STA News
“Engage!” Form VI Leaders on the Year Ahead
As is tradition, Form VI student leaders led the first Upper School assembly of the year. Joined by faculty, Vestry and Student Council members read aloud from and reflected on three foundational school documents.
THE MISSION STATEMENT
St. Albans School is an Episcopal school for boys that values character above all else, setting high expectations for its students as it challenges them to think deeply and critically, to work and play with discipline and passion, and to build relationships guided by empathy and kindness.
BY DARIUS BAJOGHLI ’27, PREFECT
It can be easy to overlook the Mission Statement posted on our school website, and many of you may be hearing of it for the first time. Regardless, you can learn a lot about St. Albans from this brief statement, and it’s worth starting the year doing so.
First, the Mission Statement tells us St. Albans is an Episcopal school for boys.
Being an Episcopal school means
- welcoming students and families from different faith traditions,
- respecting human dignity (we pray for the human family),
- reflecting, because prayer and chapel services are an integral part of our community and spiritual formation matters,
- and encouraging difficult questions about faith.
These underlying values are why we mention the Episcopal identity of St. Albans at the beginning of the mission statement. Our education here is not only determined by the books we read but what we can learn from these Episcopal pillars. I urge you all to be present and really appreciate the strength of chapel and fulfillment of service because they give us opportunities to reflect on our actions and how to treat others.
Second, according to the mission statement St. Albans “values character above all else.”
“At St. Albans our achievements are important, whether they be our grades, winning games, or even what colleges we get into, but the Mission Statement places our character before any one of those. Character, though, is not something that can be measured easily. There is no such thing as a grade for our kindness, nor a trophy for our integrity. Those qualities show up over time, through the way we treat ourselves and others around us ... Our character is meant to be the foundation of everything we do.”
At St. Albans our achievements are important, whether they be our grades, winning games, or even what colleges we get into, but the Mission Statement places our character before any one of those. Character, though, is not something that can be measured easily. There is no such thing as a grade for our kindness, nor a trophy for our integrity. Those qualities show up over time, through the way we treat ourselves and others around us. The phrase sets a high standard. It makes us think of success in a broader way. A student can be intelligent, athletic, talented, but those achievements mean less if that student doesn’t back them all with integrity and respect. Our character is meant to be the foundation of everything we do.
Lastly, the statement tells us that St. Albans sets “high expectations for its students.” This idea certainly captures our academic standards, but I would argue it also connects directly to our character. Character is easy to talk about when things are going well, but it becomes a lot more telling when it’s actually tested. St. Albans puts us through many trials and tribulations, putting our integrity and self-discipline to the test almost every single day. A difficult class can show how we respond to frustration; a loss can show our humility. St. Albans challenges us to put our values into practice, giving us the chance to develop the character it places above all else. While we may make mistakes, ultimately we are expected to uphold critical values such as doing the hard right over the easy wrong.
Episcopal identity, character above all else, and high expectations. The order of these words matter. We ought to leave this school with more than just accomplishments and education from books. We ought to leave this school with discipline and character to make the right choices and support our community.
BY CONNOR MITCHELL ’27, PREFECT
The second half of the Mission Statement describes what we are challenged to do at St. Albans using four verbs—"think,” “work,” “play,” and “build”—but more importantly we are told how exactly we are to go about thinking, working, playing, and building. We are called to go about each of these four activities, encompassing every aspect of school life, with effort and energy.
As a school’s first job is teaching and learning, it is natural to begin with thinking “deeply and critically.” This is the heart of the academic aspect of St. Albans life. Thinking deeply requires you to consider small details, to struggle with new concepts and material, and to deal with vast swaths of information. Thinking critically requires you to identify your own assumptions and biases, to challenge them, and to consider the perspectives of others. Both are necessary for learning, both are demanded by academic life at St. Albans, and both require you to give great amounts of time and energy.
Right after thinking, we are challenged to “work and play with discipline and passion.” This is the broadest of the tasks we are asked to do. Working means everything from schoolwork to sports to extracurriculars, and playing means everything from playing an instrument to competing athletically to simply enjoying free time on campus. In all these various endeavors, we are called to have discipline and passion. Passion means loving what you’re doing enough to bring constant joy and energy, and discipline means paying enough attention to detail to do it well and with character. Where you put your work and play at St. Albans is up to you. There are tons of ways to participate in sports, music, drama, visual arts, clubs, and more, but when you do, participate with your whole self and your best self.
