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WELCOME FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

August 2025

Earlier this summer, I attended a session at the National Gallery of Art as part of WISIT — our institute for teachers and innovative programming. The educator leading the session invited us to think about a moment when we had experienced awe.

Over and over again, my mind kept coming back to our school, specifically to the transformation of the Tregaron campus and to our extraordinary new building, Le Centre Brown. I was easily able to pinpoint multiple moments when I had experienced awe. I think the first moment was when our beloved Dacha took a ride across campus. I was truly awestruck by the skill of the engineers, by the power of what looked like a single iPad that controlled the whole move, and by the precision of the planning. (The Dacha also looks pretty awe-some in her new home.)

All in all, there are so many awe-inspiring moments that have occurred since the project started. For example:

  • The hundreds of workers who went about their tasks each day, working independently from one another, seemingly without instructions.
  • The sheer number of trucks after groundbreaking that left the campus full of soil to create space for the building to begin.
  • The crane operator using such dexterity that enormous deliveries could be inserted into the smallest of crevasses.
  • The generosity of everyone who has contributed financial support, time, and energy. We have raised extraordinary funds to ensure the legacy of this School for decades to come.
  • The choreography of all of the work that has been accomplished this summer 2025 in particular — right up until the start of our school year!
Head of School Suzanna Jemsby
Head of School Suzanna Jemsby
  • The colleagues who throw themselves into opening thousands of boxes to ready classrooms and offices for the first day of school. 
  • The many incredibly talented trustees and advisors who have lent their brains to this: from loan documents, to financial planning, to brokering legal documents.
  • And of course, to round it out, the beauty and design of this building inside and out.

Perhaps most awe-some and relevant of all is that we have what feels like a brand new Tregaron campus, with many of our other spaces reconfigured and renovated. Almost every building has undergone a transformation. 

Our school culture is about to witness a transformation too.

We’ve taken the lid off the proverbial pressure cooker adding 58,000 square feet of extraordinary spaces in which to learn and commune. We’re feeding 1000+ people each day on both campuses — and the food is delicious and healthy. We’ve got our precious sports field back, just in time for the autumn season FORZA WIS opener. 

For all the moments that I have seen, felt, and experienced over the last two years of construction and seven years of being at WIS, I think the moment of awe most moving for me is watching our students experience their transformed school on the first day … and each day thereafter. With the new school year and the rebirth of this entire campus, I’m grateful to everyone who helped create the AWE.

Suzanna Jemsby
Head of School

students engaged in tug of war on a field

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