Severn On Course Campaign booklet

Severn On Course toward a school fully realized

relevant learning

abiding tradition

creative and competitive spirit

a life fully realized

Keep constantly in mind that education is fundamentally a process through which we learn to live.

Rolland M. Teel from the 1954 Navigator

into our second century Opening the doors to six students aspiring to enroll at the Naval Academy a century ago, Rolland Teel set the initial course for Severn School.

Mr. Teel, a deliberate man, led by example. His leadership established Severn’s abiding ethos: to surround students with wise adult mentors who model the wisdom needed to turn knowledge into leadership. His approach made a lasting impact on generations of Severn students, equipping them with a strong internal compass that would guide each to a life fully realized.

One hundred years later, Severn School has changed with the times.

As a Severn stakeholder, you know the value of our

We’ve grown outwardly in the ways that a healthy

long-held traditions–and you know yourself that

school must grow – expanding enrollment, building

a life fully realized is never at rest; it comes not

our physical plant, becoming a preschool through

through satisfaction over a task completed, but

grade 12 school, strengthening curricular offerings,

resolute action toward the next goal.

and increasing student and faculty diversity.

That’s why this second-century inflection point is so

And inwardly, we’ve stayed true to the essential

important–the end of one era necessarily shapes the

tenets of our 1914 founding: challenging our students

advent of the next. With your help, we can marshal

to pursue excellence in character, conduct, and

our resources and stay on course toward a school

scholarship, in a community where adults model these

fully realized.

qualities and where each student is known and valued.

relevant learning: instilling intellectual ideals for the real world

to prepare

our learners for tomorrow’s challenges

to engage

them with world-changing ideas

to equip

them to face the unknown

The Teel Academic Center $17.5 million

Self-discipline, intellectual achievement, creativity, and physical ability–these values are just as applicable now as they were 500 years ago. And we’re already seeing how with that skill-set our daughter can meet any challenge.

we must provide

a modern, spacious, and state-of-the-art facility that complements our teaching and makes learning accessible to all students.

parent

relevant learning: instilling intellectual ideals for the real world

What does learning look like when it has no limits?

Our graduates prepare to enter a world of innovation, creativity, collaboration and one that pulses with information. It’s not like the world we met as young adults fifty, twenty, or even ten years ago. We want to give our students the chance to take advantage of all the world has to offer. Students need access to the kind of deep learning that lasts a lifetime and practice in the kind of agile thinking this new world demands.

The Teel Academic Center $17.5 million

As it stands today, the 1967 Teel Academic Center with its 1984 addition is an outdated and inadequate space for teaching and learning. Originally designed as a student residence hall, its rooms are small and lacking in many of the most basic classroom necessities. This building has tested our community’s creativity and good humor, and while we have proven our ability to improvise and innovate, we are ready for an up-to-date learning facility that invites, supports, connects and expands our community’s great strengths. Our classrooms need to be big enough to foster and inspire learning and collaboration here and beyond.

Severn students also need a generous library space equipped with the tools that support advanced research and allow access to the wealth of knowledge available. Dedicated space is also needed to provide our students with an environment in which to learn, grow, test, fail, and create in collaboration with teachers and peers.

abiding tradition: upholding leadership through study and service

to inspire

our leaders with a spirit of service

to inform

them with relevant knowledge

to empower

them with the courage to do what’s right

Leadership Program New Century Curriculum Environmental Program

$1.5 million

We educate leaders, which means that while we teach great skills, we’re not focused on any of-the-moment skill set.

The question of preparation at Severn is a 30-years-out, quality-of-life question.

I guarantee you our students have a higher quality of life, because of who they learn to be at Severn.

we must cultivate

a school grounded in tradition and tailored to the changing needs of a new time.

faculty member

abiding tradition: upholding leadership through study and service

One hundred years after Rolland Teel’s inspired idea took root, the founding tenets of leadership, service, and scholarship still guide our teaching in philosophy and practice.

Much has changed; our mission hasn’t.

The world still calls for thinkers equipped to lead, scholars prepared to evaluate and navigate a data-filled world, citizens committed to engaging in the issues we face as a society.

But a steady path into a new century does call for forward thinking.