It is also worth noting that these two are the only verbs that are paired; that is done intentionally. Getting the most out of St. Albans means balancing assignments and responsibilities with fun activities and a generous amount of free time, especially with the new schedule. In other words, we must engage in both working and playing in the right amounts. When you are feeling overly stressed or overly relaxed, it is important to remember the balance that the mission statement references by pairing these two words.
Finally, the Mission Statement challenges us to “build relationships guided by empathy and kindness.” Even if a community does great things, it is not a great community unless there is special attention paid to fostering relationships between people. Greet people in the hallways, be genuinely curious about what is going on in someone’s life, and talk to people you have not talked to before. Through curiosity about others, and care for others, we can build relationships guided by empathy. Go to other peoples’ games, concerts, and club meetings, congratulate them on their successes, and support them during their shortcomings. Through recognizing the time and effort someone has put into something and acknowledging them directly we can build relationships guided by kindness. Again, both take time and a conscious commitment to bring effort and energy to another aspect of your life, but the friendships you grow are well worth it and make every other aspect of St. Albans life so much easier.
Finally, the Mission Statement challenges us to “build relationships guided by empathy and kindness.” Even if a community does great things, it is not a great community unless there is special attention paid to fostering relationships between people. Greet people in the hallways, be genuinely curious about what is going on in someone’s life, and talk to people you have not talked to before. Through curiosity about others, and care for others, we can build relationships guided by empathy. Go to other peoples’ games, concerts, and club meetings, congratulate them on their successes, and support them during their shortcomings. Through recognizing the time and effort someone has put into something and acknowledging them directly we can build relationships guided by kindness. Again, both take time and a conscious commitment to bring effort and energy to another aspect of your life, but the friendships you grow are well worth it and make every other aspect of St. Albans life so much easier.
“Greet people in the hallways, be genuinely curious about what is going on in someone’s life, and talk to people you have not talked to before. Through curiosity about others, and care for others, we can build relationships guided by empathy.”
The Mission Statement very particularly uses the word “challenges.” St. Albans challenges us. Thinking, working, playing, and building relationships is hard. Doing these things with effort and intention throughout the whole school year is hard. But the difficulty of the tasks to which we are challenged is exactly what makes them so meaningful. It is easy to use AI to write an essay or to skip an exercise during a lift or to game silently on your computer during your free time, but there is much less to be gained from these choices, and in choosing them you put a damper on your St. Albans experience. I am not saying that the whole year should be a painful grind—it should not be, and there will be so much time for fun—but when you find yourself challenged, even to what you think is your limit, take a deep breath and remind yourself that that is not a bug, but rather a feature of being part of this great school. Lean into the challenge because you are able to take it on and you will come out a better person. Thank you.
THE SCHOOL PHILOSOPHY
Founded in 1909 on the grounds of Washington National Cathedral, St. Albans School asks boys to engage fully and meaningfully in learning, community, and citizenship. On every corner of the campus—in the classrooms and at the lunch tables, in the chapel and on the stage, on the playing field and at the easel, and in silence or in song—the strength of this community of learners stems, first and foremost, from the centrality of the student-teacher relationship. While our students engage deeply with our rigorous curriculum, they also connect thoughtfully with each other and with the larger community as they prepare for lives guided by openness, grace, and respect.
A St. Albans education fuels its students for lives of purpose, driven by careful cultivation of the life of the mind and an astute sense of the Episcopal call to serve the greater good. We are committed to a diversity among students, faculty, and staff that shapes and enriches our shared experiences. Ours is an education that creates lifelong learners and fosters lifetime friendships. Grounded in integrity of self and scholarship, St. Albans maintains a community in which boys embrace academic vigor and complexity, celebrate their sense of wonder and joy with others, and understand and value their agency in a world that will benefit from their knowledge, compassion, and character.
BY MATTHEW METZROTH ’27, CLASS VICE PRESIDENT
Our school philosophy provides a helpful definition of our values to any visitors to our website, but it speaks, at its core, to the St. Albans student. Everybody in this room can attest to the first sentence—you could argue that learning, community, and citizenship are the three most important things that we gain from our time here at St. Albans. To me, those three words—learning, community, citizenship—guide everything that we should hope to do in the coming year.
As members of a school community, it should be no surprise that learning is the first thing that students are asked to engage in. However, this is a task that is easier said than done: before we know it, it’ll be a dark, cold February morning, and all we’ll want to do is coast until the weekend, or spring break, or June if you’re really losing steam. When this day comes, as it surely will, remember that there’s so much more to your classes than the quizzes and the tests; remember that our exceptional teachers are truly here to help you; remember that if you can just try to engage fully and meaningfully in your learning, for learning’s own sake, that will be enough. This school is not supposed to be easy—its rigor is espoused even in our school philosophy—but that rigor gives us a unique opportunity to learn as much about discipline and about ourselves as we learn about English or math.
