David O'Halloran, Headmaster - Saint David's School, New York City

To mark the closing weeks of a most unusual year, we have been fortunate to provide mission-focused virtual sessions for the Class of 2020 with Rob Sgarlata and Dr. Rita Kalyani, leaders in the sports and medical fields. Last week, Rob Sgarlata, the head football coach of Georgetown University inspired our boys the Hoyas' way. Engaging each boy with animation, he counseled them on continuous improvement and how to deal with adversity or challenging situations. He advised boys to keep the numbers 1, 10, and 90 in mind: "Every morning you wake up, you want to get 1 percent better, every day." To be better today than you were yesterday and better still tomorrow, is something we reflect on often at Saint David's with our boys. He also reminded them that when adversity strikes, life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we react. Sgarlata drew parallels between Georgetown's Jesuit philosophy and the mission of Saint David's, stressing the imp...

As we close out Week Six of our distance learning program, boys and teachers are connecting, teaching, and learning in a quintessentially "Saint David's" way, maintaining the integrity of our program across its four pillars (academics, arts, athletics, spirituality). I'd like to share a few examples: Third, fourth and fifth graders were visited by author Jessie Janowitz (The Donut Fix and The Donut King) for an animated, engaging session with Q&A on how to turn a spark into a story. Eighth graders are continuing to benefit from the school's partnership with the DNA Learning Center. DNALC biologist Jennifer Hackett leads Zoom sessions as the boys extract DNA from leaves for later analysis. Rigorous academic pursuit continues. Boys in all grades are engaging in push-up challenges for pennies (and lots of dollars) in the "Pennies for Push-Ups" school-wide fundraiser to support Feeding America. Led by the Eighth Grade Student Coun...

"It's the mission that is the lesson that sticks in your mind the most," Jim Sciutto told our eighth graders. " It's the values that you take away from your school that will serve you and be most influential in your life. As much as you can live the values, you will be doing the right thing." Author, award-winning CNN anchor, and Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto led a virtual Zoom lecture and Q&A session with our boys during Monday's Alumni Parents Council Lecture, offering lessons on how to find life work that is fulfilling and meaningful. Mr. Sciutto fascinated our soon-to-be graduates with stories of his experiences as an international reporter in Asia and the Middle East: from covering Afghanistan post 9/11 to being embedded with a convoy of Marines in Iraq, and reporting inside Myanmar during that country's government crisis. (Three boys were not present at the time photo was taken.) Our boys learned that Mr. S...