Crescent Blogs

Each December, just as the first snow falls in Toronto, I typically embark on travel overseas to the United Kingdom and Asia to visit with alumni. This year was no different, but with one exception: we travelled more extensively and listened more deeply. In recent trips to major city centers around the world, where our alumni live and work, we have convened one-on-one meetings, focus groups, and large social events to seek their advice and stay connected. These fine men, spanning those in the early stages of their careers and others well advanced in their professional years, have been especially helpful in validating some important findings from our recent alumni survey and new strategic plan, Breakthrough 2030.

The mission of Crescent’s Outreach program is straightforward yet powerful: to help students develop compassion, empathy, civic engagement, and leadership skills through authentic experiences. Outreach is all about making a difference, be it large or small. What’s most inspiring to me is that the changes I witness are not just about the impact on our partner organizations, but in the personal growth and self-actualization of our students engaged in the program.

A question we teachers constantly hear when we assign anything to the boys is, “Is this formative or summative?” What they’re really asking is, “Is this for marks?” It’s a fair question, but not a meaningful one.