Message From Head of School - Jean Waller Brune
Naturalist, writer and photographer Edwin Way Teale noted, “the world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." At Roland Park Country School May is the time when the School year itself is in full bloom: a time when we showcase each of our students through some special project, program, performance, exhibit or event, demonstrating what has been accomplished K-12 during a year of challenging and engaging curricular and extra-curricular work at RPCS. As a School dedicated to the “intellectual, aesthetic, physical and moral development of its students,” we challenge, nurture and encourage each student to develop her own talents and passions. As a result, there are barely enough days in May to schedule – much less attend – the exhibits, performances, assemblies and athletic competitions in all Divisions which celebrate the diversity of talents in our student body or to experience completely our student’s achievement and successes in the classroom. June is when the School year culminates, but without May, June would not be possible.
This is also the time when our juniors are elected to the offices that they will hold next year. They are, in the annual academic cycle, “rising” seniors. When we take the time to listen, our student voices reveal thoughtfulness, confidence and a readiness for leadership – the lessons from School and home have taken root, and these young women are sprouting the wings of their adulthood. This spring, the student candidacy speeches were among the best I have ever heard in my16 years at RPCS. In our long history, I am sure that there have been sisters who have held elected offices concurrently. But this year, the elections resulted in what I believe is an unprecedented outcome: twin sisters Julia and Leah Osterman, Roland Parkers since kindergarten, will hold the two highest student offices next year: SGA President and Honor Board President respectively. Their voices showcase all that is possible at RPCS.
Next year, I want the whole student body to be excited about the numerous opportunities we have available to us at RPCS. From sports to arts to an array of different clubs, the opportunities at RPCS reflect the diverse interests that make up our student body. With the arrival of our fantastic new gym and another school year, I want to recognize the plethora of interests that make us, as students, unique. Therefore, I want the theme for next year to be exploring your passions and recognizing each other’s interests. I’m simply saying that maybe if you’re a huge sports fan that you’ll also take time to go to a coffeehouse or if you’re strictly an arts person you’ll go to one or two sports game. Next year, I want to encourage collaborations between clubs and organizations to support each other and share their interests. In accordance with the theme of recognizing the numerous unique interests that make up our student body, my word next year for SGA if elected president, would be boundless. For, however cliché it may sound, our opportunities at RPCS are boundless if we choose to take advantage of them.
~Julia Osterman
In preparation for this speech, I decided I needed to know exactly what honor means. I typed ‘honor’ into the Oxford English Dictionary and found twenty-nine different definitions. After reading them all, I decided I didn’t like any of them. True, they all said how the word is used, but not what it means. So I asked four of my classmates.
One said, “Honor means truth.”
Another said, “Honor is when you have two choices and you decide to choose the right one.”
The third one said, “Honor is having the integrity to do the right thing even when people aren't looking.”
The final one was, “Honor is anything that you can be proud of, but truly proud of.”
That word stuck with me: proud. Pride is a word that manifests itself in RPCS. At some point in our time here, we will deck ourselves out in red and scream our lungs out on a field or find ourselves on our feet at the end of a show and feel that swelling feeling of being a part of something worth something. We take pride in our groups: the team with the championship jackets, the mural painted together, the It’s Academic team taking on Gilman and Bryn Mawr. This school is about community, about communal pride.
I stand before you today in order to make clear that I have dedicated myself to a principle. I believe that this student body can grasp a concept greater than just crime and punishment. We can establish honor as an agreed-upon code, not as some schools call it an honor system. What is honor? For me, honor is not always being the perfect model of integrity. Honor is understanding what’s right or wrong for a situation and taking responsibility for the choice we make between the two. I don’t pretend that this is the definition. I only ask that, whatever the outcome of this election, we strive to give the word “honor” a meaning for all of us and not just a use.
~Leah Osterman
As I listened to these seniors speak from their hearts, I was awed – indeed moved to tears – not only by their words and their vision for leadership, but also by what they represent about the RPCS education. As they stood at the lectern in the Sinex Theater, I saw them, in my mind’s eye, as kindergarten students many years ago. I thought then of the many teachers who have guided them along their journey “through all these years” from those Lower and Middle School days to become “the responsible, contributing members and leaders of their communities” that they are today. This is the best of what Roland Park Country School is about.
~ J.W.B.