Earlier this week, I arrived in my office to find a note from the founder and President of the Webb debate team. “I am unfortunately out sick today,” he wrote. “Are you up to running practice?” He is a junior at Webb right now. I am the faculty advisor. And yet, for this meeting, I was his substitute teacher.
Those who spend time on Webb’s campus come to realize that this is our standard. Our faculty members go beyond teaching; they coach, they mentor, they study, they advise. Similarly, we expect our students to go beyond traditional learning. We encourage them to teach and guide and lead.
Webb’s debate team has lived up to these expectations. A handful of student leaders started the team last year, and they have led us to remarkable success. Dakota Santana-Grace ’11 is our President – an enthusiastic leader who dominates a room during policy debates and organizes clever lessons to teach the basics of argumentation. Our second-in-command is Elena Scott-Kakures ‘11, whose command of the facts and quieter brand of leadership serves as a guide for the less experienced debaters. Together, they organized, taught, and led a team that hosted its first-ever debate tournament two weeks ago – and brought home the top award in every category.
Of course, plenty of individuals have helped guide and coach these student leaders. Notably, Mr. Lee Harris is the team’s coach, and several faculty members have offered insight and guidance. All of the guidance, though, came at the request of the team’s student leaders. Dakota and Elena sought out Mr. Harris and asked me to serve as faculty advisor. Dakota and Elena asked for advice from Mr. Stockdale and Mr. Bartlett when they needed it. We work for them.
Working in the Office of Admission, I know that parents and students who are new to Webb sometimes scoff at the level of responsibility in the hands of students. “The students teach?” they ask, incredulous. “Yes,” I respond. “They also manage student check-ins, hear disciplinary cases, and sit on some of the school’s most important planning bodies.” The bewildered looks on their faces tell a familiar tale: Webb’s emphasis on true student leadership is singular and exceptional.
Thompson Webb established a school that would educate its students to be honorable leaders in their communities. They were to be principes, non homines: leaders, not ordinary men. To prepare for that role, our students must practice. And so, you’ll find Webb students taking the reins in every arena. In class, ninth grade students teach their peers the complexities of geometry. On the athletic fields, team captains teach skills and model honorable behavior in competition. During meeting blocks, student groups – clubs, class officers, the honor committees, and more – bustle with activity, almost always organized and led by students.
As we sift through hundreds of applications every year, the members of the Admission Committee pay attention to those traits that will allow a new student to carry on and to expand this tradition of student leadership. Is the student willing to be an active, engaged member of the Webb community? Does she have the potential and the desire to find her passion and pursue it with honor? Four years down the road, with the guidance we provide, will he be a leader, or an ordinary man?
For students already here, we know the answers. They think deeply and differently. They demonstrate the kind of initiative and responsibility one struggles to find in most adults. They push their peers and themselves to branch out, to try new activities, and to achieve at an ever higher level. I have been lucky enough to witness this first-hand with the debate team, but it is not an isolated phenomenon. You will not find many ordinary young men and women at Webb.
