By Suzanne Gorman, Head of Downtown Campus

It doesn’t feel like fall, but apparently it is (based on the calendar, and the fact that fall sports wrap up in the coming two weeks and “winter sports” get underway)! We’ve returned from Fall Break right into some busy weeks. Next week we have the PSAT for 10th and 11th graders on Wednesday, which is the precipitating event for the noon dismissal for all students. We’re excited to be taking advantage of the afternoon to work together with our Goshen colleagues within academic departments, always rich professional development as we continue to align the K-12 curriculum.

Next week also brings the end of the first quarter, with grade reports coming out on Friday, October 19th and Parent-Teacher Conferences two weeks later (Thursday, November 1st in the afternoon/evening and Friday, November 2nd all day). I told the freshmen this week that they are almost 1/16th of the way through their high school careers! 

On the Admissions front, we enjoyed visiting Goshen for a Middle School parent coffee (that 7th and 8th graders also attended) about the High School. My favorite part is always the breakout session with just the 8th grade students afterward – it’s great fun hearing their questions and talking to them about the experiences here. In addition, we’ve been glad to welcome more than a dozen 8th grade shadows over the past couple of weeks. Yesterday, we had a particularly special visitor, all the way from China! “Dom” (his American name) and his mother are visiting from Hangzhou. Alexandra and I met them last spring when we visited China to work on school partnerships and international student recruiting. Dom is interested in starting 9th grade at St. Francis next fall and already has very good English skills. His mother is a preschool/elementary school principal in Hangzhou, so she got to visit the Goshen Campus while Dom was at the High School.

I will be gone next Monday – Wednesday (as will Alexandra), serving on an ISACS Accreditation Team for a Progressive school just north of Chicago. Many of you may remember that we went through our own ISACS visit almost exactly a year ago. It’s always fascinating to get a deep look into another school, and I’ll share more about it next week!