Vision in Action Newsletter

Campaign Update March 2011

Campaign Leadership Committee

Ann Thompson and Pat Mutchler, Co-Chairs Naomi and Skip Atkins Marc and David Berman Jill and Randy Bown Gwen and Dave Campbell Patty and Rob Delany Herb Fisher Ricki and Steve Fisher Heather and Mark Garrison Suzanne and Keith Hodges Janet Israel Jim Israel Suzanne and Jeff Kahn Margie and Kevin McGlynn Paula and Marc Perry Beth and Mitch Sargen Bonnie and Peter Schorsch Tracey and Rod Sandmeyer Rich Nourie Jon Harris

Giving to the Campaign For information about making a restricted gift to the Vision in Action campaign, contact Jon Harris, Assistant Head of School for Advancement at 215-576-3956.

For information about making a gift to the AFS Annual Fund, contact Gabrielle Giddings, Director of Annual Giving at 215-576-3957.

Abington Friends School

575 Washington Lane Jenkintown, PA 19046 215-886-4350 www.abingtonfriends.net

Dear Friends: From the start, the Vision in Action Campaign has been about envisioning and fully supporting a vibrant, resource-rich learning environment for students and teachers alike. It began with a few key insights: • The world of learning has changed. Learning today, for both students and teachers, is continual, collaborative, dynamic and enriched by an amazing array of networked resources.

• The most successful learners are active and resourceful, making best use of the people and sources that surround them.

• The learning culture of our community is our most vibrant resource. The learning lives of teachers powerfully fuels the experience of our students.

The Campaign, which we are tantalizingly close to completing, has had immediate, high impact for our teachers and students. We have been able to create profoundly rich, teacher-directed professional learning communities where they can examine (over)

From the Co-Chairs: As we begin the final push to close out the Vision in Action Campaign, we want to thank you for what you have given or are about to give.

We have believed since starting at AFS 18 years ago, that faculty and program, the focus of this Campaign, are the two essential cornerstones of Abington Friends School. That is why we stepped forward to lead this important Campaign.

Personally, as our youngest, Casey ’11, rounds third and heads home, our adventure will also end. There have been many tears and cheers along the way. Tears as a kindergarten teacher, Betsy, described to me how John (our oldest) directed a visiting orchestra and wowed the audience into silence with his baton. Cheers as son number two, Michael, playing Varsity Basketball won yet another Friends League Championship for Coach C. While two players went on to play Division 1 basketball, Michael never doubted that he was an integral part of that team. Cheers as that same son, a freshman in college, was asked to grade English papers as his writing skills were far above the rest in his class.

There will be both again as Casey recites (over)

Vision in Action: people, program, potential From the Co-clerks, continued: poetry on Arbor Day. We, too, have made this place our home, making “lifer” friends along the way. AFS teachers have moments of extraordinary sensitivity, utter awareness of potential, and flawless judgment of when to laugh with their students. They possess the perfect timing about when to push and when to pull, when to laugh and when to “seriously discuss.”

They deserve our appreciation in this most critical way and we hope you can help us get to the end. As we see the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel,” when we squint, we see many lights, the light within each of you, who will carry this school forward. As many have done before, we showed up and fell in love with those who taught our children.

Again, thank you for your support, if you haven’t stretched to give to this campaign please consider those teachers who have touched your children and give today – we are so close.

Ann Thompson and Pat Mutchler, Campaign Co-Chairs

Progress Report:

$3M TOTAL PLEDGED $2.8M PERCENT TO GOAL 93% CAMPAIGN GOAL

CAPITAL GOAL

$ 1.7M

CAPITAL PLEDGED

$ 1.6M

ANNUAL FUND GOAL

$1.3M (over 3 years)

ANNUAL FUND PLEDGED

$1.2 M

One of the things that originally drew me to AFS was its powerful commitment to professional learning. Many schools pay lip service to faculty development, but those programs can seem lifeless and without clear direction. By contrast, it has been clear from the moment I arrived here last June that the professional learning community at AFS is a living, breathing thing, and the resources made available through the Vision in Action Campaign continue to provide much-needed oxygen.

More than half of our faculty is involved in ongoing Professional Learning Cohorts that focus on best practice and epistemology. Many others have deepened their understanding of pedagogy and trends within their own disciplines through summer curriculum grants, workshops and travel opportunities. The desire to nurture and inspire life-long learning in our students is not simply an abstraction; rather, our teachers embody that ideal. The resources provided by the Campaign enable us to continue this important work and to make our own learning visible. As such, AFS will continue to attract the attention of the independent school world.

Thank you for supporting this vital work and helping supply the oxygen we need.

Martha K. Holland, Assistant Head of School for Academic Affairs Director of Upper School

From the Head of School, continued: questions of practice, discuss latest research and critique each other’s work. We’ve been able to fully support professional learning with travel, visiting scholars and laptops for all faculty. And, as our faculty have risen to meet high expectations for innovation in curriculum and care for students, we have been able to begin to substantially raise faculty compensation to make AFS among the most competitive schools at which to build a career.

For students, the Campaign has had a profound impact as well. We’ve redesigned technology and library leadership and staffing to better serve research needs, added a school counselor and pioneered the ECCO program, through which students have connected to numerous travel, internship, summer college, arts, athletics and service opportunities in the region and around the world. Many other innovations, from redesigned electives and requirements in the Upper School to a richly integrated Lower School resource and classroom curriculum, have come as a direct result of an empowered and fully supported faculty.

We have now reached 93% of our fundraising goal overall, with just under $200,000 to go to secure the goals of the Campaign and make lasting the significant gains we’ve seen affect the lives of teachers and students. Please join us in making this Campaign the collective success for our entire community that so many have supported so far. I am proud of the vibrancy of the culture of learning at AFS; it is made possible by the vitality of our community in support of the school we create together.

Rich Nourie, Head of School As of March 2011