Our Town, Our Community chronicles the making of Our Town, which was performed in the newly renovated Blauvelt Theatre in November 2018. Though it was an upper school production, Our Town featured participation from across the Friends Select community; upper, middle, and lower school students participated and performed, along with members of the faculty and staff. In addition, alumnus Noah Herman '02 returned to Friends Select to direct the play, and was assisted by alumna Mya Flood ‘14. The making-of documentary was created by Friends Select upper school filmmaking students.

Recently, lower and upper school Mandarin students from Friends Select School performed in the capstone event for the STARTALK Chinese Teacher Advancement Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

When I opened my office door on August 1 the room was completely empty. Completely. I knew it wouldn’t take long for that to change because all of my stuff was on its way from the suburbs, but I took a moment to look around and imagined how I would set things up and just what I could do with this wonderful piece of real estate in our cozy building. 

Being “in the city and of the city” is deeply connected to our Quaker values. It’s who we are; it’s what we know how to do best. Advance Friends Select, our strategic plan, provides a path for us to follow in order to develop external partnerships to meet teaching and learning goals. Our Center City location provides unending opportunities to leverage these partnerships in order to create authentic learning experiences for our students.

The implementation strategy for our strategic plan, Advance Friends Select, received strong support from our Board of Trustees during our November meeting. Now is the time for us as a community—alumni/ae, parents and grandparents, and friends—to join together with exciting anticipation to advance the institution we all love.