Leadership Program New Century Curriculum Environmental Program

$1.5 million Severn answers with these thoughtful initiatives: Severn is a school who trains leaders, and always has been. We recognize that leadership takes many forms, and that urgent, complex and global issues are making new demands on the young people who will take up the challenge. With that in mind, Severn is evolving a new kind of Leadership Program, one that goes beyond the classroom, equipping our students with the capacity and courage to influence and serve their world for the better.

With our future in mind, we embrace our New Century Curriculum that leads students towards critical thinking, analysis and problem solving in all academic areas while remaining anchored in the foundation of close reading, effective writing and strong quantitative skills.

Our students will need all of these skills to navigate and thrive in the nuanced and complex world.

The Severn River, a living laboratory that opens the opportunity to begin a conversation about service and ecological preservation with our students, is just steps away from our campus. The nearly three acre parcel that backs up to the Severn River, The Stine Outdoor Education Center, boasts a spectacular tiered ‘classroom,’ trails, a counsel ring, a challenge course with lowropes to promote team building, and an artist reflection area. As issues of environmental degradation become more and more pressing in the world at large, our Environmental Program allows students to study the river’s small world, planting the seeds of responsibility and stewardship that grow within them for a lifetime.

We are on a steady path for a new century.

creative and competitive spirit: meeting every challenge with vigor and imagination

to guide

our community toward maturity and self-sufficiency

to instill

our community with justly earned confidence

to invite

our community into unparalleled learning

Faculty Endowment Student Endowment

$2 million

The way we merge competitiveness with civility and integrity at Severn– we’re not just seeing our students become leaders, we’re helping them become diplomatic leaders. It’s a delicate balance, and it demands more than intelligence. It demands a real commitment.

we must ensure

faculty member

that we attract and maintain a stellar faculty and a student body as diverse as the world we live in.

creative and competitive spirit: meeting every challenge with vigor and imagination

The spirit of Severn lives in the people of our community: the veteran teachers who have honed their skills for years and the newcomers who dazzle with new ideas and the formative young students who learn, play, and create original ideas under their careful and caring mentorship.

And the future of Severn lives in them as well.

Faculty Endowment Student Endowment

$2 million

We must attract and develop the talents of great teachers, those who excite the intellect, inspire students to achieve, and also influence them toward healthy habits of mind and character. A faculty endowment enables Severn to attract and maintain this kind of teaching talent with competitive compensation and professional development.

A student endowment likewise equips Severn to attract the most talented young thinkers, athletes, and artists. Prospective families see growing opportunities just a bus ride away in Baltimore, creating ever-greater competition for the most promising students. With the ability to offer adequate and comprehensive financial aid for these candidates, we ensure that Severn remains the top-choice school among talented young students in our area. The School has been designated to establish The Malone Scholars Program for the purpose of providing scholarships to new students entering grades seven through ten who demonstrate financial need and possess exceptional academic promise. Severn School awards at least one Malone Scholarship to a new student each school year.

Severn enters its second century at a time of great change, where the solutions to the problems that the world faces lie in new technologies and ways of thinking,

I’ve never encountered another school where the mission is such a living, breathing thing throughout the community. We’re all aware of it–students, teachers, staff, everyone–and we’re seeking to live up to it constantly.

in readying young leaders with deep learning for what comes next:

the unexpected.

As Severn faces this future,

we rely on a century of wisdom and on your generous support to ensure that Severn continues on its steady course toward becoming a school fully realized.

Help us lead the way.

faculty member

You can help

prepare our learners for tomorrow’s challenges

$17.5 million The Teel Academic Center

engage them with world-changing ideas equip them to face the unknown

inspire

our leaders with a spirit of service

inform them with relevant knowledge empower them with the courage to do what’s right

guide

our community toward maturity and self-sufficiency

instill our community with justly earned confidence invite our community into unparalleled learning

$1.5 million Leadership Program New Century Curriculum Environmental Program

$2 million Faculty Endowment Student Endowment

keep Severn on course.

For more information about our campaign and to see how you can best support Severn and help keep us on course, please contact the advancement office: 410.647.7701 ext 2357 d.crawford@severnschool.com

Severn On Course toward a school fully realized

the wisdom to follow. the courage to lead. severnschool.com 410.647.7700