Read the full transcript of Episode 86 of the NAIS New View EDU podcast, which features host Morva McDonald speaking with Guybe Slangen of Horizons National about the innovative summer programming the organization designs in collaboration with schools nationwide, expanding equity, access, and community spirit. They are also joined by Jennifer Cherney of the Gateway School in New York City, one of the local partners who can speak to the school experience of working with this unique model.
Morva McDonald: I’m really looking forward to today’s conversation, which is a little bit of a learning opportunity for me as we’re going to delve into the work of Horizons and their partnership models with independent schools.
Jennifer Cherney is chief advancement officer at the Gateway School. She has forged a groundbreaking partnership with the national nonprofit Horizons to create an innovative summer program for inner-city children with learning differences.
Guybe Slangen is the senior director of expansion at Horizons National, bringing nearly three decades of experience in education and nonprofits to help schools reimagine what’s possible and expand opportunity for students and communities.
For more than 30 years, Horizons has worked alongside communities to expand access to high-quality, out-of-school learning experiences that help children grow and thrive.
They partner with public, private, and charter schools, colleges, and universities to create programs that reflect the strengths of each community—blending academics, well-being, and enriching experiences that spark curiosity, confidence, and connection.
I’m excited to welcome Jennifer and Guybe to the podcast today to talk about their work and how the collaboration between Horizons and the Gateway School can serve as a national model. Guybe and Jennifer, thanks for being here.
Hi, Guybe and Jennifer, thanks for being here. I'm super excited to talk with you. I like to always begin the podcast with guests by learning a little bit about who they are, but like why they do the work they do. So I'm interested in that story for you, how you got connected to Horizons, and why that's a commitment that you made.
Jennifer Cherney: Sure. I have been working in independent schools for 25 years. I've worked for six independent schools and I am now at the Gateway School, which is the first independent school that I've worked for that is specifically for children with language-based learning disabilities and attention deficits.
I've been at the Gateway School for nine years, and I have found this work to be incredibly impactful and moving. And I saw an opportunity to partner with Horizons to create the first of its kind program within the Horizons network that specifically deals with children that have suspected language-based learning disabilities, rising K and first graders.
Morva McDonald: That's exciting. Thanks for that. And, Guybe, as while you're talking, if you could tell us a little bit about your own trajectory, but also talk to us a little bit about the work of Horizons, just to help the audience understand what Horizons is and does.
Guybe Slangen: Sure, So I grew up in an international house of educators. My dad was from Belgium. He came to the States and actually taught in public schools for many years and then worked his way up and was a professor for 40 years. My mom is from the Philippines and she, too, spent some time in schools, taught ESL for a while. So, you know, the apple really didn't fall far from the tree in that regards. And they really believed that education was an opportunity to open doors and create pathways to a better life, essentially. And so that's really what not only inspired my journey into education to kind of follow in their footsteps, but also really guided me towards the work of Horizons.
I've been in independent schools for nearly three decades, East Coast and the Midwest and here in California. And I spent the last 16 years at San Francisco Friends School, where I was one of the senior administrators at the school. And as a Quaker school, it really has this kind of outward focus. We were located right in the heart of the Mission District in San Francisco, so a very urban, vibrant, and very kind of culturally diverse neighborhood and city as well. And we really wanted to be a part of, as opposed to separate from, our neighbors and our neighborhood.
That's very much what it means to be a Quaker school, is in and with and from the community. And so I was charged with this kind of task to really explore what that could look like as we were still kind of growing out our school and establishing roots in the neighborhood. And I went to a conference in Seattle back in 2012, called the Private Schools with Public Purpose Conference. And that's where I went to a session by Horizons National, and immediately I was struck by this. I was like, this is it. And so I went back to my head of school, Kathy Hunter, at the time, the founding head of the school. And I said, Kathy, I think I figured out what we should do. And she said, OK, this is great. Look into it, do the research. And the more I learned, the more I just felt like this was really the model.
