Message From Head of School - Jean Waller Brune
I have just returned to campus after a week of professional development, renewal and reflection with other Heads of School from around the country. It is an annual journey to the National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls (NAPSG) conference followed directly by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) conference. This year I traveled to Hilton Head for NAPSG and to NYC for NAIS. Although I never like to be away from RPCS, I do enjoy greatly the time spent with my colleagues as well as the visits with RPCS alumnae from many decades at regional gatherings.
The keynote of this year’s NAPSG conference was delivered by Dr. Nan Keohane, President of Duke University and former President of her alma mater, Wellesley College. Her address, Do Women Lead Differently? Reflections on Women and Leadership, made me reflect on the many ways that we at RPCS engage our students in learning to become leaders. Most importantly, it is our faculty who model leadership to their students on a daily basis. I am proud that RPCS teachers reach out beyond the walls of our school to lead workshops on a national level, publish articles and are accepted into prestigious professional development programs.
I am pleased to let you know that Middle School History teacher Justin Short and Upper School Math teacher Sybil Obiri have been accepted to the prestigious Klingenstein Summer Institute at Teachers College of Columbia University for this summer. This intensive program is offered for independent school teachers with two to five years of teaching experience. The Institute is designed to increase classroom effectiveness and to prepare teachers who have demonstrated outstanding promise for leadership positions in private schools. Upper School teachers Teddy Reynolds and Toby Rivkin have both been teachers in the Institute.
After seven years of research investigations into the soil ecology of microbes, David Brock, Upper School Science, and several of our alumnae and current students have just published a Soil Ecology Lab Manual. You can read about it in detail in the Jan/Feb Laurel Leaf, but I am struck by the success and recognition afforded this long term program. Nationally recognized, The Little Things that Run the World project received the Sea World/Busch Garden/Fuji Film Environmental Excellence Award in 2006. As the manual states, “it has provided the young women at Roland Park Country School the opportunity to implement successfully ongoing research investigations into the soil ecology of microbes. Enjoying the rare opportunities as high school students to work in a relatively nascent scientific field, they have had the opportunity for over seven years now to develop and execute their own experimental protocols, analyze and evaluate their findings for submission to peer review and provide our school community with data for managing our urban woodland campus.” The manual will be used by Biology and Environmental Science teachers and high school students for science research projects.
Faculty demonstrate leadership in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom. Over spring break several groups will travel to exciting destinations to experience learning in a new environment. I would like to thank Christine Polillo for her leadership of the 5th/6th Grade trip to Quebec, Sarah Rollfinke and Kati Colombat for their leadership of a trip to France, and Laura Hackman, Rhonda AbouHana and Janine Vreatt for their leadership of a NYC theater trip. I am excited that I will also be joining the NYC trip.
Student leaders at RPCS are nurtured in our Leadership Seminar led by Dean of Students Angelia Allen. I am always in awe of the energy, creativity and thoughtful dialogue that our student leaders demonstrate to the student body. The current initiative to Build Two Schools, one in Sierra Leone through Free the Children and our own athletic complex is a great example of this. RPCS will hold its annual All School Walk on March 28 for this effort to Build Two Schools. Students are asked to donate $1 for the opportunity to come to school out of uniform. The entire School walks up Roland Avenue, around St. Mary’s Seminary and back down Roland Avenue. It is always motivating to see the entire community mobilize as one for a cause. Upon our return we will enjoy apples generously donated by Giant at the Rotunda.
When I met recently with Alumnae in NYC, I was impressed with their achievements and leadership roles in their communities. They were in turn impressed with all of the advancements made at RPCS since their time on campus. Young alumnae were especially excited about the technology incorporated into the excellent academic program and the strength of the laptop program. In addition, many alumnae expressed their pride in a School that now offers Arabic and Chinese – two important languages in today’s world – and wished they could back to RPCS to study and learn.
As we prepare our students for leadership roles in their communities and in the world beyond the United States, I can not really imagine the world in which they may one day live, work and lead. The NAIS conference focused 6500 independent school educators on Schools in the 21st Century. While Schools in the future may not look exactly as they do today, one constant that will remain aside from the essential basics of subject area curriculum will be that great education prepares students to lead and succeed in the world. For each student at RPCS, I wish her many opportunities to lead here at RPCS and in her life beyond our School. As our philosophy states, “ the School strives to instill in its students a lifelong love of learning as well as the motivation to look within and beyond themselves that they become responsible, contributing members and leaders of their communities.”
Enjoy a restful Spring Break.
~J.W.B.