Fostering a Lifetime of Intellectual Curiosity

Jonathan (Jon) Stott ’03 saw firsthand how the International Baccalaureate (IB) program shaped his sister’s (Cori ’98) time at George School, so it was a natural progression for him to seek out the IB program once he arrived. Jon remembers former faculty member Norm Tjossem—who was the lead dorm parent at Campbell when he was a first-year student—showing them slideshows of his travels around the world on motorcycles and bicycles.

“Norm was a big proponent of the IB program. Seeing his intellectual curiosity and creativity, changed my perspective on learning,” said Jon.

While at George School, he found the IB program attracted an eclectic group. “There were people who were more traditionally academic, others who were artistic or athletic, so it was a really interesting group that wasn’t my core friend group, which added to the flavor of the program,” Jon described. “I learned from the viewpoints of people with different backgrounds and interests. Intellectually and socially, that experience was a great benefit.”

The intellectual creativity the program instilled in him still resonates with Jon today. “In high school, college, and definitely in law school, there is a lot of pressure to learn a topic, memorize it, and perform a certain way on a test. IB tries to train you to be intellectually curious, but also very agile and creative. Those traits are critical for what I do now because clients come to me with incredibly complex problems that they have never faced before and that I have never seen before. I still use my IB training from George School to navigate these challenges on a daily basis.”

After his first few IB classes at George School, Jon realized that it was something special that would make learning more fun than he could have imagined. “Reading Shakespeare for the first time, we’d be looking to CliffsNotes for a simple answer, only for [former faculty member and IB Coordinator] Ralph [Lelii] to spend forty-five minutes working our minds to help us realize there were seven, eight, or more answers,” Jon remembered. “I had never been someone who loved writing so when I got to George School, I was a little nervous about it. IB, and Ralph in particular, taught me that my own writing style was ok.”

“I remember sitting down with Ralph one day and he took five sentences I had written and told me that he thought I could say it in one. He helped me to develop a succinct writing style in my own voice. As a lawyer, that kind of writing style is really productive and preferred by clients. What feels like a stiff, regimented, and rule-bound profession, actually has room for creativity. Going through IB and realizing that I could apply creativity to things like history and unpack problems in ways that other people can’t, made law very exciting for me. What I do every day is get problems and try to unpack and solve them in ways that other people can’t. IB seeded that skillset,” Jon said.

For his art requirement, Jon worked in stagecraft. “Graham Enos ’03 and I might have been some of the first students to use stagecraft for our IB art requirement. I remember preparing for that exam and walking away from it feeling proud of having convinced our interviewer that stagecraft was a valid art form. That supports the idea of taking something that doesn’t outwardly seem academically rigorous or challenging, and showing that a lot of great thought and creativity can go into it. Stage and lighting design can be as academic as math, physics, English, or history. All those factors made the IB program extremely engaging. It wasn’t about just getting a good grade or checking a box. You did IB because it was fun and expanded your mind. I never would have pursued a career in law without my IB experience because it would have seemed too boring to me.”

Jon is a mergers and acquisitions attorney at Dechert LLP, an international law firm, and started his career in London followed by more than ten years in Philadelphia and New York where he primarily worked with private equity clients. When the firm decided to build out their practice on the West Coast, Jon and his family moved to the Bay Area where he is currently the managing partner of the firm’s San Francisco office and playing a leading role in the firm’s expansion on the West Coast.

“I have been working with colleagues in different practice areas including litigation and funds work,” said Jon. “It has been fun learning about what they are doing and understanding their clients’ needs and challenges. It goes back to being intellectually curious and creative. There were eight lawyers when I first arrived; now there are twenty-six. Being creative and unafraid to dive into things that may not be familiar were skills I developed at George School through the IB program and the great teachers I had there.”

Pursuing the IB program taught Jon the importance of risk-taking. “IB was one of the first serious risks that I took in my life. There was so much uncertainty when I enrolled. I didn’t know if I would earn the diploma or if the hard work would pay off. But it kickstarted a path of calculated risk-taking and made me feel more confident in doing things with unclear outcomes. I tell our new associates every year when they first join us that they need to get ready for uncomfortable situations and be comfortable dealing with them. Our clients don’t call us with easy problems. They call us with problems that don’t have cookie-cutter solutions.”

“IB was also one of the first times where I found myself sitting in a room full of really smart people,” Jon continued. “That could be an intimidating prospect, but at George School, it never felt that way. It felt more like a family. IB was a really challenging thing to pursue in a really comfortable environment. When you go to college or law school, that supportive environment isn’t the same. I’m working to build the same culture of support here that I experienced at George School. I tell our first-year associates to put themselves out there. You may not know exactly what you’re doing, but you’re really smart, and you will figure it out. Talk, communicate, and take risks and the rest of us will be here to help you up if you fall.”

“My wife and I tell our nine-year-old and seven-year-old daughters that they are going to George School and should enroll in IB. Our five-year-old son is a bit young now, but we’ll tell him the same thing too,” Jon said. “George School has been so critical to my career and life. My parents still talk about the IB program to this day and it is such a source of pride for them. George School is lucky to have an IB program and the IB program is lucky to have a place like George School.”