Horizons National is a network of, now, currently 71 sites across 22 states that partners with mostly independent schools, but also universities, charter schools, community colleges, to offer a six week summer program for low income, mostly low performing public school students. And it's a really kind of deep partnership with public schools that really gives students a leg up during the summers, which is really a vulnerable time, particularly for low income, marginalized communities that we partner with, to address what's often called the summer slide. They then go back to their schools, really energized, motivated, and can continue learning throughout the school year.
The cool thing is that with Horizons, it's a cohort model. So it's really relationship driven, that those students that come in kindergarten, are the same students that come back summer after summer after summer, all the way through eighth grade, and even further into high school and then college in some instances. And so it's that relationship focus that really deepens and strengthens over time. And we can also see the longitudinal impact of this. And it's really exciting.
So we were the pioneering program that launched in San Francisco back in 2014. We welcomed in 17 kindergartners that first summer, added a grade every year. And fast forward to today, those pioneering kindergartners are actually seniors in high school.
Morva McDonald: That's so exciting.
Guybe Slangen: They're all going off to be the first in their families to actually go to college. So we're talking about, like, generational change here. And it's not just Horizons. This was, you know, one piece of a very complicated puzzle, but it's in partnership with public schools, with community-based organizations, you know, coaches and sports teams. And we're all kind of working towards the same goal.
Morva McDonald: Yeah, help me understand a little bit. It's always really hard from a distance to get kind of the texture of what this kind of work is, like what the partnership really looks like. Like, what is it like? What are kids doing? What's the relationship between the independent school, and the independent school kids and the kids that joined for the summer? Kind of talk us through that so we have a better understanding.
Jennifer Cherney: So the Horizons program, Horizons NYC at the Gateway School, it is really woven into the fabric of our DNA at the Gateway School. We are by virtue an inclusive community. This opportunity came about just in a phone call. The executive director of Horizons called me and said that we're looking to expand. Through the conversation we had, I said, would you ever consider doing this program specifically for children that have language-based learning disabilities and attention deficits? And she said, you know what? My husband is a special education attorney. This is something I am really interested in pursuing. So yes.
And from there, we really started talking to our head of school at the time, who was very enthusiastic, thankfully, about this, and championed the work. Our board of trustees, also enthusiastic, championed the work. But obviously, you know, their primary focus is Gateway. So how does this all tie into the ecosystem at Gateway? And what we found is it's become this incredibly enriching experience, not only for our community, but for the teachers that are Gateway teachers that are leading this program during the summer. The families are very excited about it. The families at Horizons and the students have become a part of our Gateway family.
And so it's been an incredible opportunity for us to showcase our school, the work that we do, the incredible program that we have and be able to impart it to this community. We are now, we started with 10 students, we're going to be 20 this next summer. We tripled our faculty for this next summer. We have a waiting list of students. And so we see this in our community, changing the community around us. Three public schools are being served, one charter school, and it's just been an incredible opportunity.
Part of our strategic planning process, which is another reason why our board, our faculty, staff, administration were on board for this, was the community difference. How are we showing up for the community that we live in? How do we model behavior for our students? And this is the answer to that. This is our mission in motion.
Morva McDonald: That's really helpful. I was going to come back to something, Guybe, that you said, I think in the earlier part, which had to do with the public purpose question, which I think, Jennifer, you're alluding a little bit to here, which is: A number of schools, having been a head of school at an independent school in Seattle, one of the things we really thought about was, as an independent school, what is actually our public purpose? And to your point, Jennifer, how do you put that in motion? Not how do you just talk about it, but how does it actually show up in the work that you do?
So I'm interested as we go along, and kind of circling back around to helping us think as a whole community of independent school educators, how do we consider public purpose, whether that's through a partnership like Horizons or other ways that we engage, right, in the communities we're a part of?
Guybe, can you talk to me a little bit? Because I know there's like, there's multiple levels, right? There's an individual school that's part of Horizons in the partnership and running kind of what is viewed as like summer programming, I think is maybe a good way of talking about it. And then there's a regional group of schools that are connected to Horizons, and there's the national organization. And I think you're seeing at the national level. So talk to us a little bit from your view, kind of the values and implications of Horizons.
