ALUMNI CONTINUE ROBUST INVOLVEMENT AT GREENHILLS

Greenhills is fortunate to boast an alumni community that continues to give back and be engaged through a variety of avenues. Among the many ways that alums participate in the life of the school are as forensics and robotics coaches, on the Board of Trustees and Alumni Council, as visiting lecturers in the classroom and motivational speakers for team sports, and with providing professional networking opportunities for each other and current students.

Earlier this year, alums from the classes of 2023 and 2024 participated in two focus groups that Dr. John Lund, government and journalism faculty at Greenhills, conducted as part of the school’s Teaching and Learning Growth Program (TLGP). Facilitated by Jenna Goldenberg, the school’s director of teaching and learning, TLGP is designed for current faculty members to enhance, refine, and interrogate their instructional strategies from a variety of vantage points to benefit students and the learning environment.

The online conversations with recent alums focused on how Greenhills, and specifically Dr. Lund’s classroom, equipped students for their university careers, particularly their experience with navigating political discourse on their respective college campuses.

Not surprisingly, the alums expressed wide appreciation for the preparation that the Greenhills social sciences curriculum provided them while at the school.

Some of their comments included:

• “The Greenhills environment was full of respect and pretty open-minded. We may not have fully agreed but there was no clapping back.”
• “Dr. Lund’s class taught me how to research real sources (not just news stories), for instance by reading the actual platform of a political party, showing it’s OK to agree with one issue and not agree with another from the same group.”
• “Because of Greenhills I have the skills to maintain my composure and develop an understanding of people with opposing views.”

As John Lund shared, “Convening these focus groups really underlined for me the critical importance of maintaining an open and trusting dialogue in our classrooms, which allows for broader investment in the material and ultimately a deeper understanding of the issues and of ourselves.”