“Upperclassmen: Engage with the underclassmen, talk to them in the halls, make them know that they’re welcome. Underclassmen: I can tell you without a doubt that there’s not a student here who doesn’t want to know you better. Make that happen! If I had to say what makes our community so special, it would be the simple fact that the pressure here pushes us together, not apart. That’s remarkable. Because of that, people here want connections and friendships with everybody else in the community—to engage fully and meaningfully is to go out of your way to create them.”
Community is next, and unlike learning, this is something that you don’t have to go out and take—our community is one-of-a-kind, and I don’t mean that lightly. Those who have been a part of this community for a while have made bonds that will last a lifetime, and for those who are new, you’ll find yourself among friends before you know it. The idea of engagement, however, applies here as well, and though we all have friends, St. Albans asks us to engage with our community with meaning, with intention. That means pushing beyond what’s long-standing or comfortable. Upperclassmen: Engage with the underclassmen, talk to them in the halls, make them know that they’re welcome. Underclassmen: I can tell you without a doubt that there’s not a student here who doesn’t want to know you better. Make that happen! If I had to say what makes our community so special, it would be the simple fact that the pressure here pushes us together, not apart. That’s remarkable. Because of that, people here want connections and friendships with everybody else in the community—to engage fully and meaningfully is to go out of your way to create them.
Lastly, citizenship—the most nebulous of the three, the hardest to pin down. I gave a lot of thought to what to say about citizenship: is it about how we comport ourselves out in the world, is it about how we treat those around us, is it about doing our small part to make this school a better place? With reflection, however, I think I’ll defer to Marcus Aurelius, who writes, “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” It is rarely hard to see what the “right thing to do” is: the struggle that we often face is simply doing it.
Gentlemen, there’s meaning to every word in our school philosophy, but I think that if we needed to reduce the whole thing down to a single word it would be the one that I’ve used six times already: engage. Engage in your classes. Engage with the people around you; not just the students, but the teachers and faculty as well. Engage with the host of opportunities that you have every single day. This is going to be an amazing year, and I can assure you all of this: no matter who you are, you’ll make it a little bit better every time you engage.
BY RAFI HUME ’27, CLASS PRESIDENT
The School Philosophy states: “A St. Albans education fuels its students for lives of purpose, driven by careful cultivation of the life of the mind and an astute sense of the Episcopal call to serve the greater good.”
This sentence can seem pretty loaded when taken at face value.
Living a life of purpose, cultivating your mind, serving the greater good–these values may seem pretty extraordinary compared to what many of you might be thinking in your first few weeks back at school.
Many of you underclassmen are only just beginning to figure out your place in the Upper Sschool, managing your classes, new workloads, and meeting new classmates. For the upperclassmen, thinking about how you’re going to live your life as you work through the steps of applying to college can seem daunting, overwhelming, and not worth the anxiety.
The incredible thing about this school is that you’re being prepared to achieve these remarkable standards through everyday action rather than having them portrayed as unattainable goals.
I think that the final line of our school philosophy has a nicely simplified version of each of the three values I mentioned before: knowledge, character, and compassion.
Cultivating the life of the mind may seem like archaic speech, but I believe that referring to it as knowledge, or even simply as the act of learning, makes it much more digestible.
“I don’t expect many of you to know exactly what your life’s purpose is right now, but I do know that these four years are where you begin to explore that question, find out what you’re passionate about, what gets you excited, and what type of person you want to become.
“So engage. There are so many opportunities for you to be present here, and there are so many people in the community who want you to participate; so really, engage, enjoy every single day, and let’s have a great year.”
“So engage. There are so many opportunities for you to be present here, and there are so many people in the community who want you to participate; so really, engage, enjoy every single day, and let’s have a great year.”
Learning is an integral part of our school culture, and although this idea can seem abstract at times, it’s essential that we actively participate in learning. Going far beyond memorizing simple facts, I urge you to engage with each other and your teachers. Pursue academic interests beyond the class period; ask the questions other people might think are stupid; stay after class to talk with a teacher about an interesting topic that sparked your interest; talk with a friend about a cool invention, a piece of art, or a song you heard on Instagram.
