GCDS FIRST Capital Campaign Newsletter

Campaign TheThe Campaign for for Tradition and Innovation Tradition and Innovation deepest thanks to the GCDS alumni, family, and

Swift progress continues on GCDS FIRST. As of early fall, commitments to the campaign totaled more than $119 million towards the $135 million goal—that’s 85% of our goal! Our friends who joined together in this historic effort.

Campaign Update

CAMPAIGN GOAL

$135M

From Adam C. Rohdie, Head of School | October 2023

The last several years have been a transformational time for our school. GCDS FIRST has been focused on expanding GCDS to become the leading N–12 co-educational school in the country, and we are well underway in funding this vision. The campaign has been supporting the development of an innovative curriculum, designed to fulfill our mission of inspiring students to discover what is finest in themselves, and the physical plant to allow that curriculum to flourish. In the last nine years, we have:

Raised $119M

Constructed a state-of-the-art Upper School building on Stanwich Road with a Commons, 22 classrooms and laboratories, a makerspace, a dance studio, a band room, a choral room, a dining hall and kitchen.

Completed:

Created top-notch athletics facilities: a fitness center, locker rooms, three new turf fields, including Offit Fields, which includes two NCAA-regulation size fields on Cardinal Road

(to date)

•

Establishment of GCDS as an N–12 school with construction of Upper School Building

•

Elite athletics facilities, including three additional turf fields

•

Renovation and expansion of the Upper Elementary Building

•

Construction of 17 units of faculty housing

•

Development of CPG

Restored and expanded state-of-the-art teaching and learning spaces for students in Grades 3–5 Constructed new faculty residences on the Schwarz property Developed the Center for Public Good (CPG), GCDS’s civic engagement and community service hub Invested in GCDS’s endowment to support tuition assistance, curricular innovations, student activities, and faculty professional development and enrichment.

Students and faculty are doing their best work in all of our academic spaces, designed to intentionally promote collaborative and creative thinking, interdisciplinary discovery, and a sense of community.

Our endowment, a fundamental component of attracting the best students and faculty to Country Day, also continues to improve. Through a recent matching grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation, the Center for Public Good coordinated a wide range of commu-

nity and public service opportunities, along with global service initiatives.

As we cross this threshold of our capital campaign, you can see the affirmation of our investment so far in both tradition and innovation across our campuses. However, our work is not done. We’re asking the community to join this campaign’s tremendous momentum to establish a legacy that will propel GCDS toward the next 100 years.

DONOR SPOTLIGHT MATT & MAGALI SWANSON, P ’32, ’33, ’35 Why did you pick GCDS for your children’s education?

What makes GCDS special to your family?

We chose GCDS for a number of reasons. First and foremost, we were drawn to its warm and welcoming culture. We believed Adam when he said that every student at GCDS feels that they are “known and loved,” and that has consistently been our experience of the school, beginning at the Lower Elementary and now at the Upper Elementary. We firmly believe that the culture at GCDS promotes a true love of learning and develops children who are happy, who feel valued, and who care about those around them.

Second, we valued a coeducational setting. Especially for their early years, we wanted our children to have a shared school experience. And lastly, at the time we applied to GCDS, it was just an N–9 school, and we liked the idea that our children would have to thoughtfully engage with the decision about the best option for high school.

That said, we were very pleased to see GCDS create a high school, which is clearly establishing itself as a worldclass independent secondary school.

As is true for so many families, GCDS isn’t just a school our kids attend, but rather a community that our whole family feels a part of. The quality, depth, and breadth of that community extends through the students, the parents, and the faculty. We have met some of our dearest friends at this school. And we share common values with the many families we meet each year—we all want happy, engaged children. We want to help our children find balance in a town that often feels as if it’s in overdrive. We place value on raising kind, well-rounded children whose education emphasizes developing character as much as promoting achievement.

Matt and Magali Swanson, with their children Eloise ’32, Robert ’33, Sophie ’35, and baby Richard.

What inspired you to make a gift to GCDS FIRST?

When we joined the GCDS community, we immediately wanted to support the school’s operating budget through the Annual Fund, but we also asked about its Capital Campaign in year one.

We saw the construction of what is now the Upper Elementary, and it was clear that GCDS wanted to have best in class facilities on its campus. That year, the school also announced the creation of a high school and with that, expanded its GCDS FIRST campaign. Although we only had a child in nursery at the time—and high school was still a long way off—the prospect of seeing GCDS create a brand new high school from scratch was thrilling as an intellectual, pedagogical, and organizational undertaking. Over the years, we increased our gift to the capital campaign as the school’s vision for the Upper School has taken shape. We’ve been happy to do our part, and we’re so excited to see how the Upper School continues to evolve and excel as our kids approach high school in the coming years.

