Recently, a colleague at one of our schools asked me how I would summarize enrollment management. While I cannot recall my precise response, I cobbled together something about trying to create a community in sync with its school’s mission and values that secured short and long-term sustainability.
In the days that followed, I became progressively dissatisfied with my off-the-cuff response. I found myself struggling to fit many vital pieces of our current roles into that summary.
Creating school-wide understanding of our work didn’t fall easily into my definition. Neither did our need, outside our pragmatic objectives, to help advancement, communications and the Head of School with their work.
Most importantly, I failed to capture how important it is that we help families and help society through our roles. We seek to live out lives of principle, and have competing values jockey for our attention, and for a place amidst our highest priorities.
My transition from public school to private school in 1978 was transformational. When I feel at my best as an admission professional, I am speaking to that experience from the heart. Particularly as we seek to design change in our schools that reinforces and reflects our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and justice, keeping our society, our best selves and our highest purposes at the center of our journey is vital.
Conveying the beauty and magic of a great education, the extent to which our schools change lives, and how our schools create great citizens must stay at the center of our work, our thinking and our lives.
Peter AndersonDirector of Enrollment Management
The Episcopal Academy