April 29, 2019

Dear Stanwich Parents,

Earlier last week those of us able to attend the Town Hall heard exciting updates from Adam Rohdie and the GCDS administrative team concerning:
  • the positive enrollment projections for the coming academic year;
  • confirmations of the completion dates for the Phase 1 and 2 building construction and field creation;
  • the program roll-out for Grade 9 & 10;
  • as well as the administrative changes and expectations for the coming year on Old Church Road. 
Clearly the year ahead will mark a great leap forward not only for GCDS, but also for the Town of Greenwich. Please find a link here to the slides Mr. Rohdie shared with our families on the 24th.

Stanwich Class of 2019
In this happy time of transition, we congratulate our seniors with their many college acceptances and announce their (mostly first choice) selections for the next - even more exciting - chapter in their education. In the following parentheses for each, I have listed their destinations for their senior internships next month.

Tomas Gibbons - Quinnipiac University (Mt. Sinai Hospital)
Schuyler Dubitsky - New York University (Awbury)
Ted Frascella - Princeton University (Performance Physical Therapy)
Thomas Goundrey - Quinnipiac University (Contract Construction)
Lily Grady - University of Vermont, Rubenstein School of Environmental Science (Audubon)
Sky Huang - University of Michigan (Haibei Sports at Jaixing University)
Katie Knepper - Wagner College (King Kong on Broadway)
Cullen Murphy - University of Connecticut, Honors College (Arestia Capital)  
Luis Orozco - Bates College (Fuller Center)
Gaby Wakim - Bucknell University (Oracle)

With a busy month of May filled with final projects, internships, exams, and AP's awaiting this great Stanwich class, we look forward to celebrating their graduations with their families on May 31. This year's graduation speaker can reflect upon one of the most serious issues of our destabilized times. Sasha Chanoff serves as founder and Executive Director of RefugePoint, a non-profit organization that works to provide lasting solutions to the world's most at-risk refugees. Prior to launching RefugePoint in 2005, Mr. Chanoff consulted with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kenya and worked with the International Organization for Migration, identifying refugees in danger and working with a range of governments on refugee protection issues.
 
A Wesleyan graduate, Mr. Chanoff earned Masters from the Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the Friedman School of Nutrition, Science, and Policy. Among his many awards, recognitions and prizes, Mr. Chanoff received social entrepreneur fellowships from the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, Ashoka, and Echoing Green; accepted the Charles Bronfman Humanitarian Prize, the Harvard Center for Public Leadership, the Gleitsman International Activist Award; and is a White House "Champion of Change". Mr. Chanoff advises "The Good Lie Fund", the philanthropic arm of the film The Good Lie about the resettlement of the Sudanese Lost Boys and has appeared on 60 Minutes. Based on a critical dilemma he faced during a US rescue operation to avoid a massacre in the Congo, Mr. Chanoff co-authored From Crisis to Calling: Finding Your Moral Center in the Toughest Decisions about defining moral decision points in leadership.
 
Generosity
On behalf of all Stanwich employees, I want to thank the PA for all they have done this year to appreciate and brighten the lives of our teachers. Most recently under the able leadership of Vanessa Curry, the Faculty Appreciation Luncheon on April 12 was a particularly memorable event with great (both flavorful and in quantity) food and beautiful decorations.

My thanks to all those Stanwich families who contributed so generously to both the 2019 Annual Fund effort and to the Pat Young Heart of Stanwich Endowment. The Stanwich legacy - reflected in your contributions - will be recognized and appreciated in GCDS's Annual Report this autumn. If you have not as yet done so, please make your gift on the Stanwich School website.
 
Between now and then, we hope you are planning to attend the Stanwich Parent Party at L'Escale on Friday, May 17. Be your best and help others be their best ... on the dance floor! Bring your Stanwich Heart and your dancing shoes as we celebrate our Stanwich community -With love and a great party. No fundraising - just fun - together. Please click here to RSVP, or donate a teacher ticket.

"Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward."-2 John 1:8.

Sincerely,
Charles Sachs
Head of School