Optimism Fuels…Opportunity, Innovation, and Connection
We’ve begun! A week ago today we officially began our 2025-2026 school year at St. Johnsbury Academy—with a record-breaking 9th grade class, an energetic cohort of new faculty, and a surge of positive energy that has us all feeling the emotion we’re aiming to explore this year as our theme: Optimism Fuels…Opportunity, Innovation, and Connection.
When I first encountered St. Johnsbury Academy six years ago, I was moved by the school’s commitment to “deep optimism regarding young people.” Since then, I have seen how this optimism and sense of hope moves our community and is one of its foundational, indispensable values.
Optimism fuels both our daily work and our thinking about the future. All of our values as a school make us special–our commitment to a wide range of opportunities, strong relationships and connections in our community, and our insistence on kindness and respect. Optimism, as a posture toward our beliefs and one another, stands up all these other qualities of character and collective endeavor.
Could there be a force more necessary than optimism in the world we’re navigating? My hope is that this year we will remember and tap into our deep optimism regarding these young people we cherish, and find its many expressions as students work with us to learn, grow, and act with purpose.
Keep watching this newsletter every week to see all the amazing things our students and faculty are doing throughout the year. Welcome back, everyone!