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

Tyler Holder '14's recent Chapel talk to our seventh and eighth graders was an inspiring personal story about the capacity we all possess to change for the good. In his younger years, school didn’t come easily to Tyler, and he described some of his struggles. Tyler then shared how, with the guidance of caring teachers, administrators, coaches, family and most importantly, his own determination, he decided to change. In particular, he recalled the caring but strong connections and conversations he‘d had with teachers, coaches and administrators in his sixth-grade year, which led to his resolve to change course. He successfully turned it around, graduating from Saint David's, followed by Kent ('18), where he served as President of the Student Council and Tufts ('22), where he graduated Cum Laude with a degree in Political Science and Government. He currently is employed in the field of international relations. A few years after his college graduation, while teaching E...

I would like to share the following article, which is featured in the current issue of Saint David's Magazine. In it, John C. Dearie '95 provides lessons learned from the introduction of television to critically examine the impact of social media today, especially with respect to kindnes s.  After hearing that kindness would be the school year’s theme, I immediately began thinking about possible Chapel Talks which would capture the theme and connect it to the boys’ daily lives. Seeking inspiration, I began scouring my “go to source” for all things content and information: the Internet. Once online, I found a video, a TikTok video to be precise. I watched it several times. The video was hosted by @Julian de Medeiros. Now, to qualify. I have not fact checked the video or done a deep dive on the host’s background. But, the content of the video itself is what is most important here. He spoke of the author Tolstoy and his take on kindness. After a number of views, I took a proverbia...

The eighth grade's annual Italian Study Tour - 10 days exploring Assisi, Florence, and Rome - is a longstanding capstone experience for our graduating class and their teachers. The trip, which takes place each year during the two weeks prior to spring break, provides the opportunity for our boys to visit in-situ the actual paintings, sculpture, and architectural sites they have studied all year in their art history class. At each site, they deepen their understanding through reflective journaling and sketching what they see. This year, our flight landed in Rome on Tuesday morning, March 5. The day was a beauty. We headed straight to the medieval city of Assisi, for a visit to the Basilica of Saint Francis. The setting of this beautiful village against the Umbrian hillside is breathtaking, humbling, and inspiring. We concluded our Assisi visit with lunch at Enoteca San Pietro, the first of several delicious meals we would share over the next ten days. The Study Tour continued with f...