Moreover, learning is not only academic; it’s a social endeavor as well. Learning itself is the act of making connections, and those connections are both neurological and social; when we learn together and grow together, we build relationships with each other.
We have to have those thoughtful and sometimes uncomfortable conversations; we have to learn how to disagree, learn how to admit we’re wrong, and learn how to forgive. The bonds you build with each other by learning are strong enough to last a lifetime.
Let’s move on to the second major value listed in the same sentence: adhering to the Episcopal call to serve the greater good. This can seem intimidating to most, especially as many of us spend stretches of the year with our heads down, unable to think of or spend time on anything outside our microcosm of work.
A much more approachable term for this idea is character, and I believe that one's character has two essential qualities. The first quality refers to the moral principles we practice every day–integrity, honesty, diligence. In everyday action, this idea is simple: take the hard right over the easy wrong. The second quality is your own individuality. The principles we are taught at school are incredibly important, but it is essential that we view our own beliefs, our own opinions, and our own unique self as part of our character. By maintaining your distinctiveness as a person, you allow your moral principles to shine through in their own, unique way.
The last and perhaps most daunting of the three values mentioned in that one sentence is the idea of living with purpose. While I certainly cannot tell any of you what your purpose is in life, I can assure you that one way of finding your own unique purpose is through compassion and community.
The School Philosophy emphasizes the cultivation of lifelong friendships, relationships built on empathy, encouragement, and compassion. Community is built on these values: cultivating our love of learning, our ability to interact and debate with each other, our high moral standards, our individuality and unique interests, and our compassion and empathy for others.
We are so lucky at St. Albans to be surrounded by people who exemplify these values: teachers, coaches, faculty, friends, alumni. If you pause for just a few seconds, I am confident that you can think of at least one person who models these qualities and who you can look up to during your time here.
I don’t expect many of you to know exactly what your life’s purpose is right now, but I do know that these four years are where you begin to explore that question, find out what you’re passionate about, what gets you excited, and what type of person you want to become.
So engage. There are so many opportunities for you to be present here, and there are so many people in the community who want you to participate; so really, engage, enjoy every single day, and let’s have a great year.
BY BRETT PAUKSTIS ’27, HEAD PREFECT
You have just heard my fellow prefects speak about the School Philosophy and Mission Statement, which perfectly explain the responsibilities that we must fulfill each day at St. Albans. The most important takeaway from these passages is that we are asked to engage with the school community at a deeper level than any of us might think. We are asked to connect with each other, explore our differences, and answer the Episcopal call to serve the greater good. Proverbs 27:17 states, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” In this passage, we are asked to help each other make ourselves better, using our fellow man to cultivate greatness. We can help each other be sharper through simple actions every day at school: helping a friend understand something, giving a teacher a hand when needed, and picking up a teammate when he is knocked down. Sharpening each other can also come in more difficult instances: calling out another when he is wrong, taking a shortcoming with grace, and saying a simple “I’m sorry” when necessary. Strong culture isn’t always built in good times; it takes difficult conversations and hard experiences to build a shared culture that brings us together. As the saying goes, “Hard times create strong men and strong men create good times.” This community coming together and picking each other up in hard times will make us stronger together.
The Mission Statement says clearly that St. Albans is “an Episcopal school for boys that values character above all else.” It doesn’t say that we value grades, skills, or athletic achievement the most, but character above all else. In my eyes, character is simply defined: how you carry yourself each day. Just treat others the right way. It doesn’t have to be hard for us to embody this Mission Statement if we lead with respect for others. Nobody loves competition more than me—I’ll be the first person to go after a teammate in practice after a play—but I’ll also be the first to defend a teammate when an opposing player does something I don’t like.
“Proverbs 27:17 states, ‘As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.’ ... We can help each other be sharper through simple actions every day at school: helping a friend understand something, giving a teacher a hand when needed, and picking up a teammate when he is knocked down. Sharpening each other can also come in more difficult instances: calling out another when he is wrong, taking a shortcoming with grace, and saying a simple ‘I’m sorry’ when necessary. Strong culture isn’t always built in good times; it takes difficult conversations and hard experiences to build a shared culture that brings us together.”
