Category: Leadership

Youth Forum Switzerland

Youth Forum Switzerland (YFS) 2025 at International School of Zug and Luzern (ISZL):

We are filled with gratitude and pride for the 8th edition of YFS, an event that has truly embodied the power of youth to inspire change. YFS is a landmark event that amplifies youth voices and highlights their power to effect meaningful change in our world. What began eight years ago as a bold idea has grown into one of ISZL’s most extraordinary traditions, embodying the very essence of ISZL’s vision to transform learning into action.

YFS was born out of a pivotal moment when ISZL students attending the World Open Forum in Davos noticed the absence of a student voice in global conversations. With remarkable determination, they advocated for this void to be addressed, convincing the World Economic Forum to support their vision of a platform for youth. Today, YFS stands as a testament to their initiative as a vibrant platform for changemakers to address critical global issues, with many speakers attending Davos, making ISZL their first stop to engage with our students. With student leadership at its heart, this year’s forum included:
– Student-led workshops, panels, and keynote speeches,
– Inspiring discussions with local and international guest speakers,
– Unforgettable moments of collaboration, passion, and hope.

As Kurt Hahn, founder of the IB, stated: “There is more in you than you think.” YFS proves the truth of these words as ISZL students rise to meet challenges, lead with purpose, and work towards solutions that inspire hope and progress.

🙏 Thank You to Our Community:

  • To the more than 950 students and educators who participated, your passion and dedication to fostering connections with changemakers have been integral to the forum’s impact. This year’s group was again exceptional.
  • To the YFS Team student organizers, your months of diligent planning and effort have created an event that inspired meaningful learning and encouraged dialogue across generations. The legacy of your hard work will continue to resonate long after today.
  • To our extraordinary guest speakers, over 65 influential changemakers who generously shared their insights and stories. Your perspectives have enriched and empowered more than 950 young minds, leaving a profound impression on us all. And, a special thanks to Jaideep Bansal, who has been to all eight editions of YFS, and for his opening address.
  • To our High School Team and all ISZL Staff, thank you for your continued leadership, unwavering dedication, and commitment to bringing this forum to life every year.
  • To ISZL’s Fund for Excellence (FFE), thank you for your continued support.

💻 Couldn’t join us? Catch highlights and key sessions on the Youth Forum Switzerland website: YFS Videos

Thank you to everyone who made this year’s YFS a transformative and unforgettable experience. Together, we amplify the voices shaping a brighter future.

[Photo Credits: Ana María Torres]

Our Strategic Direction

We remain dedicated to advancing ISZL with a clear and purposeful focus, driven by our Mission and Vision, which are central to everything we do. These core principles shape our Objectives and Key Results (OKR) strategy, enabling us to adapt swiftly to rapid changes in technology, education, and society. 

Developed through community feedback last year, here is an overview of ISZL’s four Objectives that will guide our strategic efforts this year:

The first and critical objective is to Improve Individual and Collective Responsibility and Accountability for Learning. This reflects our belief that learning is a shared journey. We are dedicated to fostering an environment where staff actively engage in professional growth, deepen conceptual understanding across all subjects, and enhance our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) to ensure every student succeeds.

Our second key focus is to Implement Effective Practices to Innovate for a Sustainable Organisation. This involves ensuring ISZL operates as an organisation with maximum efficiency and resilience. This year, our goals include refining key policies, streamlining digital systems, and further securing ISZL’s long-term future.

We are also proud of our third objective: Position ISZL at the Forefront of Environmental Sustainability. Driven by our students’ passion and advocacy, this objective holds us accountable for leading by example and inspiring future global citizens. Initiatives this year include transitioning our high school campus to solar energy and establishing a comprehensive sustainability plan.

Lastly, the objective to Foster Human-Centred Principles underscores our belief that learning is a social endeavour and how our community is our greatest strength.

Guided by our mission and strategy, I look forward to partnering with you this year to advance our efforts to realise ISZL’s vision of supporting our students’ holistic development. We are committed to continuous improvement, ensuring that we become a little better every day.

Better Together

Reflecting on the state of world affairs and the challenges we have been facing, from a worldwide pandemic to historical political events to social injustice, among other critical issues, it would be easy to understand the impulse to have consigned 2020 to the local Ökihof (Swiss recycling centre) for recycling and become a distant memory. However, as difficult as the past year has been, and without diminishing in any way the immeasurable losses experienced by so many of our community members, 2020 has also taught us many lessons and forced us to learn more about ourselves, our work, and our communities. As 2021 is continuing to unfold, and many of the same challenges remain, I am hopeful that the experiences from both 2020 and 2021 to date will serve to provide a constructive and insightful pathway forward for our time ahead.

