2025 started with terrible headline news that I still can remember 4 months into the new year – and frankly, I stopped using the “New Year” as an excuse to “look forward to better times ahead” long ago. I lost my father to Covid shortly into 2021 – 7 days in to be exact – and it has been hard to find joy and excitement in starting any type of new year, even a new school year. But thankfully, it’s only April and we are not there yet…but when spring and summer have run their courses, leaving our campus reborn and rejuvenated, when fall ushers in a new year, new students and new headlines, Knox will enter its 121st year as an academic institution, and I will do so as a Head of School with hope.
We exist during a time when headlines carry stories of domestic and global conflict, crisis, and uncertainty; it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the weight of the world. And yet, within the gates of The Knox School, at our peaceful home beside the shore, I witness every day that hope is not just a fleeting idea, it is a powerful force that reminds us that good things are possible, even if they are not certain.
As a small, family-oriented boarding and day school with students from across the country and around the globe, Knox has always been a microcosm of the wider world. But what makes this place remarkable isn’t just the diversity of our student body—it’s what our students and staff do with that diversity. They embrace it. They learn from it. They share meaningful conversations. They develop good character – even when the world outside our gates seems to be doing the opposite.
Whether it’s the Knox Amnesty Club organizing awareness campaigns around social justice issues, or one of our senior’s “passion project” on reducing plastic waste and promoting sustainability, our students are showing us that positive engagement with global challenges can happen right here. Or perhaps it is the astounding accomplishment of our Science Club members, who worked with researchers at St. John’s University and Brookhaven Laboratory on a groundbreaking study entitled The Interface Charge Transfer Characterization of Nicotine, Chlorophyll and Sodium Copper Chlorophyllin, and are close to publication of their work through the Materials Research Society – work that will advance current studies in the identification and treatment of skin cancer. Or maybe it is the dedication of our Service Learning students, who have not only had a local and regional impact through their benevolent work, but have also connected globally by hosting a pickleball tournament to raise funds for Game Changers NY, an organization that collects used sporting equipment and uniforms for distribution to children in need around the world.
In our classroom and labs, on our stage and courts, and most of all, in our everyday interactions with each other as a community that values the human connection, Knox students are not waiting for adulthood to make a difference. They’re doing it now.
When I witness Knox students channeling their creativity into theatre and musical performances that explore the human condition, or athletes practicing integrity and teamwork on the courts and fields, or student council leaders using their voices to champion change—they remind me that the world is still in very good hands.
The Knox School does not insulate students from the world; it equips them to shape it. With integrity. With courage. With kindness. And with the quiet but powerful belief that doing good is always worth it.
In the face of so much that is difficult, Knox remains a place for the greater good.
And that gives me hope.
