrollment, Celeste has plunged into the role with new ideas for collaboration and connectivity for students and families alike. Celeste remains in charge of the re-enrollment process 13 Marburn Magazine 2021
Already in this short time, Celeste has collaborated with faculty to increase the co-curricular options available to students, created an exciting welcome box for new families entering Marburn, re-imagined the Next Level meetings, and revamped the parent liaison program for new families.
Photo taken pre-pandemic.
As Celeste continues to focus on ways to improve the family experience at Marburn, new initiatives and activities will be introduced throughout the school. Through connections with families, she’s continually collecting feedback to better understand the wants and needs of the community. Please connect with Celeste at cstevenson@marburnacademy.org if you have ideas or comments to share on ways to improve the Marburn family experience.