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s book, The Fellowship of the Ring (a personal favourite), there is a lament from the main character wishing the challenges they were facing did not happen during their time. Gandalf replies, “So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us”. 

What our community of international schools has done with this time has led to so many inspiring stories about innovation, reinvention, and the learning of new skills. The importance of community, relationships, health, and well-being, and our ability to be present have all come to the forefront. We have been moved and buoyed by the kindness, compassion, and empathy extended by friends and strangers alike. There is no longer any doubt (if there ever was any) that learning is a social endeavour, and through our need to connect, we are reminded that our diversity and differences are among our greatest strengths. 

Perhaps the most enduring response during these challenging times has been the collective bolstering of our international community’s esprit de corps, from which we have emerged more aligned and unified. Borrowing from the wisdom young children often convey to adults, my three-year-old’s recent declaration may best summarise what has buoyed us: “We are better together”. I feel a profound sense of gratitude to be part of our International School of Zug and Luzern (ISZL) community and our larger collection of international schools and organizations as we work through challenges, seek positives, and embrace the new opportunities that have emerged from these difficult times. 

These are not pollyannish declarations; the pandemic has reminded us of how central schools can be towards uniting communities, achieving more together, supporting our collective well-being, and realizing our potential. It is also during these times when our schools’ missions are perhaps most relevant. In our context here at ISZL, I am grateful to be serving at a school with a mission in which we are committed to being a “community of learners determined to make the world – or our corner of it – a better, kinder place.” And, similar to schools around the globe, it is this very commitment that leads to the realization of our vision to help every student turn their learning into action, creating opportunities to stretch themselves further and achieve more than they believe possible.

Featured Photo Credit: ISZL Communications Team

Photo Below: Me, a cellphone, and a fortunate moment

Our three-year-old reminding me that we are all “better together”

Journeys and Transitions

While the very nature of an international community is one of transience, it is important not to diminish the challenges and opportunities associated with the transitions themselves. As the departure of valued colleagues and dear friends are accompanied by the arrival of new families and the promise of new friendships, we also find ourselves managing pandemic-induced vicissitudes. But, with every challenge, we also seek to learn from our experience and embrace new opportunities.

Could anyone have imagined last semester that campuses around the world would be closed from one day to the next, that over one billion students would spend several months learning from home and connecting with teachers online? As we know, this is exactly what happened. It was remarkable to see how quickly our community transitioned to a new reality and incorporated creative, and, in several cases, better ways of doing things. It was also affirming to witness what can be accomplished when real or perceived barriers are removed. 

Our life journeys will include the need to face adversity, when our character and values are tested, when we are transformed for the better. We know that real growth comes from overcoming setbacks and challenges. We tend to learn much more from our failures than our successes. We face our crucibles, learn from those experiences, and emerge transformed in a fundamental way, though transitioning through these stages is not always easy. The author, William Bridges, makes a key distinction between the impact of change and transition on our lives:

“…change is situational. Transition, on the other hand, is psychological. It is not those events, but rather the inner reorientation and self-redefinition that you have to go through in order to incorporate any of those changes into your life. Without a transition, a change is just a rearrangement of the furniture. Unless transition happens, the change won’t work, because it doesn’t ‘take’”.

The pandemic has challenged us in ways we could not have previously imagined. And, while it has not always been easy, our families, teachers, and staff have all inspired and emboldened us. Our students have been heroic throughout this journey, showing us how to flourish with grace, class, and good humour during a time of uncertainty and change.

Looking ahead, we will continue to prepare and plan for a school year using design principles that are adaptable and flexible in nature. We are committed to embracing transitions, learning from our experiences, incorporating new opportunities, and advancing a learning programme designed to help every student turn their learning into action, and stretch themselves further and achieve more than they believe possible [ISZL Vision].

Photo Credit: Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash

Learning Into Action

What is your mission or purpose in life? What is your vision for your personal future?

While we may not ask ourselves these questions very often, the ensuing reflections are often helpful in clarifying our values, articulating what is important to us, guiding our decisions, and determining how we focus our energy and time. As these questions are also of paramount importance to any organisation, ISZL has recently undergone an extensive community-wide process to re-articulate our school’s guiding statements.

