I have always been in school. I count my time not in calendar years but in school years. Thus, while most people take time to reflect in late December and early January, I do my reflection in late June and July. This school year, I have learned so much about how a UPrep education teaches our students to lead a life of learning.

One example that comes to mind was two years in the making. A group of UPrep students traveled to the Georgetown Day School Summit on Sexual Assault and Consent in Washington, D.C., in November 2022. This conference teaches high school students about safe relationships as they move through high school and into college. Our students, energized and grateful to be there, returned to campus and began planning their own Seattle-based conference with support from UPrep’s director of social emotional learning, one of many adults who stood with them to make the first consent conference happen in February 2024. In addition, a group of female students who saw the success of the yearly Young Men’s Conference spoke with the assistant head of the Upper School about creating a conference for young women. Its first rendition will happen during the 2024–2025 school year.

As I looked back, I thought about a trip I took this spring. Together with Director of College Counseling Kelly Herrington and Associate Director of Development Claire Fallat, I visited alumni across the Golden State (aka California). They shared with us how faculty, administrators, and coaches helped them discover their passions and find their voices when they were students. These alumni are now founders of campus podcasts, in law school, improving college departments to serve the needs of all students, doing research that will change lives, and giving back to their communities.

Meanwhile, our students participated in orchestra competitions, entered robotics contests and drone competitions, and excelled in Mock Trial and Debate Club. As in past years, students joined athletic teams for the experience of playing a new sport. We also celebrated state championship athletes this spring. Once again, our students were not afraid to have hard conversations with each other and to challenge school leaders, including me, to make change happen. UPrep’s ASB leaders planned and ran all school assemblies. They created new community events and rebuilt school spirit during the last four years. All our students have adult supporters who make this community such a special place in which to grow up.