Guybe Slangen: Yeah, sure. So as I mentioned, we're 71 sites across 22 states. It was started in 1964, actually. So there's a long history and a really impactful track record of change. It was started in New Canaan Country School, 1964, height of the civil rights movement. You know, it was a nation that was really divided, a lot of tension around political tension, racial tension. And this head of school in New Canaan Country School in 1964 was a gentleman by the name of George Stevens. And he's looking at the headlines, he's seeing the images on the TV screens and this is happening, you know, a few towns away from where they are. This isn't, you know, something in a different part of the country. This is his neighborhood, his area. And he had this moment where he's just like, you know, how might we be able to make an impact? What is our role as an institution? Essentially, how does our school, our community meet this moment?
And I just love that framing because, you know, he basically opened up the doors that first summer, welcomed in students from surrounding towns who did not have access to a high quality summer program. He saw an opportunity to address a really immediate challenge. And that's when the first Horizons was born, to kind of meet that moment. Fast forward to the nineties, it started going national and kind of growing to a couple of independent schools, adding sites over time, over time, over time. And here we are, 2026, where we are now 71 sites across 22 states.
And even though the context is different, the times are different, I feel like the challenge and the opportunity are still the same. Here we are, we're still meeting the moment. You don't have to look far to the same headlines now, that we are still a divided nation. Opportunity is not equal for everybody. And then you put that in the context of these independent schools that are all mission driven. And every independent school, regardless of the context or the setting or the history, has, in their mission statement, some version of civic engagement, social impact, global citizenship, 21st century skills, you name it. I mean, that is what independent schools do. It's not just about educating the students while they are within the campus of that independent schools. No, you're setting them up for life, and also to be change makers in the greater community.
And so there lies the great opportunity. What does that look like? You know, that's the question that I think heads of schools and independent schools communities in general are really trying to explore. And fundamentally there we are again, how do we meet that moment? That's a little bit of kind of like where Horizons was, where it is today. And just to kind of speak briefly about kind of the local, regional and national, you know, we started at an individual site and that started to grow. And we saw these opportunities within kind of larger areas, you know, where the need just far exceeded the capacity of any one individual school.
And so, in Atlanta, actually, is kind of where this kind of regional model started, where there was a collection of schools that all kind of started forming their own Horizons. And now it just became this real kind of collective impact model where you can say across the city of Atlanta, we're not just serving our, you know, 150 kids at ABC school. We have 10 sites, we've got thousands of kids that we’re serving across the city at independent schools, and also higher ed institutions, at Georgia Tech and other kind of colleges and universities. And so now you're really talking about scaling, leveraging, and just greater impact.
And so we took that model and started replicating it in cities across the country. As Jennifer mentioned, we have Horizons New York City, we've got Horizons Philadelphia, we've got Horizons Greater Washington, D.C., Horizons Boston. And again, that same model is being replicated there, where there’s multiple sites, collective impact, and ultimately serving more students and families.
Morva McDonald: There are lots of things to appreciate about this, one of which is I think just the notion of as an individual independent school, how are you connecting to the surrounding community and what is the relationship to that? And then collectively in a city or a location, what is the collective impact that independent schools can have for kids who don't typically necessarily have access to that particular type of education?
I'm interested in, if you can talk to us a little bit, which is maybe too practical, but talk to us a little bit about the financial approach. So having run a small school in Seattle, and a very mission-driven school in the ways that you're talking about it, I can think about this and I can hear this and I'm like, there's just no way we could support or fund this kind of adventure, right?
So just help our audience kind of understand, because I think lots of people in the audience are going to be really interested in helping to bridge this relationship. But often the barriers that come into play are kind of these kind of background barriers, financial models, obviously, that a lot of schools are under stress are part of that. So talk to us a little bit about what that looks like.
Guybe Slangen: When I'm speaking to heads of schools or trustees around the country, top of mind, obviously, is fundraising. And the question that always comes up is, won't this cannibalize our existing fundraising efforts? You know, we've got an annual fund, we've got a capital campaign, we're struggling with our own endowments and kind of making ends meet.
And across the board, the answer is no. And I'll let Jennifer chime in now because she recently wrote a beautiful article kind of attending to this very notion and can speak really compelling and profoundly to that.