As many of you know, I’ve gone to countless football camps over the past couple years, and there’s one thing that the coaches always say to the quarterbacks before we start. They say, “We’re looking at everything. We’re here to evaluate everything you do, even after you throw the pass. How do you respond to a good throw? How do you respond to a bad one? How will you carry yourself when things don’t go exactly how you want?” These are questions we can ask ourselves every day. How are we responding to adversity? If there’s a bad moment, you got a bad grade, or made a bad decision in practice, do you hang your head and mope or do you stay positive and move onto the next one with grace? Again, it is in hard moments that character is revealed. Gents, you are all here for a reason. Each one of you serves a purpose in this community and there are so many ways for you to write your own story here at St. Albans. St. Albans graduate and current NFL player Charles Snowden ’17 came back about a week ago to talk to the football team and he told us, “Be a star in your role.” On the football field, everyone has a job, and at St. Albans in general, we have similar responsibilities. They aren’t exactly blocking and tackling but more along the lines of working hard, listening respectfully, and of course just having fun. There are so many opportunities at this place for everyone to be a star at something, and I urge you to not waste a second of your time doing it. Be a leader, be a light for the community, be a star in your role, excel at everything, and build each other to have character. Do this, and we will continue the greatness of St. Albans.
THE HONOR CODE
Recognizing that honesty is of primary importance in an educational institution, St. Albans requires students to observe an Honor Code in all aspects of school life. Lying, cheating, and stealing, including plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty, are violations of the code. Violations of the Honor Code may subject a student to discipline, including expulsion. Any student who has violated the code is expected to report his offense to a member of the Student Council or the faculty. Any student who has knowledge of a violation should speak to the offender and ask him to report himself as soon as possible. If the offender fails to do so, the student is urged to report him to a member of the Student Council, to the dean of students, to a form dean, or to a faculty member.
BY BOWMAN DICKSON, MATH DEPARTMENT CHAIR
The college that I attended, the University of Virginia, had a strong honor code with something called a single sanction. If you were found to have committed an honor offense—lying, cheating, or stealing—the only punishment the university could give was expulsion. As a result, people took it very seriously.
The single sanction was controversial (it has since been changed), and even when I was in college, I had mixed feelings about it. In some ways, I felt like all the attention paid to the punishment distracted from the benefits that a strong honor code brought us as a school. I always felt comfortable leaving my computer out in the library if I had to go grab something. Some professors offered self-proctored assessments that you could take whenever was convenient for you. And I would often leave my room unlocked so friends who lived farther off grounds could use it between classes. For me, the honor code in college wasn’t really about punishment. It was about living a free, happy, trust-filled life with fellow students and professors.
When we hear about honor at St. Albans, it is often in the context of an Honor Council for someone who violated our code. Similarly, though, if we focus on those as the only instances of honor, I think we’re missing a much wider discussion. There are so many ways in which a culture of honor helps us live in community with each other and learn productively.
"Honor isn’t built by reading the text of the Honor Code out loud once a year. Each year, we have to build this part of our culture, brick by brick, moment by moment. Each time you make a decision to do something the right way—to be honest, to be truthful—you help build trust in our community. And each shortcut you take erodes a little bit of that structure we’re building together.”
But honor like this isn’t built by reading the text of the Honor Code out loud once a year. Each year, we have to build this part of our culture, brick by brick, moment by moment. Each time you make a decision to do something the right way—to be honest, to be truthful—you help build trust in our community. And each shortcut you take erodes a little bit of that structure we’re building together.
So in the moments, big and small, that test you this year, ask yourself: “Who am I as a person? Who are we as a community?” Then make the choice that helps build the kind of community we all want to live in. Let’s have a great year.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
BY KYLE MONEY, UPPER SCHOOL DEAN OF STUDENT LIFE
You are entering this new school year with a new chance to re-orient your efforts and your education.
I do not have anything miraculous to say, but I want to leave you with a few things to consider:
- Consider the opportunities you have to learn—in class, the library, at lunch, chapel, athletics, arts, and more. The environment of this institution has—for more than a century—allowed some of the brightest minds in the area to push themselves. That is a gift.
- Remember your younger self. Perhaps it was last fall, or for some of you nearly a decade ago, when you hoping to have the opportunity to be here—to learn, to play, to lead the St. Albans way.
- Weigh the value of slowing down, of pausing when you hit a fork in the road, of really thinking through your options, not just when your honor is at stake, but also beyond those moments. You are not a passive actor in your own life—take time to reflect, to attune to your values, and be your best self even when you think nobody is watching.
Located in Washington D.C., St. Albans School is a private, all boys day and boarding school. For more than a century, St. Albans has offered a distinctive educational experience for young men in grades 4 through 12. While our students reach exceptional academic goals and exhibit first-rate athletic and artistic achievements, as an Episcopal school we place equal emphasis upon moral and spiritual education.