Barely into 2015, Sage Hill President Gordon McNeill has been on the go, building Sage Hill’s national reputation, meeting with alumni, attending conferences, and more. Find out about it in his latest blog post.
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As President of Sage Hill School, my many responsibilities include building our national reputation, establishing relationships with colleges and community leaders, staying on the forefront of educational trends, and interfacing with alumni. My recent trip to Chicago included all of that and more. Over the course of just few days, I attended a board meeting for a national organization, toured college campuses, attended an alumni reunion, and met with one of Sage Hill’s Trustees who lives in the area. It was, in a word, busy!
The Board Meeting: I sit on the board of the National Network of Schools in Partnership, which was meeting in Chicago. It’s a fitting role for me, as the organization is focused on building public/private school partnerships, such as Sage Hill’s relationships with schools like Edward B. Cole and El Sol Academies in Santa Ana. In fact, Sage Hill is considered a national model of how public/private partnerships can provide meaningful, mutual benefit. The organization is young and our meeting focused on the future, which is always a good checkpoint for me. We’re good at what we do at Sage Hill, we have a lot to share with others, but we can also learn learn from other educational models, such as charter school movements and dynamic programs in certain public schools. I take very seriously my role in staying abreast of trends in education and keeping our excellent programs at the forefront and my work on this board is one avenue that helps me stay current.
The College Tours: With Sage Hill’s well-established reputation, colleges are aware of the outstanding preparation our students receive. Still, it benefits our applicants when I or members of our college counseling team visit colleges and help them become even more familiar with Sage Hill. To that end, I toured and met with admissions representatives at University of Chicago, DePaul, and Northwestern. We’ve sent graduates to each of these outstanding but distinctly different college options, and I thoroughly enjoyed my visits and felt tgat all of these schools understood who we are and how are students are unique.
The Trustee: I also used my time in Chicago to meet privately with a Trustee who lives there. Our meeting focused on the future of Sage Hill School. Eager to engage with our graduates, he also joined us at our well-attended alumni event.
The Alumni Reunion: Seeing alumni is a high point of all of my trips around the country. Our Chicago gathering included alumni who are working in real estate investment, marketing, and other exciting fields, as well as some who are still in college. The number one question alumni ask me—in Chicago and everywhere I go—is, “Has Sage Hill changed?” Of course it has: Many graduated before we had Spring at Sage, the Studio at Sage Hill, and certainly the Lisa Argyros and Family Science Center. But I always tell them that one thing about Sage Hill that will never change is its values.
Those shared values bind our alumni. That’s why I feel it’s important to host gatherings in the cities I visit. Recently, two alumni started a business together. Two others, who attended Sage Hill at different times, met at an alumni event and started dating. On a professional and personal level, these gatherings offer our alumni valuable networking opportunities. They build connections and ensure continuity as the number of Sage Hill graduates approaches 1,500 and beyond.
Chicago was just one of many trips I have taken or will take around the country this school year, and that one trip exemplifies my professional mission as President of Sage Hill School. Other examples include my attendance, along with Head of School Patricia Merz and four Trustees, at the California Association of Independent Schools Trustee/School Head Conference in Los Angeles earlier this month. I’m off to Boston in just a couple of weeks. Next month, I’m presenting to 300 educators at the Private Schools with Public Purpose Conference in San Francisco. I’m constantly out there in the community, spreading the word about Sage Hill School, building our network, and growing our resources, for now and for the future.