Jennifer Cherney: Well, thank you for that compliment on the article. I have to say that when the article came out, I didn't expect the reaction that I got from my colleagues nationally. They all really embraced it. And they're all really looking for, I believe, some disruption in fundraising and independent schools. How can we look at things differently now in an ever-evolving world?
And so one thing I will say is that Horizons is an incredible partner. From day one, they were there with us along the journey, because in the beginning of it, Horizons would have fallen under the Gateway School. So the Gateway School would have taken care of payroll and all of that. And then we went back and forth with that a little bit because there was some concern about that. And then Horizons, New York City said, no, you know what, we are actually going to do the hiring, do the payroll, so they're able to work with us.
And then in terms of fundraising, I mean, there's a recent stat, I think from CASE, that says that if you have a community-based initiative within your independent school, giving will go up 15 to 20%. That is true. People really want to feel like they are part of the collective, that it's not just, and there is this old notion that, OK, if you're raising money for an independent school, you have people there that have deep pockets, you don't need my contribution. This is the kind of initiative that brings people to your door. Let's say I want to be able to contribute. I don't have $100,000 to give to you, but I do have something and I want to contribute. I want to be part of something.
And there are many different ways that you can contribute, many different avenues that are now open for you to explore. There is corporate giving, ESG right now, the social responsibility, lean into that. They are looking to service equity and education. There is funding there for that. So there are many different avenues to explore by creating a partnership with an organization like Horizons.
Morva McDonald: Yeah, so rather than reducing, right, the funding sources, the fundraisers, it's enhancing or expanding it in some way because of the expansion of the impact of the mission, maybe, right, as a way to think about that?
Guybe Slangen: Totally, and I've heard so many parents at San Francisco Friends School talk about this. They're like, OK, now I get it. This is not just a school talking the talk, but walking the walk. And it's just creating other pathways of giving.
And again, what I really loved about Jennifer's piece was that it's not just about our kids, meaning the kids at the independent school, it's about all kids. And again, coming back to this mission, which is really centered around equity and access and belonging and social impact, social justice. There's just such a natural confluence there. So there's kind of the philosophical aspect of it, but then there's the practical aspect.
And we have seen across the board where donations do increase. You're, again, creating other pathways for that parent community, that alum community, who are just so deeply invested in that mission saying, OK, yes, I'm going to double down on this. And then also it opens up other pathways for giving, like school pathways that funders who would not typically donate to independent schools, as Jennifer mentioned, corporate giving, foundations, you know, again, are loving these opportunities, you know, and they're saying, wow, a private school with a public purpose. OK, you're not just about serving your kids, but you're serving all kids. I mean, that's a really compelling case. And then in many instances to public funding, you know, I know those are kind of more challenging now, but those also are new pathways, or at least pathways that are, again, not typically accessible to independent schools.
Morva McDonald: And so talk to me a little bit about this notion of reciprocity, the benefit, right, to the kids, just as you articulated somewhat, it's like this prevention, if you will, slow down of summer slide, those opportunities around education during that period of time. But talk to me a little bit about the value to the school itself, to your school, to the way that independent schools are learning by, Brian Stevenson's work, being proximate, right, to the community that they're situated in.
Jennifer Cherney: I think with Horizons, the program is really imbued with pride and promise. And we are modeling this program to a generation of young learners that are starting out and looking for purpose. And at Gateway, we've been around since 1965. But we live in New York City, Gateway is situated on a block that has, I believe, four other schools. And so we are part of this whole ecosystem in New York City. We are the citizens of New York City and so are our students. So why not extend and open our doors to the students that are on our block? Let them come in, let them see that we have an incredible auditorium, a beautiful art room, a theater, a library, all of this access during the summer months they wouldn't have before.
And so that to me is us giving back, and they give back so much to us, because this program has enhanced our teachers’ lives, as I said earlier, our community's lives, has become so incredibly impactful. One of our principles for the school year is Make Joy a Practice. And as part of the Horizons program, it's not just the summer, they do come back during the school year, and they just came back a couple of weeks ago. And I can’t tell you how impressive it is to see them, their skill sets from the time they started in the summer until now, the friendships that have been forged, the students at our school that see these students now and they're just part of the whole community.
So it's developing that. I also think small change makes big change. You have to start somewhere.
