Above Board: It Feels Like Purpose
“It doesn’t feel like work. It feels like purpose.”
Several years ago, in the thick of an exciting and labor-intensive period of work for Friends Select’s board of trustees that included acquiring and creating the new upper school STEAM Building, then board clerk Ingrid Lakey ’89, P’27 thanked the board for their dedication and efforts. One trustee responded, “It doesn’t feel like work. It feels like purpose.”
A deep sense of purpose—palpable both at the board level and among Friends Select’s students, families, faculty, and staff—drew me to join the board in the first place and then say “yes” when Ingrid was ready to pass the torch of clerkship.
Friends education is not new to me. My parents came to Quakerism from their experiences in two different Quaker boarding schools, and as I was growing up, my family was active in the Norristown Friends Meeting. Although I am a product of public education, I have witnessed the profound impact Friends education has had over the years on my husband, daughter, and most recently, grandson.
That impact is based, in part, on the practice of discerning one another’s gifts in community. During my years as a teacher, librarian, administrator, and trustee in several Friends schools, others in my community have helped me see, understand, and grow my leadership. An essential part of teaching is encouraging students to identify and use their strengths to develop agency, voice, and a sense of hope. At Friends Select, excellence in teaching and learning is evident in the ways students from lower, middle, and upper school come together to effect change—from creating model designs for the Back Lot Transformation to developing our FSS Community Pantry in response to food insecurity and to encouraging the board to add an environmental sustainability pillar to our Advance Friends Select strategic plan. Our students and faculty discern, nurture, and perhaps most importantly, leverage one another’s gifts in service to the broader community.
As the renowned author, theologian, and civil rights advocate Howard Thurman said, “Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Our purpose at Friends Select has never been more vital.
By Nancy van Arkel, Board Clerk