OUR MISSION
We are a community of learners determined to make the world – or our corner of it – a better, kinder place. We reflect our values in everything we do so that we make the most of the opportunities and challenges in a spirit of enthusiastic inquiry.

The mission statement is about our school’s purpose with a focus on today and what we do to realise these aims. The words, “we are a community of learners” signify that ISZL is not just a school, but rather a community working together to positively impact the lives of others.

During Professor Yong Zhao’s recent visit to our school, his words further emphasised this key facet of our mission: We don’t just learn from others, we learn for others as well. ISZL students embody these ideals every day through our many service programmes and the recent Youth Forum Switzerland event, for example. By creating something of value, there is purpose in learning, which enhances passion, creativity, and the development of an entrepreneurial mindset.

OUR VISION
We help every student turn their learning into action, creating the opportunity to stretch themselves further and achieve more than they believe possible.

A vision is designed to be bold and aspirational. It is a belief and an ethos that drives us forward to realise the school we want to become. The mission represents a constant purpose that transcends time. In contrast, the vision is what we seek for our future selves. When we begin to actually achieve our vision, then it will be time to set a new and bolder aspiration for our future.

While our mission is about what we collectively do as a community, the vision is exclusively focused on our students and how we help every student turn their learning into action, stretching themselves further and achieving more than they believe possible. This vision can only be fully achieved through the aligned efforts of all community members.

The next step in this journey is to map out how we will advance our mission and vision to achieve our goals. The critical work to establish an articulated strategy and associated projects is currently in process and will be shared out in an upcoming edition of the ISZL Bulletin.

In the meantime, I would like to again thank you for your feedback and ideas during this journey. Your contributions, particularly from the Design Lab process, have played a critical role, not only in the development of ISZL’s guiding statements, but also towards the development of strategic priorities.

Photo Credit: ISZL Communications and Public Relations Team

New Year, New Beginnings

As we embark on the new year and decade ahead, and in the spirit of new beginnings, it is with a sense of excitement, pride, and honour that we launch ISZL’s new guiding statements.

We would like to extend our deep levels of appreciation for our community’s involvement in the development of our new mission, vision, and values. The year-long process that led to this moment involved embracing a design principles approach. We engaged with hundreds of community members to explore the existential questions associated with our school’s purpose and direction.

The outcome of this work is a mission that commits not only students, but all adults in our community, to a culture of learning and a determination to make a positive difference. The new vision, in turn, speaks to our paramount focus on ensuring students realise their full potential and are able to turn their learning into action. 

Our community-wide process also resulted in the adoption of ISZL’s past mission-related words – respect, motivate, and achieve – as our school’s values. They have been transformed into action statements to further hold us accountable to realising these ideals. These values serve to celebrate ISZL’s history and recognise the efforts of those past community members, whose ‘shoulders we are now standing on’, who are enabling us to envisage the next steps for our school’s future.

We hope you take some time to engage with the complete set of new ISZL Guiding Statements. The statements include a reference to the school’s identity in addition to a newly introduced and critically important set of learning principles designed to guide teaching and learning at ISZL.

To that end, it is with great excitement and belief in our future that we share ISZL’s new mission, vision, and value statements:

OUR MISSION
We are a community of learners determined to make the world – or our corner of it – a better, kinder place. We reflect our values in everything we do so that we make the most of the opportunities and challenges in a spirit of enthusiastic inquiry.

OUR VISION
We help every student turn learning into action, creating opportunities for students to stretch themselves further and achieve more than they believe possible.

OUR VALUES

  • We respect. We show empathy and are inclusive and thoughtful in our interactions with others. Every person is valued and valuable.
  • We motivate. We inspire each other and grow by building on everyone’s individual and collective passions.
  • We achieve. We create an exceptional learning environment focused on academic achievement and holistic development.

Looking ahead, these new statements must be much more than simply ‘words on paper’. Our collective commitment is to turn these ideals into action and to ensure our guiding statements come alive every day to guide our work, decisions, and strategy. Over the next year, we will bring you stories of how our statements guide the advancement of our culture, school development, and approaches to teaching and learning. We encourage you to follow ISZL on social media to stay up-to-date with our progress: ISZL Facebook, ISZL Instagram, ISZL Twitter and ISZL Linkedin.

