2025-2026 All-School Theme

What if the arc of a student’s brilliance doesn’t begin with a college entry but in how they are seen, challenged, and held in schools like ours?

Before joining Moravian Academy, I spent more than a decade inside highly selective colleges and universities. Over the course of my tenure, I read more than 60,000 applications. Each one was a collection of transcripts, essays, recommendations, interviews, test scores, and dreams, woven into a story of potential and promise. I curated entire classes drawn from the best and brightest around the globe. I followed the full arc of each student’s journey, from the first lines of their college essay to the moment they crossed the graduation stage.

But my greatest learning didn’t come from a single file.

It came from the patterns I saw: Purpose. Presence. Progress. 

The students who thrived across difference and discipline had cultivated something more than credentials. They had learned how to direct their attention with intention. They encountered challenge and stayed curious.They carried a felt sense of why, woven from connection, commitment, and meaning.

For over 15 years, I bore witness to who succeeded in college-young people supported by systems designed to challenge, affirm, and elevate them. Now, I get to co-create the ecosystems where that preparation begins. I’m in the space where potential is cultivated early with the long view in mind.

That’s why I crossed to this side of the proverbial desk.

I came to Moravian Academy because I believe the seeds of lifelong flourishing aren’t planted in college. They’re planted far earlier. In kindergarten classrooms, in middle school advisories, in high school seminar rooms, in the everyday spaces where young people are asked not only to learn, but to matter. 

​​I came because I believe that schools like ours, which are intentional, relational, and deeply human, are the best places to nurture those seeds into something lasting.

That’s why this year’s all-school theme, Purpose. Presence. Progress. is not just a focus. It’s a provocation: a spotlight of the academic excellence, reflective teaching, and whole-child commitment that define who we are and have always been.

It’s the throughline of every thriving student I’ve ever known.

Research and experience show us that the qualities defining thriving students extend far beyond test scores or resumes.

The most successful learners, whether in kindergarten or college, cultivate:

At Moravian Academy, we prepare students not just for college but for lives defined by thoughtful purpose, meaningful presence, and courageous progress.

Because in today’s world, where education faces unprecedented pressures and rapid change, these are the qualities that matter more than ever.

It is no coincidence, then, that this year’s theme: Purpose. Presence. Progress. reflects the very qualities we aim to nurture in every learner and every classroom.

But when purpose, presence, and progress converge, when students align their why, their now, and their next-that is where true flourishing begins.

So this year, I invite every member of our community to reflect and engage with these questions:

Let us be purposeful in our design, present in our relationships, and unafraid to progress toward what has not yet been imagined but will absolutely be realized by our students.

Yours in belonging and collective wellbeing,

Cristina K. Usino, MS, LPC, NCC, RYT200 

Director of Belonging & Collective Wellbeing 

Parent '30 and '32