Guybe Slangen: Yeah, I really appreciate that. I want to touch on this notion of reciprocity because I think that's really, really important. This is not a noblesse oblige, us kind of helping them. This really is authentic, meaning it's coming from a place of genuine mission-driven work. And it's reciprocal. I feel really deeply that both sides are both benefiting and contributing to this in ways.
And a couple of examples come to mind. So I'll just tell a couple of quick stories here. There's a woman by the name of Christina Whitaker. She was a student at Green Farms Academy in Connecticut. That was a longtime host of Horizons. And she started volunteering as a middle school student in the program, would come into the summers and, and volunteer in the, in the program there, and was just struck, you know, and just like was really moved by that experience. Came back summer after summer after summer, went off to college, came back to become the program director at Green Farms Academy and is now the executive director at Green Farms Academy. So that experience was really transformational, obviously for the students and families that are being served in the program, but also for her. You know, her trajectory was really shifted, I think, as a result of that.
Another former student at San Francisco Friends School, David Rupright, fell in love with math from his experiences at the school. San Francisco Friends School, again, came back as a high schooler, was volunteering with Horizons with those students, and was really, again, struck by those experiences there, went on to college to study teaching, and is now teaching at a public school in Chicago that is serving the same population of students that he served in the Horizons program.
And he's teaching math, you know, so therein lies this wonderful confluence of an experience that he had in the classrooms at Friends school, an experience that he had working with students in the Horizons programs. And again, really kind of just impacting the trajectory that he has as a student and now as a professional, which I think that kind of reciprocal component is really compelling.
And just practically, you know, there's a couple of examples of, like, Lexington Montessori as a host site for a Horizons program, and they host a Montessori kind of Institute there in the summers, where folks can come and kind of learn about the Montessori method and then see it being practiced in and work on it in the Horizons program So it's kind of like a learning laboratory for them. Same thing again in San Francisco, to use that example. We have a partnership with the Bay Area Teacher Training Institute, which is working with students who are getting their public school teaching credential, they’re teaching assistants in the independent school, and then they can work in Horizons to get some credentialing hours to ultimately work with a population that they're going to work with in the public schools on their way to getting credential.
So that is all benefits to the independent schools, and really kind of wonderful professional development opportunities. And Jennifer, you have a wonderful example, I think, where your program, again, because of its kind of specific kind of population that you're serving, I believe all the teachers in the program last year were Gateway teachers. Is that right? That's amazing, you know? So, I mean, there you have it.
Jennifer Cherney: That's correct. Yeah, I love that. I think just to pick up from there, I think that for Gateway, we know early intervention really saves lives. We know that if there is a child that has a learning disability and they do not get the support that they need, that there is a straight pipeline to the juvenile detention center and then to incarceration later on in life. 60% of inmates have LD. If we're able to capture these children before their wings are clipped, give them the runway, a solid foundation, because their wings are going to be clipped, we know that. But give them that foundation of support early, and not only the students, but their families as well.
We're helping them navigate the IEP process. We're helping them navigate neuropsychs and all of that, that our families have to walk through. It's a very difficult process. Another unique differentiator, I think for us too with Horizons and other independent schools, and fundraising, is that our families come to us after one, learning their child has a lifelong learning disability. Two, they have to sue the Department of Education, and then they have to pay the tuition that is very high and hope to get reimbursed for that, or seek funding in another way to come to us. So by the time they walk through the door at Gateway, they've really been put through it.
But I say this to every new parent that comes to Gateway the first week, they look nervous and some of them are crying. Come to me at the end of today and let me know what your child says to you about their school day. And it – across the board, I want to go back to school tomorrow.
Morva McDonald: Of course, being seen is just a critical part of this, right?
Jennifer Cherney: Exactly right. To feel like I understand you, I see you, and I recognize you, and you're a part of a community at large. You're not alone.
Morva McDonald: I want to touch on something and I'm going to try this out with you and we'll see where this takes us. I think, tell me if I'm wrong, is that often the communities that are coming to the independent schools through Horizons in the summer are not typically reflective of the communities at the independent schools during the year. Either based on class, right? We know there's a relationship in this country between class and race, so I would imagine, as related to that, based on race.
