George School Community Creates Video Mission Statement

In celebration of George School’s new mission statement, a group of students, faculty, and alumni gathered in Walton Center’s Green Room on a Saturday morning in March 2009 to perform an oral interpretation of the three compelling sentences that capture the essence of George School.

The two authors of the mission statement, longtime English teacher Terry Culleton and College Guidance director and former English teacher Nancy Culleton, participated in the performance that was filmed and edited by Scott Seraydarian ’90 of Lunch Productions. The background music is a composition created and performed by Alec Gross ’00 for the video.

The oral interpretation performance was directed by musical theater teacher Maureen West. Other faculty members who performed in the piece are Jackie Coren (vocal music teacher), Ralph Lelii (English teacher and International Baccalaureate Program coordinator), Paul Machemer ’65 (math teacher), and Nancy Starmer (head of school). Kevin Davis ’77—a professional actor, teacher, and Newtown neighbor—also performed in the video.

Current students on camera were Tim Darby ’10, Kevin Hang ’09, Khadydra Hazzard ’12, Haydee Lara ’12, Jake McNichol ’12, Miranda Tarlini ’09, and Tingting Yu ’10.

The new mission statement was approved by the George School Committee at their December 2008 meeting. It reads, “With Quaker tradition as its touchstone and academic excellence at its core, George School seeks to develop citizen-scholars cheerfully committed to openness in the pursuit of truth, to service and peace, and to the faithful stewardship of the earth. We want our students to treasure learning for its own sake and to use it to benefit a diverse world. Above all, we want them to ‘let their lives speak.’”