MR. IMWALLE’S ADVISMENT GROUP
year-olds where to hang their backpacks and how to use the moveable letters properly. Following behavior modeled by their teachers, they are encouraged to nurture and develop relationships with the younger students.
If shared strength of values are the ties that bind, then the diversity of the current Summit community greatly enriches everyone. As a fifth grade student in Patti Kenney’s religion class, do you wonder how children from other religions pray? How do Islamic children celebrate Ramadan? You probably do not need to find your answer in a textbook or on the Internet. Chances are that a representative of that culture, a primary source, is sharing the classroom with you. “Nisha was always given an opportunity to talk about her religion,” says her mother.
Sister Lois Ann Meyer remembers teaching in the Montessori in the mid-60s. “Families were very strong. The school had an exclusivity and an inclusivity. The older children would watch out for their younger brothers and sisters, and the little siblings of their friends.” Smaller and more homogeneous, the sense of family at The Summit developed naturally. “So many things were not even questioned at that time,” says Sister Lois Ann, “by students, teachers or parents. We shared Mass, prayer and the Eucharist together.”
Likewise, Amy Burte ’14 invited the whole seventh grade class to her bat mitzvah at the Isaac M. Wise Temple. “I read from the Torah and the Rabbi led the service,” says Amy. ”I had a huge party for everyone afterward.”
A testament to the strength of The Summit’s commitment, this sense of family has continued even as the school has expanded and the world has contracted. Meghan Glass ’12 echoes the sentiment of much of the student body when she says, “I leave home to go to home.” How has the feeling of home been able to prosper over the years? If not religion or sense of family, what binds The Summit community together and why were the current fourth graders so mindful of it?
Every year, Rosie Alway’s eighth grade English class studies an intensive unit on the Holocaust (see article, page 21.) In Fouad Khoury ’13’s second month attending The Summit, he was asked to write papers and poems while reading Wiesel’s Night. He spoke to his mother that evening, and then approached Mrs. Alway after class the next day. “I have a story, too,” he said.
The answer becomes obvious when you ask new families who are neither legacy nor Catholic about their decision to choose The Summit for their children. “I wanted a private school that emphasized character-building,” says Sadia Shabbir, mother of seventh grader Nisha. “My child should feel at home. Coming from a school with a smaller number of children, I did not want her to feel overwhelmed.”
“Mrs. Alway sent home a personal letter to us. She made us feel so empowered,” says Mrs. Khoury. “Within two days she had gathered the entire eighth grade for a presentation by my husband to share our personal history.” The Khoury family is Greek Orthodox and from Palestine. This personal dialogue about religion and culture could not have occurred at a secular school – or a school without a vibrant sense of community. “My children feel very comfortable here. They are not afraid to express their background,” says Mrs. Khoury. “I was pleasantly surprised by the eagerness of Fouad’s fellow students to be educated about the rest of the world.”
Recent Summit graduate and Stanford freshman, Debha Amatya ’10, elaborates. “I was raised in a Nepalese household that followed the traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism. My beliefs have always been rooted in these eastern traditions, but my parents emphasized the value of being open minded. When I began to look at Summit as my potential high school, I realized that it offered two very unique things that similar schools did not: The heart of The Summit, physically and symbolically, is the chapel. Integral to The Summit experience is the holistic development of its students through a character building program.” New families actively seeking an emphasis on character find The Summit. “Regardless of what religion you are,” says Lama Khoury, mother of a child in every division, “there is a universal language of values.”
Viewing a situation from many perspectives is a prized skill at The Summit. Over and over, teachers specializing in math, science, literature and art at every level consistently provide students opportunities to cultivate that ability because it is so important. How lucky are we to have Hindu students, children from Guatemala and Summit families from Egypt willing to share their stories with us! 12