LETTER FROM BOARD PRESIDENT

Letter from the Board President

TJ is a special place. I still remember my first visit to TJ as a prospective sixth grader. Having never received anything less than an A at Bierbaum Elementary (in the Mehlville School District), my mom went searching for a middle school that could suitably prepare me for high school and then college. At the time, finding TJ was no easy feat. Hidden behind the overrun honeysuckle, Main Building was not visible from Lindbergh Boulevard, so many residents of South County St. Louis were unaware that the best place to receive a college-preparatory education was hidden just beyond the white stone wall and dense undergrowth.

We made the drive north on Lindbergh from Mehlville to Sunset Hills and made the right into TJ—a right I still take on my way to Board meetings 25 years later—to reveal Sayers, Gables, the colored cottages, and of course, Main Building, the gemstone of TJ’s campus. Jon Riezman ‘02 showed me around that day in an ill-fitting coat and poorly-tied tie. I came to learn that he tied it that way intentionally, as a form of mild protest for the dress code. (I’m happy we did away with ties every day.) After first period Latin 1, we attended English 7 with Ms. Ballard (who would become Mrs. Roth by the time I was an 8th grader), where the 7th grade had just finished Romeo and Juliet. The two star-crossed lovers had tragically taken their lives in the final dramatic act of the play, and Ms. Ballard presided over a discussion analyzing why the story had ended that way. Ms. Ballard had handed me a copy of the play that I could page through as I listened. I said to myself: • I have absolutely no idea how to read the language on these pages. • The students in the class appear to have the ability to. I want that. That day set into motion a chain of events that has led me to today . . . sitting in my West Loop Chicago office, a lifelong reader and learner, writing to the TJ Community as its Board Chair, trying to concisely convey what TJ has meant to me to a community that does not tolerate poor prose. If you had asked me shortly after college what TJ has meant to me, I would have made reference to the preparation for college. My first two years at Northwestern were without question easier than my last two years of TJ. I remember feeling deeply indebted to the TJ faculty for preparing me far more holistically for independent learning than my college dorm-mates, who were by all accounts far more intelligent than I, but somehow unable to navigate a collegiate, selfdirected learning environment that was second nature to me. Now that I’m approaching 40, an age that I find can be either old and out of touch or young and naive depending on my audience, a new level of appreciation for my time at TJ is beginning to reveal itself. My wife, Jordan, and I have been together for over 10 years. We welcomed Harper, our 2 year-old, into our lives during the pandemic. I have a job that requires my full-self everyday. The currents of everyday life appear to become swifter and more unpredictable as I age and the world grows ever more complex. In a time of growing uncertainty and volatility—both in my life and in the world around me—I find a calm when I look inward, a calm whose origins I can trace back to my little seventh-grade self, practicing memory work, solving algebra equations, or revising O.R. This calm is a byproduct of the learning process cultivated at TJ. Rather than any specific course or piece of content, the way TJ taught me how to think is the enduring feature of a TJ education. Year after year of deep study on complex topics in preparation for a deep, faculty-led dialogue (or perhaps a pop quiz) creates a habit that has become intractable as I have hurdled into middle age. As life presents unexpected challenges, that habit becomes the source of calm and strength to muster the intellect, creativity, and persistence to navigate life’s unpredictable currents. With 20 years of distance from my time as a student, the true value of the TJ experience is only beginning to reveal itself to me. I am who I am because of TJ.

This habit has served me well as TJ’s Board Chair for two unprecedented years. Throughout this time, I have tried to keep TJ’s essence at the core of the important governing work the Trustees have been asked to do. This essence is no better encapsulated than in the final sentence of our mission statement:

Through the strongest possible collegepreparatory program and within a nurturing community, students develop a responsibility for their own learning and a desire to lift up the world with beauty and intellect. Like all organizations, TJ must grow and evolve as time moves forward. I believe–and feel proud that—we are doing that. We have grappled with uncomfortable truths about our past. We are expanding our enrollment and philanthropic efforts. We are actively reflecting on and debating how to strengthen our DEIB practices and policies. At the time of this writing, we are in search of our 6th Head of School. Through these changes, we have held true to our mission and keep it at the center of all we do. That mission compels us to use the crucible of the TJ self-directed classroom experience to prepare TJ students for not just the next four years of college, but for the decades to come thereafter. That purpose was obvious and noticeable 25 years ago when I was a prospective sixth grader. It is still at the forefront of all we are doing today. In September, I had the opportunity to visit classes for the first time since the pandemic. Sitting in Middle Classroom, I was admittedly a little hot as the St. Louis sun poured through the large windows. While the class was not in formal attire, they did look sharp. I peered out across the front lawn and could see Lindbergh Boulevard, Main Building no longer hidden by honeysuckle. As the students scanned and then analyzed a Shakespearean Sonnet, well-prepared after an evening of study, I was transported back to my time as a student. A lot has changed in 25 years, but the magic inside the four walls of a TJ classroom still thrives.

As these TJ students become TJ graduates, they will join an alumni community armed with the habit of lifelong learning to navigate life’s ever unfolding journey. Together, we will strive to do the work we are called upon in our mission—to lift the world with beauty and intellect.

Jimmy Holloran President, Board of Trustees