Who We Are, What We Believe, and Where We Are Going

As I shared last spring at our Annual Meeting, an important and essential GUS question - who am I? - guided our strategy and planning throughout the 2022-2023 school year. This theme for our first and seventh grade years became the cornerstone for a year of self-reflection and collaboration with faculty, students, parents, graduates, former parents, past faculty members, and board members alike. Through this process, as a community, we reconnected with our core values, reaffirmed our purpose, and even pushed ourselves further to examine - who do we want to be?

As we begin the 2023-2024 school year, who we are as a school and what we believe is clearer than ever, and I’m proud to share our new mission, vision, and values - a collective effort by many members of the GUS community:

• Our mission: Through the joys of learning, we inspire young people to be engaged and curious stewards of the world around them.

• Our vision: To empower a generation of young people to do better.

• Our values: Curiosity, Community, Respect, Social Responsibility, Sustainability

Our new mission statement truly captures what GUS is and has always been about. At GUS, we lead with joy. Our students love coming to school, they find the fun in challenge, and they make meaningful connections as they learn and play together. GUS is a happy place. 

GUS is a happy place because our students are always at the center of every experience. They are empowered to take responsibility for their learning, motivated by learning through doing, and engaged in the learning process. We know that students come to us with questions, and we nurture those questions. This focus on inquiry inspires our students to care about their community and the world.

Our new vision statement draws from Maya Angelou’s famous quote “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” This sentiment rings true for us in all we do here at GUS, as we strive as a school and as individuals to always be our best selves. As a result, the learning never stops - for students and for faculty. A progressive education truly centered on young people necessitates a constant need for evolution. As young people and our world change, so does GUS. Together, we are continually learning and growing, creating hope that the next generation will truly do better.

We also have big dreams for our little school. This year, we will be tackling the question, “Where Are We Going?” As we look to create a new long range strategic plan, our new vision statement will provide inspiration and motivation. We know who we are and what we want to do, and now it’s time to think about how we come together as a community to achieve this important vision.

Moving forward, our work will be grounded in newly defined core values that are long-standing tenets of the GUS program and culture. As we carefully evaluated founding documents, philosophies, and curriculum, we discovered that the things that were most important to us in the beginning remain true today: curiosity, community, respect, social responsibility, and sustainability. Not only do our students value their place in our GUS community, but they also realize their place in the world around them. As a result, we continue to graduate confident young people who are ready for whatever the future holds.

As John F. Kennedy once said, “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” While GUS has always trusted and gone forward with effort and courage, today we are a school also with renewed purpose and a strong, focused direction. In my time at GUS, there has never been a time more ripe with possibility! Anything is possible and we look forward to planning and dreaming with you during this 2023-2024 school year.