Hard Work, Dedication + Brave Risk Taking

Second grade students teach tree pose to the whole school at Friday morning All School Meeting.

Perhaps because it’s fall and my mind always goes here. The leaves are falling and field hockey season is in full swing, and the words, “nothing worth getting was ever easy” ring in my head. These are the words I would say to my teams, usually yelling at them while they were running sprints or shared with passionate conviction during a half time talk. Drilled into the minds and hearts of my players, we developed a shared understanding that in order to make your big dreams come true, you had to work for it each and every day. Not just when the game whistle blew, but also every minute of practice, of pregame mental preparation, and of preseason workouts. Each difficulty just made the next challenge easier to overcome. Every day, if you gave everything you had to give, you’d get better. You’d be ready, ready for anything. 

I find that same spirit of hard work and dedication here at GUS. Certainly with our teachers, who always go the extra mile to make sure every student gets what they need and absolutely with our administrators, who have worked tirelessly to keep our school chugging through a pandemic. These days have not been easy and we have been tested in ways we never could have imagined, but here we are - coming out on the other side, ready for what’s next.

The value of pushing through difficulty to become stronger is also very present in our academic program. Creating a community where students can bravely take risks is the cornerstone of our program. Whether it’s taking part in a dance recital, making an announcement at All School Meeting, or playing on a team for the first time, students learn to see the value in pushing themselves and stepping out of their comfort zone. In the classroom, opportunities like deeper and further in our upper school math program gives students agency to challenge themselves by either spending additional time with a particular concept to deepen their understanding or to use that concept to explore further applications.

Deeper and further have also become the inspiration for our DEI efforts. It’s not enough to sit back, we must truly examine not only our thinking, but also our practice, to ensure we are not just talking the talk, but walking the walk around our commitment to DEI. 

We have also seen our community step up and make GUS a priority for philanthropic giving, as you’ll see in our annual Report of Giving. When times are tough, it’s hard to dig into your pockets and yet, the GUS community continues to rally to support our small school.

In so many ways, GUS is defined by the idea of hard work and dedication. We are a community that consistently and continually goes above and beyond. From our teachers to our students, from our classrooms to our athletic fields, from our families to our alumni body, as we work to mean well, speak well, and do well, we inherently give all we have to give. So while we eagerly look forward to the days when masks and distancing are behind us, we value the way we have come together and what we have learned through the challenges we have faced. We have made the most of every opportunity. We have faced every challenge and we are ready to make our dreams come true, not just for our students, but also for our small school. This is a special time to be at GUS and big things are on the horizon. We look forward to welcoming these brighter days, confident in the knowledge that we are ready for anything and everything. 

Trust and Go Forward,

Gretchen Forsyth
Head of School