iSelectLearning: Friends Select Develops Signature Distance Learning Platform

In late February, as news of the COVID-19 pandemic traveled as quickly as the virus itself, Michael Gary and Friends Select’s administration began discussing how the pandemic could affect Friends Select’s community. Once Philadelphia’s first cases were reported, the school had already established a transition plan to a distance learning model.

Michael Gary Speaks

It feels as if we’ve experienced two pandemics at once. The sense of isolation and uncertainty from the mandated quarantine during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic paired with the frustration and pain caused by continued racial injustices have been challenging to handle at the same time. Friends Select’s long-standing promise to extend our values beyond the school community fills me with hope that together, we will come out of these experiences stronger than before.

Alumni Helping Communities 
Respond to COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, John Chin ’83 P’15, ’18 of Philadelphia’s Chinatown, Mike Fitts ’71 of Tulane University, and Wendell Pritchett ’84 of University of Pennsylvania all had a profound impact on their respective communities.

Honoring Friends Select’s Recent Retirees

A tribute to six long-standing faculty members who recently retired from Friends Select: Paula Cairo, Elaine Criden, Bob McCarthy, Debby Rickards, Anne Thomforde Thomas, and Martha Van Nuis.

Participating in Election Day and the Democratic Process

As a community, we have been thinking a lot about the upcoming election on November 3, and what it means for us as a Quaker school to be able to participate in this fundamentally important civic process. Recently, my administration and I received a heartfelt letter from our upper school affinity groups (Asian Student Union, Black Student Union, Jewish Student Union, Qlub, Quake, Feminism Club), White Anti-Racism Group, and other upper school students.

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