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Head of Hershey Shares Insights on Developing Leaders and Global Education in a Pandemic

Head of Hershey Shares Insights on Developing Leaders and Global Education in a Pandemic

Hershey Head of School, Paula Leigh-Doyle, was recently interviewed by Crain’s Cleveland Business. Leigh-Doyle shared perspectives that were incorporated in two news stories now published by Crain’s in its Crain’s 2021 Private School Planner. These articles include insights on developing future leaders and maintaining focus on global education during the pandemic.

In the article about developing tomorrow’s leaders, Leigh-Doyle was given a chance to share how a Montessori education helps students learn how to find leadership within themselves. “We’re student-led learning with adult guides,” says the Head of School. “Students are trained to be independent thinkers and interdependent collaborators.” You can read the rest of Crain’s article, Developing Tomorrow’s Leaders, here.

In another article, Thinking Outside the Screen: Schools maintain focus on global education, experiential learning during a pandemic, Leigh-Doyle had the opportunity to speak about the importance of Hershey Montessori School’s international alumni during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. School enrollment dropped from 280 to about 250 students as boarders were unable to come to the school due to the COVID pandemic travel restrictions and health recommendations. “We’ve always had a framework for looking at education globally,” Leigh-Doyle says in the article. “And our international borders and alumni were really effective for us to connect globally when we couldn’t fly to those places.” Read the full article, Thinking Outside the Screen: Schools maintain focus on global education, experiential learning during a pandemic here.

Additionally, Hershey’s beautiful 13-acre Concord campus and 97-acre Huntsburg campus were featured in Crain’s Private School Planner. Importantly mentioned is the unique “microeconomy” at the Huntsburg campus, where academic concepts are integrated with economics and entrepreneurism, as students enhance their personal growth, along with their business, communication, and managerial skills. You can see this feature of Hershey Montessori School in Crain’s 2021 Private School Planner here.

Crain’s Cleveland Business journal is owned and operated by Crain Communications Inc. Crain is one of the most well recognized communications companies in the world, reaching over 78 million readers globally. Crain’s has 10 global locations with over 600 employees who manage Crain’s 20 industry-leading communication brands. It is an honor and pleasure to be able to share the lens of our Head of School and to share the examples of our Montessori institution with Crain’s Cleveland Business.

To schedule an interview or collaborative meeting with Paula Leigh-Doyle, contact Hershey Communications Director, Deanna Shrum, at dshrum@hershey-montessori.org.

Hershey Adolescent Community Updates Fall Return to Campus

Hershey Adolescent Community Updates Fall Return to Campus

By Judy Kline Venaleck, Associate Head of School and Adolescent Campus Director

Hershey Montessori School staff and Adolescent Community are eagerly anticipating the 2021-2022 school year and the return of international and domestic boarding students to the Huntsburg campus. All signs from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and the Ohio Department of Health look positive for increased vaccination rates and drastically reduced numbers of COVID-19 cases in many regions, and in particular, Ohio. We hope that the continued increase in numbers of vaccinated people in the United States will prevent the take-off of new, more virulent, variants of the virus such as those we are currently seeing in other countries.

What We Know Today
We are still in the planning stages for health protocols for re-entry to boarding life. We will design for well-being and expect that the boarding community will live like a family without masks and other COVID protocols. We will certainly honor any residential member who wishes to wear a mask and we will continue the increased level of attention to handwashing and day-to-day health awareness practices in general.

We closely follow announcements from the CDC as well as the Ohio Department of Health and weekly announcements from Ohio’s Governor, Mike DeWine. Following the science of these organizations is what informs our decisions. Please be aware that any unforeseen changes and announcements in the coming months can have an impact on our health protocols and planning.

Vaccinations
• Students 12 years and older are now eligible to receive the COVID vaccine. We appreciate the science behind the fact that as more of us are vaccinated, the healthier the boarding program will be for everyone.
• Vaccination – we are not ready to make a decision about whether COVID-19 vaccinations will be required for boarding students, but we do strongly encourage them. This decision is subject to change as we follow the science or have a sense of any more contagious variants.
• Students who will not have all vaccinations required on Hershey Montessori School’s Medical Statement and Immunization Data form for 2021-2022 at the time of arrival in August, need to claim EXEMPTION status.

