
Insight: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
By Cheryl Schenk, Director of Enrollment Management
This month, our admissions committees have gathered and begun our process of reading and deliberating upon this year’s admissions applications. Between our committee efforts in both Middle School and Upper School, numerous faculty and staff are engaging in some of our most important work as a community. Our purpose statement summarizes our efforts as a group: We actively create future versions of the EPS community through reviewing, deliberating, and deciding on applicants with the lens of preserving and advancing our school culture and ensuring the diversity of our community, one student at a time. Crafting classes of diverse personalities and interests, and with unique ways of thinking and doing, we work together to ensure the enduring EPS student qualities of curiosity, kindness, and collaboration.
In another important annual tradition later this year, our school community will send over eighty alumni into the world following their commencement ceremonies. These graduates are commencing the next part of their journeys—the adventures awaiting them in early adulthood and beyond. At the same time, there are other types of commencement taking place: newly enrolling students are commencing their EPS journeys through enrollment and on-boarding activities. With the passage of time, we say both “welcome” and “see you later” to individuals and groups. With each of these movements, our community experiences shifts. We simultaneously become “more” of ourselves and also change who we are.
The composition of our group members is not the only way that our community ecosystem shifts. As a participant in our Voices in Action day this week, I found myself wondering how this community event will transform in the future. For example, I still remember when Voices in Action was planned and scheduled and then shelved due to snow that fell in January 2020. I thought about our planning committee meetings over multiple months this year, including student leaders from both Middle and Upper School, as well as volunteer faculty and staff, led by Bess McKinney, Co-coordinator of EICL. I reflected upon each of the outside workshop facilitators including friends of the school and engaged community members and experts from around the Puget Sound. I wonder now: who might return for a future iteration of the event? How will existing sessions change in a future year, and what will we add? How will survey data from students, faculty, and staff influence the shape of this day in the future? In addition to Equity, Inclusion, and Compassionate Leadership, are there other EPS-valued literacies that would benefit from this workshop-and-reflection learning format, taking a break from regular classes to engage in novel learning opportunities?
With our successful Voices in Action day and other community initiatives, we are constantly acting and then evaluating. We ask ourselves: “how does this event / this opportunity / the strategic plan / new community member reflect our EPS community values? Or how does this entity push those values? What do we want to become more of?” At EPS, community events, however successful, are constantly shifting. We change the delicious menu of options. We rearrange the seating to encourage more conversation. Some committees change membership, transform their purpose, or disband altogether when no longer serving a clear purpose.
Yet I have found that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The throughline of each of these transformations is a strong desire, at both the micro and the macro level of EPS, to become the best version of ourselves. To help a student really embody their strengths. To find the highest potential of an event. To strive for the most diverse composition of a group, at its belonging. This strong, mission-based effort to innovate wisely is something that I have experienced year after year at Eastside Prep.
As we look toward the future, which we can’t know the shape of yet, I am more confident than ever that we will continue to hold onto our core value of creating meaningful change as a community. And in the coming months as we welcome our newest community members, I am confident that they will actively impact the ever-changing future of EPS in the most beautiful, unexpected ways.