Mission & Vision

Dear Moravian Academy,

 

A few weeks ago, I shared with you an update about the significance of where we are as a school. As the world and our community evolve, we look out from the strategic crossroads of our journey and see tremendous opportunities. Guiding us on this journey is our school mission: the ideas, beliefs, and values that unite us as students, teachers, parents, alumni, and community members. We've been making important, incremental progress at our three distinct yet interconnected campuses, united by a shared mission. It is my pleasure to share that mission with you now.

Moravian Academy’s mission empowers us to become limitless learners as we discover new ideas and create new self-expressions. We do more than check boxes; we celebrate the unique potential of every individual.  Our path to academic excellence harnesses the teachable moments of both success and failure, as we explore the complexities of our world with curiosity, confidence, and compassion. Our commitment to courageous conversations means that we actively learn from and support the different identities we embody, we respect each other’s views, and we lead with head and heart. Immersed in an environment of love and understanding, our students answer the questions: Who am I and who can I become?

This mission, crafted with the input from our community over the last nine months, is an expression of who we are. It captures the essence of what connects us. It positions us to rise to the contemporary challenges of the current moment while respecting the Moravian and Swain history of the past. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, who shepherded our mission from one generation to the next, I want to thank the many people who provided insight through surveys and focus groups, especially the task force of trustees and faculty who worked so hard to make our mission one that we can all stand behind with pride.

 

It is important to know that our mission is a living document. Designed to encapsulate who we are today, it also leaves space for growth as a collective and as individual campuses with specific cultures and programs. The values and ideas represented here will remain firmly at the core of our work, but the words of the mission statement itself may change in the future as we learn more through our identity and strategy work.

We want each campus to maintain its distinct character because the philosophies and practices that bring this mission and vision to life look and feel different at each campus. Our next step is to articulate the essential characteristics that make Downtown, Swain, and Merle-Smith special and distinct.

 

We will express these separate campus identities through what’s called a “portrait of a learner”, which is a distillation of the values that our students embody while immersed in each learning environment. Your input is necessary and we will hold sessions this fall with faculty and staff, students, and parents to help us create these portraits of our learners.   

If you refer to the strategic building blocks graphic below, this work corresponds to the third tier: philosophy and practices. Once we’ve completed the community portraits, we will begin the work of creating signature programs that align with the identity of each campus and support our shared mission.

Signature learning programs have always been a hallmark of the Moravian Academy experience. Independent research presentations dazzle on the Merle-Smith Campus. In the Spanish Immersion Program at the Downtown Campus students are becoming fully bilingual. Swain’s Public Speaking Program leads students to find and use their voices.

 

As our school grows, we're excited to enhance these programs and develop new, innovative offerings that align with the philosophy and practices of each campus, increasing the learning and leading options for students across our school. Developing these programs will be the result of our vision and will be shaped by our mission and portraits of the learner.

I look forward to continuing this work with you as a community.   Sincerely,

Jeff Zemsky Head of School