Prized Lessons at CA: Community Matters
by Mike Davis, Ph.D.
Head of School
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Head of School
I am often asked about what I think students get from a Colorado Academy education. One might expect an answer about academic preparedness, athletic or artistic achievement, or the many ways that students at CA can take part in extraordinary experiences. Honestly, my answer goes to another place.
Among the most prized benefits of learning at CA is the experience of being part of a community. CA students learn that caring for the next person—whether that person is in the next desk, the next neighborhood, city, or country—strengthens human experience. That lesson begins with our youngest CA students and continues until the day of senior graduation.
Come see it in action for yourself next week as our Upper School students continue a decades-long tradition of celebrating Students H.O.P.E., when nearly 2,000 low-income Denver residents are invited to CA’s campus for a holiday celebration complete with food, health vaccinations, holiday gifts, children’s books, school supplies, and more. Every year, our students run this remarkable event. Organizing the day creates a learning opportunity for students on a scale most high-schoolers would not experience until long after they had graduated. It is a community commitment like no other. Year after year, student organizers say the best part of the day is the gratitude they experience from the people they are helping.
Do these kinds of experiences at CA stick with kids after they graduate? Rest assured, they do. The examples are many, from students who choose service-oriented careers, spend time in organizations like the Peace Corps and Teach for America, or who commit to simply make someone’s day brighter every day.
Case in point: the student press at Harvard University published a story this week about 2017 graduate Justin Bassey. The Crimson headline reads, “For Harvard’s Bassey, Service Comes Before the Steals.” The story details Bassey’s work in the community, the connective power of sports, the support of teachers, coaches, mentors, and parents, and the incredible compassion and humility that he learned along the way.
Another example is Cameron Patterson ’10. He has been serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and, more recently, traveled to Puerto Rico to help reunify families after Hurricane Maria devastated the island.
Serving a community and taking responsibility for the well-being of other people—that’s a lesson CA students learn inside and outside the classroom. And so, during this season of giving, I am grateful for the gifts of faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni and school leaders who create and preserve our community at CA.
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