CommUNITY Day doesn’t quite feel like a typical school day. It hasn’t for a few years now. As Upper School students enter morning assembly, no one is quite sure what to expect. It isn’t silent—this is an Upper School gathering, after all. A group of musicians moves onto the stage—guitars, basses, brass, percussion—and the room begins to focus.

What began as a tech-free experiment has grown into something more expansive: a day set apart from the usual rhythm of classes and assignments, where students gather not to be evaluated, but to explore. And at a time when many young people are navigating rising levels of anxiety, social pressure, and uncertainty about the future, schools need to be ready to address these challenges proactively.

The Quaker testimony of Community calls upon us to support one another in our journeys, which lends itself naturally to ameliorate some of the conditions of the modern age. In the Meetinghouse, Friends gather in silence to worship as a ritual of shared trust and the belief that we are stronger together than we are apart. By nurturing the relationships and bonds we share with one another, we develop a greater fellowship with one another and with the world, empowering us to seek justice. That work can be difficult, especially when we feel divided or small.

“We need to be working together to steward the AFS community in ways that allow it to be a homeplace for us all,” shared Upper School Director Brendon Jobs. “We need spaces to go to find rest, but also places that challenge us to grow.”

For Mikael Yisrael, Director of Equity, Justice and Inclusion at AFS, and the spiritual leader of CommUNITY Day, the development is critical. “Cultivating joy is a learned skill,” he reflects. “It’s mental, spiritual, emotional, physical, and relational work. Joy is a muscle that needs to be exercised. Community is less a destination, more a process.”

This year, that space took on a new form: a kind of “field day” for the arts, grounded in a central theme—Agency Through the Arts—and brought to life through a partnership with Philly Sound Exchange. Founded in 2018 with the goal of bringing city and suburban high school students together to use music as a common language for engaging in conversations around race, equity, and social justice. Part of that work is done by engaging students in collaborative music and video projects that reflect their diverse identities, helping them to shift perspectives on the world and their place in it through exposure to peers from different communities.

The musicians on the stage that morning were from Philly Sound Exchange, made up of high schoolers from Philadelphia who had been practicing together for months. Their performance on the stage is intended to be fun and engaging, featuring dramatic line deliveries, musical numbers and explosive guitar riffs, but leveled out by an intentional focus on bridging divides in community. 

“It forced us to go places that were difficult,” reflected Theo Parker ’26. “But that’s art. Art helps foster community by making sure people are truthful about what they want to say.”

At the end of the performance, there was an open question. The final scene of the performance had not yet been written. And it was Upper School students' job to finish it.

From there, the Upper School dispersed into studios run by visiting artists from across Philadelphia. With guidance from Kristal Oliver, an Emmy- and GRAMMY-nominated songwriter, that seed became the starting point for a morning of creative work that was collaborative, improvisational, and deeply personal. In one room, students experimented with songwriting, shaping fragments of experience into lyrics and melody. Down the hall, others stepped into drama improv, building scenes in real time, trusting one another to carry the moment forward. In the art room and outside spaces, a mural began to take shape—layer by layer, voice by voice—under the guidance of Anthony Carlos Molden. Elsewhere, students explored poetry with Ursula Rucker, photography and videography with media professional Stephen Parker, and instrumental collaboration in a jam session led by GRAMMY-winning musician Josh Lee.

"I'll be honest, I was scared to put myself out there at first," shared Aleena Pilgrim-Brown '27. A talented singer and stage presence well-known at AFS, Aleena still admitted to being nervous about getting involved in this program that all of Upper School was being thrown into that morning. "But at a certain point, you just have to channel that bravery and get up on stage."

The work was varied, but every student had a part to play, whether they were creating, performing, or providing feedback. When the group reconvened at the conclusion of the morning, they were all called upon to provide their piece of the final puzzle. A beautiful song built in collaboration, a capstone dramatic performance to pull the strings of story together, a musical jam session with many of the Philly Sound Exchange members, the first drafts of poems breathed into the air for the first time. In only an hour, the students had leaned on one another to create something unique and special, more polished than they thought possible at first.

“Community only begins to materialize when you’re putting yourself out there,” shared Aleena. “If you sit with the same people every day, you’re not going to make change.”

The programming is only part of the story. There are no grades attached to a spontaneous scene, no rubric for a line of poetry, no single “right” way to contribute. Instead, students are asked to take risks: to speak, to listen, to try something unfamiliar—and to do so alongside peers they may not know well. 

"CommUNITY Day does not create community, but it does make it visible," reflects Upper School Director Brendon Jobs. "It enriches community. At a school committed to preparing students not only to know more, but to do good and live with purpose, this kind of experience matters deeply. We hope the day gives students space to reflect, create, and consider how voice, expression, and imagination can become meaningful forms of agency.”