Family Weekend Brings ��Ƶ Community Together

Academics Campus Stories Head of School October 30, 2024

We’re grateful to so many ��Ƶ parents and guardians for spending a day or more with us during Family Weekend last week. We hope you got a taste of what the ��Ƶ experience is like for students and enjoyed the many performances, athletic games, discussions, and social events, as well as academic classes. Your partnership is critical for our students, and we were thrilled to have such a beautiful weekend to connect with you.

Crisp and sunny fall days set the perfect stage as ��Ƶ welcomed more than 500 guests to campus for Family Weekend. On October 25 and 26, 2024, parents, guardians, and even some siblings of ��Ƶ students got a sense of classes in action, plus a broad range of student activities, including ensemble performances, dance demonstrations, and soccer, field hockey, and volleyball competitions. The fall mainstage play, Radium Girls, also had a spotlight, with three shows in the Performing Arts Center.

Greeting families in the Chapel on Friday morning, ��Ƶ Parents President Jared Johnson P’25 acknowledged “how deeply the ��Ƶ staffulty care about and respect your students.” He gestured to the Centennial Arts Center construction site nearby, which many parents were eager to tour during their visit. “As impressive as that building is, ��Ƶ has never really been about its physical structure or its campus,” he said. “Rather, I think it’s about the community we have here, and that makes this space truly special.”

Head of School Henry Fairfax applauded the leadership of the senior class, which has set an inspirational tone for students and campus adults. He spoke about the tradition of senior chapels and collaborative undertakings unique to ��Ƶ, such as a recent Feature Film Project course. “This community asks, ‘How can we be the best versions of ourselves and make a difference in the world?’” he said. After he recognized the entire community’s support for the successful recent conclusion of the Centennial Campaign, he thanked parents for a different type of ongoing support: their partnership during a critical period in students’ lives. The weekend, he highlighted, was an opportunity for ��Ƶ to learn from families as much as they were learning about ��Ƶ.

Amid many chances to connect with the school and socially with one another, parents and guardians met with advisors and faculty from the Science, English, Modern and Classical Languages, and Computer Science Departments. They were also invited to panel discussions to learn more about the college counseling process and the academic experience.

As Assistant Head for Academics and Equity Rob Munro shared, ��Ƶ offered 279 courses this year for its 416 students—“more than most high schools and a lot of small colleges.” The curricular breadth helps ��Ƶ students go deep into their areas of interest and discover new ones.