Student Outcomes
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Programs such as Blair LEADS compel students to interact and meet classmates whom they might not have otherwise met. Having the ability to work with a diverse group of people is an invaluable leadership skill, and alumni consistently tell us it is one of the best things they learned at Blair.
Carolyn Conforti-Browse, Director of Leadership Programs
Through the combination of formal leadership opportunities and applied-learning experiences inside and outside of class, Blair guides its students to become the leaders they are meant to be, leaders who are needed across every college campus and every profession. Blair encourages students to go out into the world and interact with people of other cultures and experience how they live to gain cultural awareness and emotional intelligence nd to become true global citizens who are ready to take on the challenges of our highly connected world. Our student leaders partner with various nonprofits for throughout each year, and service efforts can take place as close to campus as the local food pantry or as far away as Costa Rica. Some trips come to fruition because a faculty member is particularly interested in learning more about a given destination and invites students to take part in the excursion, while others become campus traditions because a student is particularly passionate about a cause.
At Blair, being a leader doesn't mean being the most extroverted person in the room; rather, faculty members emphasize the importance of different types of leadership, while also encouraging collaboration with others when problem-solving. Whether they are helping to run campus organizations, supporting classmates in the dorms as prefects, addressing class-wide issues as members of Class Council, or serving Blair's neighbors through Blair LEADS or the Service Corps, our students get a well-rounded view of leadership and what it means to not only serve others, but also how to work alongside those from different backgrounds and skillsets toward a common goal.
Opportunities for collaboration abound across Blair's campus and curriculum as departments come together to make learning truly interdisciplinary. Every grade level learns the importance of teamwork and problem-solving, beginning with Blair's first-year seminar and Blair LEADS coursework, and continuing through eleventh- and twelfth-grades as classes across departments underscore these skills as necessary for success in the 21st-century world.
Global Engagement
Each year, we offer a range of domestic and international travel opportunities that combine elements of cultural immersion, service, leadership and research. In recent years, Blair students have traveled to five continents and 14 U.S. states on trips that have been initiated and planned by both students and faculty who are excited to share their interests, passions and curiosity about the world around them. Academic work takes on real-world meaning when, for example, a history class helps a student understand the context of a historical site or an art class illuminates the importance of a cultural phenomenon or a language class helps a student communicate with a new friend. During and after each trip, students and teachers gather to reflect on their shared experience, its meaning in their lives and its impact on their academic coursework.
Travel opportunities over winter, spring and summer breaks vary by year, and many are once-in-a-lifetime events, such as Blair’s recent musical tours of Italy and England, and cultural-immersion trips to Kenya, Cuba and Costa Rica. Although faculty chaperones always accompany travelers, a number of the School’s most popular excursions have been initiated by passionate students, such as the annual trek to St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Tennessee. Click on the accordions below to view our recent international and U.S. destinations. Our news archive also delves into our more recent trips in more detail.
Collaborative Learning
Blair's community learning hub, the Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration, features highly configurable spaces that provide flexible, inviting learning and meeting space for clubs, study groups, conferences, guest lectures and a host of other co-curricular educational opportunities. The Chiang-Elghanayan Center is also home to Blair’s renowned Skeptics lecture series, which invites experts from many fields and every corner of the globe share their knowledge with the Blair community in this exciting venue.
Blair’s fine arts department holds classes in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center’s ceramics studio, two fully equipped media labs and airy, light-filled drawing, painting and architecture studios. Beyond the academic class day, these facilities are available to all members of the community, making the Chiang-Elghanayan Center a place where ideas pertaining to many disciplines come to life.
With computer science, engineering and robotics anchored in dedicated and well-equipped classrooms in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center, Blair’s technology students and faculty take advantage of their proximity to the Chiang-Elghanyan Center's art studios, media labs and maker space to collaborate with student and faculty artists on any number of projects, and students can easily continue to work outside of class hours in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center’s facilities.
Leadership & Public Service
When students apply academic studies to real-world issues and serve others for the good of all, impactful connections to people, places and ideas develop. That’s why Blair faculty members connect on-campus classroom experiences to real-world service opportunities. The meaningful and scholarly work in which our community is engaged allows students to act with purpose and take leadership roles in exploring and tackling real-world problems. Through partnerships with area nonprofits, Blair students have become leaders and change agents in our local community. Our annual Day of Service, which puts hundreds of Blair volunteers to work for local causes, is our most visible effort, yet individual students, teams, clubs and Blair LEADS sections collaborate with local food pantries, schools and more to lead service efforts throughout the year.
Leadership and service opportunities abound amid daily life at Blair. Prefects, members of class councils, athletic team captains, club presidents, musical and performing arts group leaders, table feet, peer tutors, head admission tour guides and Blue & White Key Society members all hold leadership roles that require them to put leadership principles they’ve learned into practice. At the same time, teachers urge all students to lead and serve by fulfilling their academic and extracurricular responsibilities to the best of their ability and demonstrating care for all in the Blair community.