Skip to main content

Welcome Back, Alumni!

Last week, two cherished Saint David's traditions that kick off the holiday season brought upwards of 200 alumni back to our school and were a reminder of the strong ties in our alumni community.

The Young Alumni Chapel and Dinner gathers together our high school age alumni and the current eighth grade for a Chapel talk given by a fellow young alumnus. Held the Tuesday evening before Thanksgiving, it is an opportunity for our graduating class and the young alum community to gather, reconnect, and share at the start of the holiday season.

This year's speaker, James Wood '11, recent Cornell grad, shared with the boys sports stories from the book Range, Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, about the importance of trying out different paths in life and of recognizing that failure can be an effective teacher.

"Saint David's did a great job exposing me to an array of disciplines that allowed me to figure out who I am, to shape me," he said.

It was so good to see James and to welcome back all of the high school alumni present--150 strong!

The evening also included a photo with the Class of 2019, whose legacy gift was the outfitting of the Innovation Lab, and presentation of a check to Save the Children in the amount of $13,000 for the fundraising the Class of 2019 led in support of the second school we are building in Ethiopia.

On Wednesday, alumni returned for the annual alumni/faculty lunch and, fortified after a good meal, the Odds vs Evens basketball and soccer games. Odds won the basketball; evens, soccer.

I have no doubt that after these events, when alumni left Saint David's to attend their family Thanksgivings, they did so with the warmth and good feeling that true fellowship elicits.

I look forward to seeing these boys and more of our alumni community at our upcoming Christmas Gathering.




Popular posts from this blog

The Wisdom Within - A Matter of Trust

The Teaching Boys Initiative (TBI) is a cornerstone of Saint David’s School’s strategic vision, aimed at developing a robust framework of evidence-based best practices in boys’ education. The initiative’s primary goal is to empower educators with the knowledge, skills, habits, and dispositions of reflective practitioners, enhancing their professional growth and the overall quality of teaching and learning for boys.  In TBI's new quarterly blog series, "The Wisdom Within," our faculty share stories that inform, inspire, and encourage reflective practice using evidence-based approaches in teaching and learning for boys.  The following inaugural entry, "A Matter of Trust," was written by reflective practitioner and Master Teacher Tom Ryan, who has been inspiring generations of Saint David's boys for more than 53 years. A MATTER OF TRUST …but, I digress. I cannot possibly begin any writing piece, and/or class, without some digression that, as I have said to my s...

"The Wisdom Within" - Bringing Sound to Space

In the second entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative's quarterly blog series, "The Wisdom Within," Saint David's reflective practitioner and Master Teacher Cathy O'Neill explores the pedagogical power of play in the education of young boys. BRINGING SOUND TO SPACE It began with a mound of mangled metal and the vapor of a vision gleaned from recent comments and random fact-dropping by the Pre-K boys. Unsure of what exactly I was looking for, but fueled by the idea of a makeshift rocket to dovetail with our upcoming space unit, I gingerly picked through the scrap pile until my hands grazed an old VW control panel devoid of its dashboard. Eureka! An array of knobs, dials, and buttons - while in reality, dead as doornails - in the right small hands, would become the epicenter of our NASA-inspired dramatic play corner. With a couple of lawn chairs and some old CB radio microphones to round out the set, engines would be ignited by the power of imagination. All systems go...

"The Wisdom Within" - Building Student Motivation Through Choice

In the third entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative quarterly blog series, Master Teacher Jim Barbieri explores how providing boys with agency to choose builds motivation and enhances learning. BUILDING STUDENT MOTIVATION THROUGH CHOICE By the time I was eight years old, I had become completely absorbed in all things baseball. Living in New York was perfect for a baseball fan; although I was a Mets fan thanks to my idol, Tom Seaver, I was also interested in learning about all the amazing Yankees stars of yore. How could I call myself a baseball fan if I didn’t know the history and records of stars like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Yogi Berra? I loved collecting baseball cards and reading the career statistics of each player on the back. Looking through my collection one day, I discovered that I shared a birthday with the legendary Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente. At eight years old, I was crushed to hear the news that he had died tragically in a plane crash while trying to ...