Looking Back, Looking Forward

By EDWARD V. PARSONS P’17

Among the many pandemic impacts that continue to mark our post-Covid days, the blurring of time as we look back on the past few years seems particularly remarkable. Memories meld into one another; time frames overlap and float free from reality. Storytelling from our recent past has come to resemble recounting a dream.

With or without Covid, these past nine years have moved quickly; my family and I can hardly believe we’ve been at Rivers that long. There are still days when we feel we’ve just arrived, and others when those early days feel like a lifetime ago. Perhaps that’s simply how time feels as we live through more of it. But it’s a measure, too, of how much we’ve enjoyed our sojourn in this special community.

I’m extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished within that time. We started immediately when I arrived in the fall of 2014, pulling together our alumni, parents, faculty, and trustees to imagine Rivers’s next iteration and to map out the road to the school’s future. We built on our foundation of Excellence with Humanity; our tradition of nimble, entrepreneurial approaches to curriculum and pedagogy for a changing world; and our shared vision of what Rivers could be for our students.

And look what we were able to do. Since 2014, we have reconfigured the campus by building out The Revers Center for Science and Visual Arts; revitalized the learning spaces in Prince, Haynes, and Lewis and the support spaces in Lower Carlin; added three turf fields and a pavilion that serves as a community space on glorious fall and spring afternoons; connected the campus to the Camp Nonesuch side of our acreage via the Paul Boardwalk. Add to those physical changes the additions of deeper programming in science and technology, the arts, experiential learning, Middle School science, and interdisciplinary work, and it’s clear our strengths have multiplied as our spaces afforded us the appropriate room and support to do so.

Culture in independent schools is everything, and we have worked hard on that essential component of school life as well. Programmatic additions like the Center for Community and Civic Engagement, deeper scaffolding for our DEI work across campus, broader support for mental health and wellness, affinity spaces for students and faculty, cultural celebrations, and community events have all added to the depth of our students’ experiences on our campus. At our all-school meetings, that culture shows up on full display, and as I listen to our senior speeches there, watch the presentations students pull together for their peers, and hear students put out the call for help with volunteer projects, I know that our work is making a difference.

I’m most proud of that growth, and proud, too, of the way in which this community worked its way through the challenges of the Covid era. No matter the circumstances, this community always pulls together to bring our values into the work of helping young people become their best selves.

The question of what lies ahead will be the subject of much interesting and vital work at Rivers over the next several years. From a distance I’ll be cheering on Ryan Dahlem and the extraordinary team here as that work takes shape.

It has been my honor and pleasure to work with the Rivers alumni, students, faculty and staff, parents, and trustees along the incredible path we’ve traveled these past nine years. I’m so proud of what this community has accomplished and grateful for the support offered to me along the way. I’ve learned more than I could have hoped for and can’t wait to see all that comes next for the Rivers community.

Between the writing of this note— my last in the Riparian—and the end of my time in the seat, there’s much to do and celebrate: the prom, graduation, athletic contests, art openings, and so much more.

I extend my deep gratitude to the Rivers community. It’s been a tremendous ride!