When the Church Farm School faculty started working on its “Profile of a CFS Graduate” a few years ago, it was important to identify the soft — but critical — skills that would serve our students well not only at CFS but in the larger world.

The six characteristics that rose to the top portray young men without singular focus — we are developing graduates aware that it’s equally important to fail as to succeed, to focus on mental health as much as physical health, to explore a variety of interests, speak with confidence, and think beyond our 150-acre campus to ways they can impact global communities.

This year’s theme is drawn from the characteristic “Ethical Agents for the Common Good,” which speaks to a moral center that guides us.

Our senior leaders set the pace for the school more than ever. They are running assemblies, meeting with administration on their peers’ behalf, and working hard in the classroom, the cottages, and athletics. A few particular senior leaders are also effecting important change on campus — changes that will not benefit them but their Griffin brothers.

Rafael Arellano, Dylan Lumumba, Fayi Nshanji, and Shalva Bent are extremely grateful for the opportunities afforded to them and have been able to participate in both term-away and summer programming that might otherwise be out of reach. Arellano and Nshanji worked to make their term-away at the High Mountain Institute in Colorado financially accessible and to set a foundation that would continue. HMI visited CFS this year to highlight its offerings, the scholarships available to students, and the benefits of spending a semester disconnected from technology and, instead, connected with nature, endurance, and resilience.

All four scholars leveraged their community-based organization (CBO) relationships for summer programming, too. Through their CBO’s partnerships with Student Diplomacy Corps, Lumumba spent the summer in Alaska, Nshanji traveled to Italy, and Arellano spent the summer in France. Their capstone project — under the guidance of Dr. Nicole Campbell and tentatively named the Griffin Opportunity Program — aims to identify both opportunities and funding sources to ensure future Griffins can also access term-away, internship, and summer programming.

Their passion is already bearing fruit: Director of Strategic Initiatives and College Guidance Tiffany Scott, working with Assistant Head of School/Director of Academics Margaret van Steenwyk and Dean of Studies Krista Peterson, are forging partnerships that will become sustained pieces of the CFS program. For example, summer opportunities with HMI, the Island School in the Bahamas, and Yale University are already forged. New opportunities with the University of Pennsylvania and the Student Diplomacy Corps are also underway.

The scholars also hope to broaden opportunities for afterschool and summer internships and are hoping to utilize CFS’s vast network of alumni and friends to secure opportunities where there are geographic groundswells of students.

Learn more about how Church Farm School serves boys from a range of socio-economic circumstances who are seeking an extraordinary educational opportunity.