Quarantine
• If there is a significant spike in COVID-19 cases by mid-August, it is possible that students may have to quarantine prior to arriving to campus. It will be necessary to factor in a 5-day hotel stay followed by a negative COVID test to your arrival time.
• If there is a high rate of cases in only certain states or countries, students from those particular regions may need to quarantine off campus.

COVID-19 Testing
• We will be testing boarding students upon arrival to campus on August 23rd with a rapid results test.

Timeline and Date by Which Protocol Will Be Finalized
• June 17, 3:00pm EDT – Boarding parent ZOOM meeting with house parents.
• July 8 – Update on COVID-19 trends and the rate of any variant spread.
• July 22 – Final decision on whether COVID-19 vaccine will be required for boarding students.
• August 2 – Final protocols announced for boarding community.

I-20 Documents for International Students
• We will be releasing I-20 documents in the next 10 days that each student will need to:
     o obtain a Student Visa through the U.S. Consulate in your country.
     o enter the U.S. along with the Student Visa and passport.
• If a student has dual citizenship with the U.S., please notify us as an I-20 is not required in this case.

Regular updates regarding health protocols for next school year will be provided to enrolled families as we monitor the data over the next few months and continue to consult with our medical expert advisors.

Interested and enrolled families are welcome to contact the school office with any questions.

Marianna Pasaret – Alumni Spotlight

Marianna Pasaret – Alumni Spotlight

Marianna Pasaret is a 2012 graduate of the Huntsburg campus of Hershey Montessori School.  She is a current resident of Austin Texas and was recently interviewed by ESPEROS in their SoHo stories blog which focused on Lifting Women Up.

Read it here!

Marianna is a multimedia artist, concentrating on a combination of digital and sketch work. She exhibited in London late last year and was Boss Babes’ resident artist last winter. Read her inspiring interview where she discusses what and who empowers her and how she lifts other women up. We at Hershey are very happy for her success both as an artist and an inspiration!

 

Global Reach

Global Reach

“We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe, and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.” – Dr. Maria Montessori

We put together a map of all of the cities that we know alumni are currently living in, and the reach is global (click here to see it). Based on the experiences we had at Hershey Montessori School, it makes sense that the alumni would live and work all over the world!

As a young student, I remember seeing the flags from around the world in the classrooms. Through the humanities, history, arts, and language classes, we were exposed to a wide variety of cultures from a young age. Starting in Children’s House, we were taught to learn the continent names, promoting knowledge of the world outside of our day-to-day experiences. There are so many ways that Hershey Montessori School celebrated cultural diversity and prompted students to learn about different cultures and civilizations at each plane of development. It was also wonderful to get to attend school with students from all over the world as well – not only were we learning about different cultures, we were learning alongside those with different cultural backgrounds.

Montessori education promotes peace, and the study of other cultures and celebration of differences is one of the ways peace is promoted and integrated into the classrooms. Dr. Montessori said “Establishing peace is the work of education…” and she brilliantly intertwined this into so much of her pedagogy.

Here are some examples of alumni who are learning and working around the world: Tristan Quigley from Australia is working at Universidad Externado in Bogotá, Colombia, Brian Vadakin returned from Costa Rica this year where he was researching rural tourism on a U.S. Fulbright research grant, Collin DeWalt is currently teaching in Daegu, South Korea, Ursula Wilkinson interned at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain, and Joel Smith is in Amsterdam.

Looking at the global reach that the Hershey Montessori School alumni have, we can see a one-to-one correlation with the peace-promoting education we experienced and Hershey Montessori School alumni’s desire to go out into the world to learn and deepen the cultural experiences we all began having as students.

If you have any exciting travel plans or would like to share how Hershey Montessori School impacted your understanding of culture and the world, please either comment on this post or email me at mwebster@hershey-montessoti.org.

Thank you!

Sincerely,

Makella Webster

Hershey Montessori School Alumni Coordinator