Letter from Jen

LETTER FROM JEN

Welcome to The Mural

We launch The Mural at a time when so much feels new at VCS: a new building, buzzing with student life; new possibilities for our students and our program; even a (somewhat) new Head of School. In this inaugural issue of our new school magazine, you will have a chance to see some of what this historic year has brought to VCS, including the opening of our long-awaited addition, the Eve K. Kleger Wing. Our expansion represents a remarkable feat of collective determination and effort— and the realization of the vision of my predecessor, in whose name the addition is dedicated. It’s only appropriate, then, that this achievement becomes the focus of our first edition of The Mural, that we use words and images to open the new front doors to our far-reaching community of VCS students and families past, present, and future.

Our physical campus isn’t the only place VCS continues to grow. Our Mission is to prepare students “for their futures in an increasingly complex and dynamic world”; as that world evolves, so too does our program. The stories teachers have volunteered for these pages reflect the sense of forward momentum that characterizes the student experience. The world inside the school building is just as dynamic as the world outside it, and I am so excited to have this platform to showcase all the ways we are innovating, experimenting, and forging paths into the future.

Just as important are all the ways VCS is staying the same. Familiarity and history are more relevant to our lives at school than ever; three years into a global pandemic, having had many of our basic routines disrupted, it is this community’s shared commitment to our fundamental school values and continuation of long-standing traditions that ground us among all the change. The past, too, is celebrated throughout this issue—even the name of the magazine was chosen as a nod to the school’s tradition of student-inspired murals. By expressing the vibrant life of the school’s interior, those murals were always a way of bringing the inside out—and so is this Mural. I hope you will enjoy it.