In terms of next steps, we are currently working through the thousands of feedback data points submitted by our community during the design process. This will assist us in establishing a strategic framework and corresponding objectives to realise ISZL’s new mission and vision. We expect this work to be completed in the next few months. 

It is thrilling to start the year with a renewed sense of clarity about who we are and who we want to become. We are thankful to be on this journey with you and look forward to everything our community can achieve together in 2020 and beyond!

Barry Dequanne (twitter: @dequanne)

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

Civic Responsibilities

One of the many things I appreciate and admire about Switzerland is the collective commitment to civic responsibility. The pragmatic Swiss approach to the establishment of community norms in combination with both an individual and societal belief in supporting and adhering to these agreements have resulted in a country that runs incredibly well.

ISZL‘s commitment to these ideals was evident during last week’s road safety training. Our Kindergarten students had the opportunity to learn from a local police officer about traffic rules and, more precisely, how to navigate pedestrian crossings. The fact that young children in Switzerland take public transportation and make their way to school unaccompanied by an adult does not happen by accident. The effectiveness with which the local police partner with schools to educate young children about their civic responsibilities is clearly by design.

The police officer who met with our students demonstrated the highest levels of professionalism and impressive pedagogical skills. The traffic safety lesson, conducted in partnership with ISZL’s teachers, involved differentiated and personalised instruction, focused on building relationships, and provided students with an opportunity to develop their German language skills.

The resulting demonstration of learning involved each student individually stopping traffic with a hand wave, looking both ways to ensure their safety, and then crossing the street at the designated crosswalk. Of course, the students were also encouraged to give a wave of thanks as they passed in front of the cars. For those students who were initially reluctant to cross the road, the police officer and teachers gently helped them to develop the understanding, skills, and confidence needed. It was exemplary teaching at every level!

ISZL’s vision is to help every student turn learning into action, creating opportunities for students to stretch themselves further and achieve more than they believe possible. The realisation of this vision will look different at every level of the school. At the Kindergarten level, our students were able to turn their learning into something they may not have thought possible – to cross a busy street alone.

Thank you to ISZL’s teachers and the Zuger Polizei for their important work to ensure our students continue to learn about their civic responsibilities and turn their learning into responsible action.

Featured Image by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

Inclusion & Community

‘We are all ISZL’ are the words that best capture our recent work in the area of inclusion. For the past year, ISZL staff and representative groups of students and parents have been engaging in professional development sessions, workshops, and discussions focused on inclusion and what we value as a community.

The International Baccalaureate (IB) plays a vital role in supporting this effort. The IB’s mission is “to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect”. As an IB School, ISZL has been embracing inclusion and acceptance of different perspectives and people for years. It is a priority to ensure that every member of our community feels safe and has a sense of belonging. Our commitment towards realising this goal is achieved, in part, through the adoption of the IB’s learning principles and learner profile, in addition to engaging and fostering a welcoming international community. The IB’s mission statement serves as an important additional reference as we further articulate ISZL’s values and beliefs, foundational documents, and associated policies.

In order to further advance awareness associated with inclusion, a group of teachers, leadership team members, and counsellors partnered with Educate and Celebrate, an organisation from the United Kingdom that supports schools as they work to ensure environments that prioritise inclusion. From this partnership, ECCO (Educate and Celebrate Coordinators) was formed to identify and implement 31 action items over the next two years. One of the most critical action items was to update the ISZL Inclusion policy:

ISZL agrees to support, respect and seek inclusion with regards to the safety and care of all community members. This includes but is not limited to: age; disabilities; ethnicity; gender; gender expression; gender identity; health needs; languages spoken; marital status; mental health; national origin; political affiliation; race; religion; sex; sexual orientation, and any additional characteristic protected under Swiss law.

ISZL endeavours to understand and protect the civil and human rights of all individuals within the community, striving to maintain a high level of multicultural awareness and knowledge about all applicable laws and statutes related to non-discrimination and inclusion. This policy relates to all decisions and advocacy regarding staffing, recruitment, student care, suitability of external organisation partnerships, and curriculum. ISZL will review this policy, as well as practices and procedures, periodically.

The policy was then transformed into a poster that shares the essence of the updated inclusion policy and the sentiment that ‘We Are All ISZL’. You can see this poster below.

If you are interested in learning more or getting involved in supporting the work of this group, please contact our Counsellor Stephany Herzog. I look forward to sharing more developments in this important area throughout the coming year.

“We Are ISZL Photo” by ISZL’s fabulous publications and communications team.

