The Rivers Professional Community Prepares for the Year Ahead

“Happy new year!” said Head of School Ryan Dahlem as he greeted the returning community. He shared news and updates about community members and spoke about his summer experiences, from an exciting excursion to Boston by T to attend the Celtics’ victory celebration to a moment on the beach in Brewster when the receding tide revealed grasses growing under the water’s surface.

That served as a handy metaphor for the subject of hidden potential, which Dahlem encouraged those present to seek out in their students and in one another. He used the book Hidden Potential by Adam Grant as a jumping-off point to describe two aspects of potential that he hopes our community will realize and maximize this year: culture, and its role in outperforming expectations, and relationships, characterized as “not just having the best pieces but the best glue.”

Dahlem spoke about the school’s institutional priorities for the 2024–25 school year: the continuing AISNE accreditation process, including the fall campus visit from the AISNE team; the updating of the Rivers mission statement, the ongoing work on the new strategic plan, scheduled for launch in spring 2025; nourishing relationships; and—crucially—the upcoming election. This last topic would be revisited in greater detail the following day, in a session jointly led by Dahlem and Jenny Jun-lei Kravitz, director of institutional equity. 

New professional community members were introduced and welcomed. A highlight of the first day’s session was the sharing out of professional enrichment grants. These grants helped send professional community members to locales as far-flung as France, Alaska, Quebec, Catalonia, and more, as they pursued varying interests that brought them back to campus with fresh perspectives, new knowledge, and a renewed sense of purpose. 

After lunch, guest speaker Daniel Crump, LICSW, spoke about the “anxious generation” and creating a sense of belonging in advisory. As he has in years past, Crump will present support sessions throughout the year as part of the Rivers-McLean Hospital partnership. 

The next day, Director of Enrollment Management Yassine Talhaoui presented a data-driven overview of the most recent admission season and the resulting enrollment numbers. At a time when some independent schools are struggling with enrollment, he said, the news at Rivers is all good: application numbers continue to be strong, the admit rate is down, and yield has exceeded expectations. Moreover, the yield rate among students of color is higher than ever, said Talhaoui, thanks to various recruitment initiatives and the fact that Rivers is manifestly the welcoming, inclusive community it strives to be.

Dahlem returned to the podium to open the conversation about the presidential election that has so dominated the news in recent months. During the election season, he reminded the community, it is important to remember: We are a school; we are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that does not take a partisan position; we uphold our institutional values including inclusion, belonging, respect, and collaboration; and we exist in a broader political landscape.

Apropos of the first point, Dahlem said that the election holds unparalleled opportunities for our students to learn about our country, our electoral processes, and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, all within a nonpartisan learning environment. The value of this “teachable moment” is too great to ignore. 

Dahlem then introduced Kravitz to talk about the more potentially challenging aspects of political discussions. Kravitz took the opportunity to introduce this year’s Equity and Engagement theme: Engaging in Citizenship Together. This intentionally builds on the foundation of last year’s theme, Engaging Across Differences, in which students and community members explored a few core concepts:

This year, said Kravitz, the school’s programming will “seek to define citizenship as a verb. Together, we will consider both individual and collective responsibility for action within larger systems of power and justice in society, including civic engagement connected to the election season.”

Kravitz spoke about the importance of civil discourse as we approach the sometimes fraught or emotional topics raised by the election. As we enter into conversation, she said, never assume others’ political identity or opinions. Approach such conversations with empathy, openness, and intellectual humility, she continued. If criticism must be expressed, do it in a way that advances the conversation, rather than disrupting it. And try to keep the focus on policy, ideas, and actions, not individuals. 

Kravitz gave the audience some tools for lowering the temperature when discussions threaten to boil over, such as asking “curious questions,” pausing for a beat before responding, and creating space for multiple perspectives. And she shared a few upcoming dates for programming around the theme of citizenship, including debriefing sessions following the debate(s) and Critical Conversations for professional community members. 

Other sessions throughout the two-day event focused on more nuts-and-bolts issues such as the employee handbook, the crisis alert system, and technology updates. It was a full and busy 48 hours, signaling a return to the bustle of the school year after the more leisurely weeks of summer. But as professional community members greeted one another joyfully and swapped updates about their time off, it seemed clear that all present shared a sentiment Dahlem had offered in his opening remarks: “It’s wonderful to be together again.”