Weekly Message from Head of School 2023/03/05-2023/03/11
Dear Keystonians,
How are you? How was your week? What a beautiful season we have entered in Beijing! While several caring individuals have assured me that the cold weather is not behind us, hopeful flowers are blooming all over campus! It is as if they are daring the frost to return. I love their optimism, or perhaps bravery. They flower today because today is right. How nice to be like a flower—to do the thing that is right for today.
Speaking of the right timing, this past Monday Keystone’s residential program offered a special opportunity to our 8th grade students and parents to get a taste of our boarding program which the eight8th graders will all enter at the start of their 9th grade year this fall. Interested 8th graders stayed on campus after school and enjoyed dinner in the dining halls followed by time on the residential floors with student hosts. After dinner, they attended dorm meetings and some study time. Meanwhile, their families were invited to a presentation and panel discussion about residential life at Keystone.
One of Keystone Academy’s three keystones is: Building character and community throughout our residential school setting. This is a keystone that is in progress throughout a student’s journey, starting in Foundation, but one that comes into full relief for our 9th graders as they join the boarding program. Children in 9th through 12th grade are extraordinarily well-served by residential learning opportunities. The 24-hour intentional community of learning and care provides boarding students with the structures, community and connections to thrive. Boarding schools promote resilience, social emotional development, self-awareness and persistence. And Keystone is no ordinary boarding school!
Residential students at Keystone are fortunate to live in remarkably diverse communities with caring faculty members and classmates from all over the world. The residential program is a fundamental value of a Keystone Education. Current students rave about the opportunities available to them as a boarding student: they can meet with classmates and teachers in study hours, they can use our world-class learning spaces for group or independent study through the evening, they can take a break after study hours to play and exercise in our athletic facilities, they can plan and run events and programs for the community at school and beyond. And as caring adults in their lives, our dorm heads and dorm parents have created healthy structures such as technology check-in and breakfast requirements, that hold students accountable for habits that serve both their well-being and their high academic performance.
And one of the great things about our residential program is that while there are meaningful things happening every weekend on campus, students who live in the greater Beijing area can choose to spend some time on the weekends off-campus to pursue other interests or passions, or to spend time with their family. This situation gives many of our students the best of both worlds—the social and academic benefits of a world-class boarding school, without being far away from home and family.
This was, in fact, one of the original aims of Keystone Academy-- to provide the extraordinary benefits of global boarding schools in our Chinese context. Keystone creates opportunity for our students to have deep intercultural skills without having to choose between that and being meaningfully connected to the Chinese culture and context. At Keystone, our students have unique access to the best of many educational traditions.
As we approach the school’s second decade of operation, we are learning more and more from our alumni about the value of this unique model of education. Keystone graduates love to reflect on the amazing experience in the residential program. The first thing they say is that the food is better, and the dorm rooms are nicer than most of their college experiences!
After that superficial (but flattering!) observation, they often reflect eloquently about what they gained from Keystone—the deep reverence for knowledge and learning, a commitment and understanding of China’s culture and history and a unifying belief that they have a responsibility to this place that has given them so much. Our alumni tell us that the school has given them the courage and skills to walk down any path in the world. And, at the same time, the strength and self-awareness that comes from knowing what it means to be home. This outcome, one that is so hard to measure, is the true value of Keystone’s residential program.
If you have any questions about our residential program, I hope you will reach out to discuss and learn more!
Warmly,
Emily