Talk to me about your experiences, right, with navigating that level of diversity in a summer experience, right, that isn't necessarily always reflected or potentially well-held, right, during the typical academic year.
Guybe Slangen: Yeah, I just think about the power of Horizons is that it is a network made up of individual schools that is serving the communities of which it is in. And, you know, again, I know I keep coming back to San Francisco, but that's the example that I know the best, is, you know, there we are in the heart of the Mission District, a heavy Latino community.
Two of the three partner schools that we work with are dual language immersion public schools. And so we wanted to honor that. And that I felt, we felt that responsibility to be that school that is going to be serving those students and families in really appropriate ways. And so our Horizons program, as a result, is a dual language program. Our executive director, all the staff, all the teachers. They need to be able to be able to be fluent in Spanish and English because again, that's the community that we are serving.
And it's really wonderful, because we really wanted to not only support the students in their English, in their English kind of learning, but also to be bicultural, to be biliterate. We know that being bilingual is a superpower, and we wanted to honor that and honor those students and families and meet them where they're at.
So that is just one example across the network. It's really wonderful to kind of see how the programs are meeting families where they're at, but also doing it in a way that is who they are authentically. So for example, last summer, I spent about three weeks on the road and I toured 15 different Horizons sites across four states. I was in Philadelphia, New York, in Connecticut, and Boston.
And of those sites that I saw, no single site was the same. I had the privilege of visiting Gateway. I saw boys' schools, girls' schools, boarding schools, day schools, Montessori school. I saw public school in Boston, in Mattahunt, Mattahunt School District outside of Boston. And it was amazing because it just shows the kind of flexibility of this. This is not a one size fits all. This is really about meeting the schools kind of where they're at and serving the communities where they are. And it was really, really beautiful.
I would say, though, that across the diversity of programs that I saw, there was a really powerful and beautiful shared sense of purpose. You knew that you were in a Horizons program,
regardless of the location, regardless of the context, regardless of all the different factors and variables, you knew that there was a sense of purpose there, that you were there to serve these students and families. And I think that was really kind of galvanizing, you know, to see that we're all in this together and doing our part to attend to these kind of larger issues and challenges.
Morva McDonald: I really appreciate the emphasis there on the need for every individual school, independent school, to contextualize the work, the focus or the work or the way that it implements the style of program for kids in the neighborhood or for kids in their community and the value and importance of that. I just want to highlight the subtlety of that, and the importance of that, alongside kind of the broader mission, purpose, fit.
I'm going to come back to something earlier, which is the way in which in some cases the program has really helped kind of support the teachers in independent schools to kind of regain, I think, if I understand it correctly, sometimes I can appreciate this, having been a head of school, kind of regain their own sense of purpose. So Jennifer, I'm wondering if you could just talk to us a little bit about, your perspective, what has that sounded and looked like at the Gateway School, for teachers? One of things that lots of independent school heads are concerned about is burnout, the overall change in the pool of teachers that are available, really retaining high quality teachers.
And so just talk to me about that benefit from your perspective.
Jennifer Cherney: I mean, from a data perspective, to hear that we have tripled our faculty for this program this summer, in our second year, speaks volumes. Joseph Audubary is our program director. He is fantastic. And the group of teachers that he works with, they're so excited about this program. It is a fire and a fuel for them throughout the school year.
Teaching is not easy. Both of my sisters are teachers and they're like, my gosh, it's exhausting. There is no summer off. But our teachers in particular, with our student population, you can imagine that it is quite challenging daily. And so by the end of June, you would think they'd be ready, they want to move on. No, there are teachers that really, really want to be a part of this Horizons program because they recognize not only the benefit to Gateway, but to society.
We know that these students have potential and without this program, they're not going to have the opportunity, nor the agency, to go on and create meaningful and purposeful lives of their own. And so that is something that is so incredibly important to this community. It's something that I find such pride in for this community.
