Head of College

THE ST PETERS EXPERIENCE

Pictured (left to right): Cherise Marks (College Vice-Captain), Meg Hosftee (College Captain), Tim Koztur (Head of College), Jacob Deeb (College Captain), and Charlile Hoare (College Vice-Captain).

TIM KOTZUR Head of College I was fortunate to spend the second half of Term 2 this year on sabbatical in the United States. As part of my sabbatical, I undertook some short courses of study at three American universities. I thoroughly enjoyed my brief experience of being a student again. One of the courses that I completed was an Executive Leadership Program for NonProfits at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Topics explored during the week included strategy, business models for impact, scaling up for excellence, crisis management, fostering collaboration, creating a high performance culture, balancing business and social objectives, using story as a way of leading, and acting with power. One of the most thoughtprovoking topics of the course was around value proposition. It got me thinking about the value proposition of a St Peters education. We know from our own research that the following are all important elements of the College’s value proposition: • high academic outcomes, • high quality teachers, • safe, supportive, friendly and caring environment, • values and character development, • co-education, • excellent facilities and resources, • wide range of cocurricular opportunities, • our College culture and sense of community, • equipping and empowering students to take control of their lives and future. The course professor challenged us to go deeper as we endeavoured to define and understand each of our organisation’s value proposition. As I described St Peters to the other members of the group I was working in (none of whom worked in an educational setting) one of my classmates who hadn’t said very much up until that point said, "Listening to you talk about St Peters I think the key aspect of your value proposition is the student experience." My classmate’s response really resonated with me. The St Peters value proposition is all the elements that have been listed above, which combined to create our distinctive and unique student experience. My conversations with students this term have highlighted just how much our young people value their St Peters experience. Different parts of it resonate more deeply with different students and different year levels. To me that’s the real power of the St Peters student experience—because we offer so much, it provides our students with the opportunity to have a diverse yet personalised experience. It is our distinctive student experience that allows our 2022 College Captain, Jacob Deeb, to get up at Assembly and confidently and proudly say, "I love St Peters. There’s no other school I’d rather be at."