Skip to main content

An Evening with Wes Moore on Resilience

 


“True resiliency means you were able to make a bigger table for other people to see their own greatness as well.”


This key message was delivered last night by Wes Moore, CEO of Robin Hood, one of the largest anti-poverty forces in the nation, and bestselling author, combat veteran, and social entrepreneur. Mr. Moore provided a riveting, inspiring talk via Zoom for our graduating eighth graders, their parents, and the alumni/alumni parent community on resilience, this year’s school-wide theme. The evening marked the 17th annual Alumni Parents Council Lecture Series event; this year renamed for the first time in honor of alumnus Eric Wu ’14 (R.I.P.), in celebration of Eric’s short but meaningful life.

Lauding the graduating class for their ability to adapt during this curve ball pandemic year, Mr. Moore observed a great lesson from this pandemic: that the only certainty in life is inconsistency, surprise, and the need to adapt. As he reflected on the unpredictability of life, Mr. Moore encouraged the boys to live deeply and purposefully, to “go big” and leave a positive mark on this world: “While we are here, let’s push, let’s advocate, let’s organize, let’s love, let’s fight, find an issue, pull people together, have conversations with those we might not have had conversations with before.” 

Mr. Moore noted that we are all part of a larger, global fabric and our individual successes are dependent on the success of all others. Resilience, he said, requires more than an individual’s singular conclusion; it entails using one’s power to pull others up—we are all interconnected.

In closing, Mr. Moore expressed his confidence in our boys, stating, “I know the hopes, dreams and expectations of everyone here are that you are going to be truly resilient and the world will be better because of it.”

Each year, our Lecture Series provides a culminating master class experience for our graduating class which includes presentations by the guest speaker, followed by a question and answer session with the eighth graders. Yesterday evening inspired all present to live lives of impact and meaning, and was the perfect lecture in honor of Eric, an incredible young man who epitomized our school motto Ut Viri Boni Sint in deed and in word.

Saint David’s School thanks Mr. Moore for sharing his wisdom and insights with the boys, their parents, and the alumni community. Appreciation also goes to APC co-chairs Winnie Feng and Annie Haddad, J.P. Hormillosa and Maureen Barry of the Development Office, and alumni parent and former trustee Suzanne Karr for bringing this memorable evening to fruition.


 

Popular posts from this blog

"The Wisdom Within" - The Superpower of Performance

In the following entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative blog series, Saint David's Director of Music and Master Teacher Jeffrey Moore explores how participating in performances and productions build transformative competencies, transmit values, and inspire boys to excel. Jose Antonio Abreu, one of the leading educators in classical music and the founder of El Sistema said this: “Music has to be recognized as an agent of social development in the highest sense, because it transmits the highest values  — solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion. And it can unite an entire community and express sublime feelings.”¹ At Saint David’s School, performance begins in the very first years. Each class, from Pre-K through Eighth Grade, presents their work to an audience of peers and parents, whether it is a story, a skit, a play, a lecture, or a musical presentation. But the increasing complexity and demands on our boys to push themselves to another level is the key to their development and succes...
Read more

"The Wisdom Within" - Writing and Thinking

In our continuing efforts through the Teaching Boys Initiative at Saint David's School ™ , one of our visiting scholars, Dr. Ric Campbell, engages in ongoing reflective practice with our faculty. Below, Dr. Campbell shares an example of a freewriting initiative that was born from the collaboration between literature teacher Jamie MacNeille and history teacher Drew Burton, who sought to address forms of student engagement in their respective disciplines.  WRITING and THINKING:  A Learning Community Engaged in the Knowledge-Making Practices of the Disciplines “Whoa, this freewriting is really helpful !” The above quote by a sixth-grade literature student captures a revelatory moment; he has discovered the wealth of ideas at the end of his pen as he writes to describe what he is noticing in the novel the class is reading and discovers that what he notices leads to questions, and that those questions, in turn, lead to bigger ideas. “All there is to thinking is seeing something not...
Read more

"The Wisdom Within" - Learning as Deliberate Practice

In the following  Wisdom Within post, Visiting TBI Scholar Dr. Ric Campbell continues his blog series on our faculty’s reflective practice program. This entry explores how three Saint David's teachers collaborated to build "self regulated" students: "expert learners who take increasing control over their learning while participating as respectful, caring members of their classroom learning community." LEARNING AS DELIBERATE PRACTICE “If schools are going to help all students become expert learners, the metacognitive capabilities of learners must be acknowledged, cultivated, and exploited. Students must be actively engaged in their own learning and knowledge building; they must be able to effectively direct their personal quest for knowledge and skills, to judge for themselves whether they understand, and to know what to do when they need more information.”  [1] Perhaps the two most important outcomes of learning across the rich and varied curriculum at Saint Dav...
Read more