That Time Of Year

By Allison Gaines Pell,
Head of School

It’s the time of year when we share the news of our 87 seniors’ (393) acceptances into colleges and universities. While you will notice the exceptional schools where our students have earned acceptance, you will also notice the great breadth of their options, spanning from art or music schools to engineering programs to liberal arts programs, from urban to rural, big to tiny, from across the world to the Southwest to the Northeast to right around the corner. 

Of course, this is a testament to our seniors and who they are, and it is also in large part due to the hard work of our college counseling team, their partnerships with our students throughout the 18 months leading up to graduation, and their commitment to helping each student find their best match based on many conversations. We are one of very few schools nationally whose counselors meet with students as actively and frequently throughout the process, and it is a hallmark of the high value Wheeler places on relationships. During this extremely difficult and different year of college admissions, after much hand-wringing about how the season would go, our College Counseling team – Amy Baumgartel Singer, Michael Geller, Dana Watkins — have done incredible work with our students and families, once again. 

This graduating class arrived in 9th grade as we launched our Strategic Design, which has expanded their opportunities for academic challenge and enrichment, for Aerie, for global and individual understanding, and for research and inquiry. This is no doubt noticed by colleges and universities, who sort through many “standard strong” applications each year. Wheeler students stand out – for their poise, their noteworthy experiences at school, for their ambition, and their genuine kindness and empathy. Like the parents of these terrific kids, I am certainly biased, but I think we should all take a moment to celebrate this class and what they have accomplished at Wheeler with two years of Upper School taken over by the pandemic, to consider what they have learned as young people over these most challenging years, and to share in their excitement about where that new knowledge will take them next.

Thank you to our College Counseling team and to all the families, and congratulations to the Class of 2021.