“GCDS gives all students a chance to explore their passions using a variety of skills, so learning goes further and deeper. A gift now comes at a critical time and will shape GCDS’s future in important ways. It will allow the school to offer even more to students.”

—Vicki Craver, P ’17, ’23, ’26 Chair, Board of Trustees

How do you hope your contribution will impact future generations of Tigers?

We’re excited to see Greenwich finally have a world-class coeducational independent high school—that is not only great for GCDS, but it’s great for the town of Greenwich. And with each new graduating class of N–12 GCDS “lifers,” we expect the extended GCDS community to grow even stronger, further propelling the long-term success of the school. It’s fun to be here to see it from the start, and we’re happy to help see this vision become a reality.

Does the Swanson family have a special GCDS tradition?

We have lots of GCDS traditions, but none are likely too “special”—just the same zillion small everyday traditions that everyone at GCDS shares that makes us a community. But with a new baby who’ll someday be GCDS Class of 2040(!), we’ve got lots of years left to discover some special traditions that’ll be just ours.

The new state-of-the-art Upper School building on Stanwich Road

A student space designed for communal gathering

MODERN DESIGN SUPPORTS UPPER SCHOOL PROGRAM

T

he Upper School faculty and staff are thoroughly enjoying the new building designed by GCDS alumnus and architect Jeff Riley ’61, principal and founder of Centerbrook Architects. Created to support our unique programming, the design aligns seamlessly with our academic and co-curricular program.

Riley and his team fashioned the main hallway of the Upper School after a village street with a variety of classrooms, laboratories, music and dance studios, athletics facilities, with a space to welcome the soon-to-be-built Amanda Gesine Winklevoss Performing Arts Center. According to Riley, these “retail shops of learning” were accompanied by “sidewalk cafes” or study areas that help students stimulate

“All the spaces in our Upper School have been designed to optimize learning, and to support the collaborative culture of the Upper School Program. Drawing input from the Upper School faculty and students, and from applied teaching and research centers at leading colleges and universities, we prioritized space for students and faculty to discuss, debate, and reflect. Flexible furniture and seating areas throughout the building also promoted both organized learning and serendipitous conversations between students and faculty.”

—ANDREW RUOSS, DEAN OF ACADEMIC STUDIES

WHAT’S NEXT? To fulfill our campaign promises and culminate our comprehensive vision, GCDS plans to:

and facilitate the exchange of ideas. This not only facilitates the interconnectedness of the community, it parallels the interdisciplinary approach to learning that is critical to the application of knowledge and skills.

With sociability being at the heart of a sense of community, Riley aimed to provide students with many places to gather and interact. Roomy benches, bay-windows, and alcoves provide our Tigers with areas to watch the world go by or to find a quiet space. The vision for sociability provides our students and faculty with innumerable opportunities for collaboration, self-study, and inspiration. As students find comfortable spaces to engage with their peers and teachers, they have a literal window into the vibrancy of each class in session.

Riley purposely gave the building a “stamp of strangeness” to encourage curiosity, independent thinking, and a sense of wonder. The structures of the building—exposed steel beams, electrical conduits, and plumbing pipes throughout the building, and a plasma ball atop the sweeping “physics” staircase reflects our focus on inquiry, wonder, and student agency. Our students and faculty are grateful to be able to learn and work in this energizing environment.

Construct The Amanda Gesine Winklevoss Performing Arts Center, a 525-seat Performing Arts Center at the Upper School, ensuring students have the very best opportunities for achievement in the performing and visual arts and providing a gathering space for the entire student body for division-wide town halls, assemblies, and speakers.

Over the past few months, the architecture firm Foster + Partners completed a feasibility study that produced concept, aesthetic, and developmental designs for this exciting project. We have also made progress in upgrading electrical and mechanical systems to prepare for building.

Secure GCDS’s legacy through investments in our endowment. Specific areas of investment include: • Need-based financial aid that allows GCDS to provide

a top-quality education to deserving and qualified students, furthering GCDS’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and ensuring that all students have the same GCDS experience • Excellence in teaching to provide our faculty with

the resources to continually do their best work and to recognize those who are superior at their craft • Student programming ensuring that GCDS can be

responsive and nimble to student interests, both inside and outside the classroom

For more information, please contact the Advancement Office. advancement@gcds.net www.gcds.net/giving/gcds-first

135 $10.8M

Total Funds Raised (in millions)

120

$13.1M

TOTAL GCDS FIRST CONTRIBUTIONS To date, we have raised $119M, 85% of our goal of $135 million!

90

$11.5M $15.9M

$14.5M $12.8M

60 $9.5M $11.4M

30

0

$17.5M

FY15

FY16

FY17

FY18

FY19

FY20

FY21

FY22

FY23