Guybe Slangen: I would say too on the other side, you know, we have a host of public school teachers, charter school teachers who obviously are coming into our program. They're more familiar with serving this population. Maybe they actually teach those same students during the school year. They're also seeing the benefits of this, you know, where it's smaller classrooms. There's more hands-on experience, with assistants, with literacy instructors, you know, and they're able to really kind of roll up their sleeves and focus in ways that unfortunately they just can't during the school year. So that's kind of also giving them this kind of renewed energy, renewed creativity, renewed sense of purpose.
And yes, after a well-deserved break at the end of the summer, you know, which they definitely need, we all do, but these teachers in particular, they come back to their schools and we've heard this across the board, that they are inspired, they're motivated, they're re-energized, and what a gift. Looking at it in terms of this kind of professional development, so many teachers are doing professional development over the summer, right? They're working on lessons, they're working on curriculum, they're attending conferences and workshops, maybe they're pursuing advanced degrees. So it is definitely not a summer off.
Morva McDonald: No, this is one of the myths of teaching, one of the major myths, right?
Guybe Slangen: You know, I put that in that same category of just really robust professional development.
Morva McDonald: Yeah, it's a helpful way to think about it as a head of school, right? Like, how is it good for the institution? How is it helpful to the students in my school? How is it helpful to the surrounding neighborhood? How is it beneficial to the teachers from a learning point of view, right? From how they're learning and feeling rejuvenated, but also learning, right? That continued work craft, if you will, of teaching.
We started off a little bit like this, me saying like, I can imagine, like, this is lovely to hear about, but I can't imagine this quite at my school. Are there other kind of myths, right, that we should pay attention to and kind of debunk at this moment about the possibility of forging this kind of partnership?
Guybe Slangen: When I talk to heads of schools, I usually get the same two questions. First question is, won't this cannibalize our existing fundraising efforts? And the answer is no. And, you know, Jennifer wrote that amazing article. We've spoken at length about that, and we have evidence to prove that. The second question is, you know, we already have a summer program that's vitally important for us to generate revenue, auxiliary programming, it's really important for our bottom line. So we don't really have room for Horizons.
Now, again, the answer to that is, well, they can coexist beautifully together. Obviously space is an issue, you know, but I think if we come back to, again, a shared sense of purpose and what we are driven to and compelled by in these mission statements, you can do both. It's not an either or. And even practically speaking, logistics and the details around this, you can scale and leverage resources together. So for instance, just practically, you're going to rent a bus for your summer program, go into it together with Horizons, share those costs, OK? You're going to hire a dance instructor or a robotics instructor, again, share those costs. You can put students together in classes, and again, kind of fill spaces.
So it all comes back to working backwards from what your shared sense of purpose is, and there is no one way to reach that goal. You can have the auxiliary revenue generating component. You can have your public purpose component. The two can mutually coexist really beautifully, and it takes that real kind of collaboration and choreography, is what I think about it really. And we've got great examples across the country of schools doing both and again, kind of advancing the mission in really beautiful and powerful ways.
Jennifer Cherney: One thing I'd like to add there is that I think the biggest champion of these kinds of programs, to address the people that are saying no, this is going to cannibalize our fundraising. No, we already have a summer program, all of that, is your chief advancement officer, is your development people, because they have the comportment. They are used to having to be tenacious and go after something that they really want to make happen. And those are your agents for change. Those are the people that will be able to speak to the board about why this is so critically important for the school, and how that translates into fundraising and revenue generation.
Morva McDonald: I really appreciate hearing from both of you, because of the, I think, the combination of three things, I think. One is the overall need and desire of independent schools to continue to really think about their public purpose, and that that ebbs and flows over time, and I think we're in a context right now where people are really deeply thinking about the independent school context and its relationship, right, to public schooling and to all kids and the access that all kids have to a high quality education. So I appreciate that point there.
I also really appreciate thinking about how do you do this financially? What's the infrastructure for that? And relying on something like Horizons to help an individual school build that infrastructure and that commitment in that way. So I really want to kind of reflect back to you those points, and really appreciate you sharing today kind of your individual purposes, the way in which Horizons specifically has helped you and your schools, and nationally kind of build the work. Just as one example, right, in the ways that independent schools can continue to reach out and contribute to the community that they're within, but also learn from that community. So I appreciate your time. Thank you very much for the conversation today, and looking forward to hearing what's next.