Having just spoken to you all in Chapel in April with some reflections and advice, I thought that today I would share with you my top ten memories at Episcopal, memories that will stay with me wherever I go.
10) I will always remember devoted alumni who care deeply about their school. I have met with alumni all over the country and now in England and they love their school and care deeply about continuing the strong tradition of excellence at Episcopal.
9) Collecting over 150 hats in my office from advisees, alumni, and visitors, hats full of memories of interesting experiences and fascinating individuals.
8) Helping the school move from having no foreign students when I arrived to now enrolling two Assist students, several students from China, and starting exchange programs that bring us students from South Africa and Australia each year.
7) Seeing the arts become “front and center” on the new campus, and supporting an arts faculty who stretch and challenge their students to fully develop their creative talents.
6) Helping Episcopal to maintain its position as the “most selective” school in Philadelphia, allowing us to enroll the students who can make the greatest contributions to our school and challenge their peers to be even better.
5) Smart and talented teachers and coaches who know how to both challenge and nurture their students, teachers who go the extra mile and do everything in their power to support their students and help them to achieve.
4) The scavenger hunts in August 2008, a few weeks before we started classes on the new campus; watching our students and parents as they explored their new home and realized all the opportunities they would have here.
3) Having the opportunity to lead our move to Newtown Square, managing budgets and architects, builders and fund raising, and assuring that exactly two years to the day after ground breaking, that we would be moved in to a spectacular new campus with incomparable facilities, and able to hold our dedication ceremony.
2) Enormously talented and high achieving students who want to make the most of their Episcopal experience, students who work extremely hard and excel in academics, the arts, and athletics, terrific young people who have been wonderful to work with.
And, my umber 1 memory of Episcopal will always be Haverford and AIS Days; continuing a wonderful tradition and starting another. Huge crowds, girls’ games under the lights, countless alumni back on campus, all our EA family with one voice cheering on the Blue and White, “We will strive what’er the game to add new luster to thy fame, Episcopal Episcopal.”
This is an incredible community! Mrs. Clark and I have loved being part of it for the past eleven years and look forward to coming back often.