Feature Photo by Timon Studler on Unsplash

Reflections on the Future of Learning

Consider the future for our current kindergarten students and what the world will be like when they graduate in the year 2031. Given the technological advances we are witnessing today, any description of our near future that does not resemble something out of a science fiction story may likely represent an underestimation of the changes that will impact our lives. It is within this context of accelerating change that we are tasked with the challenge to reimagine school and learning. If one word could be used to describe the current educational landscape, it would indeed be change. Three factors associated with driving this change are arguably the areas of social and emotional development, personalised learning, and emerging technologies.

Social and Emotional Development

While the discussion surrounding social and emotional skills is not new, there is an ever-increasing importance placed on this area. The developmental abilities of empathy, initiative, curiosity, resilience, and adaptability will be vital in preparing our students for the rapid changes in society we are experiencing. How do schools ensure that students are ready to communicate effectively, engage with others in meaningful and authentic ways, and embrace the inherent beauty of human nature?

Thomas Friedman argues in his book, Thank You for Being Late, that our students are growing up in an age of acceleration in which technological change is outpacing human adaptability, as per Eric Teller’s graph.

If it is correct to assume that technology and globalisation will not slow down, then our focus must be on improving human adaptability by ensuring a population that is more agile, creative, and adaptable.

Schools also have a responsibility to reconsider what is now commonly viewed as our outdated and misaligned systems and metrics of success, which are associated with rising rates of mental illness. The narratives related to achievement and personal realisation are considered to be contributing to the adverse health outcomes found in society. How can schools and society support our students in redefining measures of success that include balance, health, and well-being? Several collaborative groups are seeking to answer this very question, which is exemplified by the Mastery Transcript Consortium and the work of universities and K-12 schools to redefine student transcripts.

Personalised Learning

In the recent KnowledgeWorks, The Future of Learning Report, the authors describe the future of learning as one where, “flexible configurations of human educators and mentors, along with digital learning coaches and companions, will be coordinated seamlessly to support learners’ short- and long- term needs and help all students reach their goals.” Personal growth of this nature is requiring the development of customised learning relationships and connections with an expanding range of learning partners. Our current school structures do not necessarily always lend themselves well to this system of learning, particularly when considering an expanded view of what constitutes mentors and learning coaches.

Schools are experimenting with systematic changes, such as flexible scheduling, blended learning opportunities involving both face-to-face and online opportunities, the redesign of campus learning spaces, and alternative credentialing, including a complete redefinition of report cards and transcripts. Technology is, of course, also challenging schools in many ways as learning continues to be more and more personalised due, in part, to a push towards 1:1 computing environments and an increase in adaptive software systems.

Emerging Technologies

Many of us have already experienced adaptive learning in which a program analyses our performance in real time and then modifies the teaching methods and curriculum focus. The use of an adaptive program or app to learn a new language is now commonplace. The field of education will undoubtedly continue to be revolutionised as machine learning becomes more prevalent. As computer systems use data and statistical techniques to “learn” on their own and continue to improve performance without a human explicitly programming the computer, schools will need to continue to adapt to this new reality. Teachers can increasingly use learning and predictive analytics to connect millions of data points to arrive at conclusions and predict future performance based on past data. One of the key outcomes we see today is an increase in personalised opportunities and students guiding and pacing their learning.

What we are experiencing now is considered to be the third educational revolution, following the high school movement and education for life in the early 1900s and then the support for higher education at around the midpoint of the last century. As the Future of Learning report highlights, schools are now becoming more fluid in that we are moving from a fixed structure driven by administrative convenience to one that is a fluid network of relationship-based formats that reflect a learners’ needs, interests, and goals. Algorithms and artificial intelligence are providing personalised learning opportunities and educators who best match each learner’s needs. We are also increasingly seeing a demand for flexible and customised learning environments which many of our current administrative structures act as constraints.

While there is much work ahead of us, the International School of Zug and Luzern’s (ISZL) foundations of an adaptive and evolutionary mindset provide our community with an effective basis to embrace the changes in the educational landscape we are experiencing today and will continue to do so in the future. Learning at ISZL is guided by an inquiry-based and transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary program that values play, experiential and project-based learning, and hands-on experiences, which are supported by a relationship-based and connected community. It is these set of values, philosophical approaches, and sense of community that will both empower and enable ISZL to adapt and thrive in an environment that requires critical building blocks for a digital economy while not allowing technology to outpace our humanity.

