Giving Back:
Fran Stier ’69
Fran Stier ’69 arrived at Friends Select School in 1966, mid-year as a tenth grader,
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during what she recalls as a disrupted year. Living at the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital at the time, Fran found invaluable support from Friends Select’s faculty, who welcomed her with patience and care. “Teacher Dick Hoffman especially was very supportive,” Fran shared. “I spent a lot of time in the library doing independent projects that year,” she added, remembering her early introduction to the intellectual freedom that would shape her Friends Select experience. |
As I reflect over 50 years to graduation, and the previous seven years while a student at Friends Select School, I see the foundation—though not fully recognized at the time—that grew to form the person I have become.
Who of us can completely benefit as a teen from the exposures during our middle- and upper-school experiences? Perhaps I was a late bloomer or simply just couldn’t switch on the light, but it was given to me at Friends Select. Whenever it switched on, it took hold and led me on a path of success in business and life with friends and family. My children also attended a Friends school closer to where we live, and I know they have received the same foundation.
My class of ’73 recently gathered to celebrate our 50th reunion, and about 60% of our class attended—many traveling great distances—to reacquaint with each other. Yes, every five years, we have been meeting and reminiscing, but this year was different and very special. There was a true interest in seeking out each other and sharing how we had traveled through life to this time. Our paths are very different from what many imagined, but in all cases they were more. What was most enjoyable was that, while together, we formed new relationships and felt the connections of our shared past of the old days at Friends Select, although we were much better behaved. I took the opportunity to engage with a few classmates with whom I was not so close at Friends Select, and in them found new friends to explore the threads that were given to us back then. The class of ’73 was and is a very special group of friends and shall remain so for years to come. Jim Wong’s presentation during his induction to the FSS Athletic Hall of Fame was an extraordinary expression of his feelings, which were heartfelt and reflected words I and many others from ’73 felt.
Visiting my alma mater was a refreshing experience. To see how the building has changed, how programs have progressed, and to see a fully integrated system of education with truly diverse economic and racial character—that is what America’s school systems should look like, and what Friends Select has become.
Private school education cannot be just for those who can afford it. There are many families who, if given the opportunity, would greatly benefit from financial aid to provide their children with the valuable foundation for life provided by Friends Select. That is why it has become important for me to pay forward and support the programs I can that will provide a diversity of children in future generations with similar foundations, knowing that society as a whole will benefit. Please do whatever you can to support Friends Select and this type of education.
