Word of the Week Archives
Gratitude :: Success
Dear Brandeis community,
It is hard to believe, but we are winding to the end of this school year—this is one of the final few words of the week I will write and share before we scatter to the summer like sunbeams in fog.
This week, at board meetings and banquets both, I have had the opportunity to reflect on some of the incredible successes of this year. I wanted to highlight three of them here, for all of us to appreciate together.
- Ninety-eight percent of the class of 2019 got into their first or second choice for high school (86.5 percent first choice; 11.5 percent second choice). That’s an amazing figure—especially given that they’re our biggest class ever—and, what’s even more amazing, is that that 98 percent first/second choice figure matches our average over the past five years! That kind of success is a credit to the academic preparation of our students, and to the thoughtful high school counseling team and process, which is already well underway for the class of 2020. I want to give a special shout-out to Neal Biskar here, who built our high school counseling program, and is handing the reins over after this year to Abbe Wainwright and Isaac Jacobs-Gomes.
- It was a banner year for our athletics program, quite literally, with rising participation rates, tight-knit teams, and exciting outcomes. Coach Corrie has built an amazing program here at Brandeis, and we’ll be adding four new championship banners to the already crowded walls of our gym this summer!
- We set the highest goal for the Brandeis Fund of my tenure, and we are on pace to exceed that goal comfortably. Thank you to the entire Brandeis community—faculty and staff, trustees, grandparents, alumni, parents, and students—for helping us make such success possible. (There is other significant fundraising news as well, which we’ll be sharing about in the coming weeks.) To the handful of families who haven’t made their gifts yet, please do, so that we can inch that family participation number up toward 100 percent. And to everyone who made Brandeis a priority in your giving this year, who gave in a way that was meaningful to your family: thank you!
Wishing you all weekends full of gratitude, my friends.
Warmly,
Dan