Reference:

KnowledgeWorks. 2018. Navigating the Future of Learning Forecast 5.0. Retrieved from https://knowledgeworks.org/resources/forecast-5/

Featured image: Photo by Myles Tan on Unsplash

Begin with the End in Mind

As we embark on the new school year ahead, I find it helpful to reflect on the past year to learn from our successes, challenges, and what we could do better. To that end, senior graduation represents a particularly important reference point given the culminating nature of the event that has involved the collective efforts of students, the support of their families, and the work of teachers and staff from all grade levels and areas of the school. It is hoped that graduation, among other goals, represents a time to celebrate student achievement, communicate what makes a school special, and highlight the ideals and values that challenge us both as individuals and a community to be our best selves.

It is without question that student speeches and performances are the most inspiring moments of a graduation ceremony. This may be the reason why school directors are usually asked to speak at the start of the ceremony! I am always grateful for the opportunity to speak with students and, in my role as Director, hope to use the moment to again articulate who we are and the ideals and values that guide our learning. The exercise is helpful in serving as a reminder of what frames our professional work and how we can best support students. Looking to the year ahead and in the spirit of beginning with the end in mind, I am including the following speech, prepared for the International School of Zug and Luzern’s (ISZL) graduation, as part of my reflections for the year ahead. 

Graduation Address:

Guten abend mit einande. Good afternoon honoured guests: Board of Directors, teachers, families, and friends, and, of course, our “graduands”.  I called you graduands because it is the official term used to describe someone who is a candidate for a diploma. The related word, “graduation” is the actual act of receiving a diploma, which will then make you a graduate, a person who has earned the diploma. So, graduands, if all goes well today, you will soon all be graduates!

Continuing the theme of examining words and in the spirit of celebrating our wonderful host country, I would like to also highlight a few Swiss German words that have provided for windows into Swiss culture (my apologies in advance for pronunciation errors).

Most people appreciate Znüni, the nine am morning break to eat Gipfeli, which may be stored in a kitchen cupboard, which is apparently one of the most difficult words to pronounce: Chuchichäschtli.

And then there is a word that some of you may have used to describe Mr. Wexler or me at some point: Bünzli is the word for those boring people who follow all the rules and make sure everyone else does too!

There are of course the foods, Raclette, Birchermüesli, and Rösti.

Words and culture are important. While this may be a lighthearted approach to reflecting on a country’s identity, I hope it also serves as a reminder of the influence language can have on a special place like ISZL and our school’s culture, which is framed by three key words: Respect, Motivate, and Achieve.

Class of 2018, you have lived up to and exceeded the expectations associated with the school’s mission. Your self-motivation and impressive achievements have inspired our community to further realize our collective potentials. And, perhaps most importantly, you have always acted with the highest levels of respect for yourself and all those who have had the good fortunate to enter the narrative of your classes’ learning journey.

Perhaps it is this focus on respect that has led to the prevailing sentiment that ISZL is much more than just a school. In many ways, it is the shared experiences with special people that make ISZL such an extraordinary place. In the introduction to the yearbook, I borrowed a quote from the French novella titled The Little Prince, which may best explain what makes ISZL special: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” These words are apropos to ISZL’s context in the sense that the school and this 2018 graduating class may only be fully understood by looking beyond what is readily visible.

While you cannot necessarily see the sense of belonging, the supportive environment, and the feeling of safety, there is a palpable awareness of their presence. The same is true about optimism, positive energy, and a sense of promise. There is a discernible feeling on campus that anything is possible, the future is bright, and there is an opportunity to be part of something special while contributing to making a positive difference. There is a serious and disciplined commitment to academic learning but also a sense of enjoyment and play. This is evident as students and teachers prepare to engage with the seemingly endless list of activities, clubs, charities, trips, and sports that exemplify the ISZL learning experience. The culture of learning is a ubiquitous presence on campus.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we can see that relationships are the foundation of what makes ISZL special. What is not necessarily easy to see is how profound and respectful the relationships between the Class of 2018, staff, and parents are at the school, and how this commitment to others represents the fundamental factor that contributes to making ISZL and this graduation class so unique and special

Class of 2018, thank you for being such impressive ambassadors of ISZL’s values and culture. We are deeply grateful for how you have represented and personified ISZL’s culture, values, and the words Respect, Motivation, and Achievement. Congratulations on your well-deserved graduation today. Thank you.