Friends Seminary Impact Report 2019-2020

Thank you for your support of the 2019–2020 Fund for Friends

Supporting the Friends Seminary Library is just one of the ways your gift to the Fund for Friends helps take care of our School.

WHAT DOES MY GIFT TO THE FUND FOR FRIENDS (ANNUAL GIVING) DO FOR FRIENDS SEMINARY? Gifts to the Fund for Friends enhance support for the community of learners, teachers and thinkers in their educational and co-curricular pursuits as they develop as scholars, artists and athletes. Gifts to the Fund for Friends help the School provide robust aid to families with financial need.

Gifts also enhance the School’s ability to recruit and retain exceptional faculty members with respectful and competitive salaries and benefits. Through your support, faculty have opportunities to craft their curriculum and develop innovative new programming for students, bringing abstract concepts to life. Your gifts offer opportunities for experiential education, athletics, arts and professional development for faculty, especially as they navigate new technology for distance learning initiatives.

59% FACULTY & STAFF SALARIES & BENEFITS

13%

STUDENT FINANCIAL AID

8% FACILITIES

CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT ONE OF THE WAYS MY GIFT SUPPORTS FRIENDS? Keep reading to learn how educators Adrienne and Paula dedicate their time to guiding and nurturing the community of learners to unlock valuable resources, offer opportunities and discover connections within the Library.

13%

GENERAL OPERATING

7% INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

EXPLORING CURIOSITY IN THE ELIZABETH CLASTER ’79 LOWER SCHOOL LIBRARY

DISCOVERING HISTORY AND IDENTITY IN THE MIDDLE AND UPPER SCHOOL LIBRARY

Beginning in Kindergarten, Friends Seminary students are encouraged to seek out new subjects, explore their curiosity and develop a lifelong love for literature and storytelling.

The expanded Lower School Library also offers the opportunity for students to explore the shelves independently and check out their own books beginning in Kindergarten.

Lower School Librarian Paula ZamoraGonzalez describes her role as “being in service of students’ curiosity.” One of her hallmark projects each year is awarding the “Owldecott Medal,” the Friends version of the Caldecott Medal, to “most distinguished American picture book.” In addition to considering a book’s literary value, the class works with Paula to consider questions of representation and inclusion in connection with children’s book publishing statistics. As individual books are evaluated, students track their personal reflections in a notebook and create a large-scale graph in which they can share out data about the grade’s responses to the books with the larger community.

Director of Middle and Upper School Library Services Adrienne Almeida sees the Library as a lively place that offers students the opportunity to question and explore. Each fall, Grade 8 students in Tamar Arisohn’s class embark on a deeply personal story of immigration and the correlation to current politics. Through the Roots Immigration Project, students selected a friend, family member, or someone in the Friends community to focus on. Students work alongside Adrienne, who guided their research and informed their interviews. They then created short documentaries that apply the lens of the classroom to their subjects’ historical narrative.

Adrienne comments, “One of the best things about my job is being a matchmaker. I have a unique opportunity to get to know the whole student, encourage their interests inside and outside of the classroom, help them learn to advocate for themselves and effect change in the world.”

Watch how the project came to life by visiting friendsseminary.org/impact

To learn more about the Fund for Friends or volunteer opportunities in our community, contact: Judy Brown Director of Annual Giving

p: (646) 979-5054 e: jbrown@friendsseminary.org