I am very pleased to announce that Rosanne Mistretta has been named to a new position at AFS as Director of Experiential Learning, starting in July. She will be directing a school-wide approach that connects students in substantive ways to hands-on experiences and extended learning in the outside world, guiding them to discern who they are and who they might become in college and beyond.
We know that children thrive in their development when their daily experience is expansive, rich and varied, a profound truth that is lost in too many school settings where narrow mastery and testing of basic skills predominate. That is why we are so intent on the range and quality of intellectual, creative, social, sensory and reflective experiences in the daily lives of all our students. Experiential learning, with its focus on direct learning, is a central theme of our vision for education. Here are some notable and varied examples:
AFS Outside has become a robust exploration of the role of the natural world in the lives of children. The sensory experience of the outdoors in all seasons, of growing flowers and vegetables, of exploring the life of our creek and many other activities add an indelible dimension to our students’ development. These experiences help children cultivate a sense of the physical world as an essential foundation to their advanced study of math, science, the arts and creative writing. We are excited to extend AFS Outside’s reach with the opening of the Headwaters Discovery Playground this spring.
Immersion in the creative and performing arts connects mind, body and spirit: in movement and theater, in exploration of myriad media in the art studios and in the experience of playing and singing a wide repertoire of music in our choral and instrumental ensembles. A walk through the Upper School corridors right now shows an astonishing range of accomplishment in the visual arts, all born of the reflective, meditative work of painstaking craftsmanship and creativity in the art rooms during class and in extended free time.
Our rapidly expanding offerings in design, engineering, robotics and “maker spaces” are challenging students to solve a wide range of practical problems in both real and virtual spaces. I was with the Upper School Robotics team Tuesday night as they were in the final hours before the deadline of creating the robot they will enter in competition next month. The robot built this year is the most sophisticated design (created in 3-D CAD software) and build yet by our team, now in its fifth year of competition.
Our nationally recognized work in diversity and inclusion, which makes children capable of navigating and thriving in an increasingly diverse world, is experiential at its heart. From the earliest ages, we explore the varieties of experiences and perspectives present in the classroom and as represented in the curriculum, learning to use multiple points of view to cultivate social intelligence, cultural competence, empathy and higher-order thinking.
And, of course, Meeting for Worship and the generous use of silence throughout the day is an essential experience, one rare for children in any setting. Here, they learn to be comfortable with their own quiet selves, are given space to make connections and form thoughts and learn from each other in sharing reflection and messages of deeper meaning.
Our passion for thinning the walls of the school deepened with the ECCO program, launched six years ago, which has guided students to cancer research internships at Fox Chase Cancer Center, language and cultural immersion in South America and WHYY’s journalism programs, just to name a few. This year, we launched the MedEx program, a year-long group mentoring program for seven 10th graders who are meeting monthly with five doctors who are leaders in their fields.
Adolescents benefit greatly from being out in the world, collaborating with adults who are passionate practitioners in their fields, firing their imaginations for what might be their meaningful place in the world. School in the 21st century should be about guiding students to individualized learning experiences that deepen their interests, guide them toward next steps in college and beyond and grow their skills of collaboration, communication and navigation of the wider world.
In her new role, Rosanne has been charged with overseeing and growing the ECCO program, developing a range of learning cohorts like MedEx in fields such as law, social justice and entrepreneurship. She will help us expand our regional, national and international partnerships in ways that can provide avenues of student experiences and work with our Upper School leadership to fully embed the ethos of experiential learning into our overall program.
I can think of no better leader for helping us grow more fully into our vision for experiential learning at AFS. As a long-time Lower School science teacher and leader of the AFS Outside program, Rosanne is a nationally recognized teacher and designer of curriculum. She has proven herself to be an exceptional builder of partnerships for extending our reach and resources as an educational community. She is passionate about what is possible, given the full-time opportunity to build our landscape of learning for AFS students.
Taken together, a range of rich experiences makes for a powerful education indeed. I am proud to be head of school in a community with such a deep vision of what education should be in the 21st century. Please join me in joyfully welcoming Rosanne Mistretta to her new role, opening new doors of experience for AFS students and teachers.
