I have always felt like I belong at UPrep, and it has long felt like my home away from home. When I started teaching here in 2004, I was a long-term substitute for the eighth-grade science teacher who was on maternity leave. My students were fun-loving, silly, hardworking, brainy,
and incredibly kind, and they made me feel welcome immediately. A few of them created a fan club for me, going so far as to make “Talbot the Halibut” shirts. When the teacher-on-leave decided to stay home with her baby, the job was mine.

In education, as with so many fields, we are in a time of profound transition. In the wake of the pandemic, teachers continue to leave the profession and turnover at all schools—public and private—has been historically high. In fact, 44 percent of teachers leave the profession within the first five years of practice. Many who leave profess to feeling a lack of institutional support and that the school or district didn’t foster an inclusive sense of belonging.

As someone who feels that sense of belonging, I always want to help my colleagues feel the same. Knowing how those first years at a new school can be difficult, I spent time last spring rethinking our new colleague mentoring program and shared my ideas with Head of School Ronnie Codrington-Cazeau. I didn’t propose anything radical, but I knew that a few things were important: mentoring should be consistent, helpful, collegial, and celebratory.

As the year began and new employees were paired up with seasoned teachers and staff, mentor pairs began meeting up monthly for lunch. These meals are generously provided by the school. Mentor pairs talk about logistics, UPrep culture, and whatever else comes to mind. In October,
we hosted a mentor-mentee celebration at a neighborhood restaurant, and three similar events are scheduled for later this year. Seeing new colleagues connecting with experienced veterans is exactly what I hoped would happen with our rejuvenated program. After the scattered pandemic years, being together in the spirit of professionalism and joy is key for knitting the community together.

Something new this year for faculty and staff is the Wednesday Morning Happy Half-Hour, a drop-in time in the art room before school starts when we can chat and enjoy a pastry or fruit. Even on a cloudy day, it feels sunny in the art room, and people seem happy just to be together. We aren’t all that different from our students, really, and the formula is often simple: food + friends + time = belonging.

Creating belonging takes intention. I hope my colleagues feel emboldened to bring their authentic selves to work and that they find joy in our connections to each other. Our students, who seek a sense of security and support at UPrep, look to us as guides in this regard. And we know belonging is an essential condition for healthy learning and development. In the following pages, we explore how we foster belonging at UPrep and why belonging matters.