Friends Seminary

09/13/2026

The 2026–2027 school year is underway!

This opening days highlight video captures scenes from our Lower School and Middle School during students’ first two days on campus last week — from new routines and classroom moments to joyful reunions, connection, and plenty of energy throughout the halls.

Our Upper School began the year off campus with retreats, service, and other opening-day activities. In the coming days, we’ll be sharing more images from those experiences as well.

Here’s to a wonderful year ahead at Friends!

09/11/2026

09/10/2026

Greetings from Grade 9 at Club Getaway in Kent, Connecticut!

09/04/2026

We’re proud to welcome the faculty and staff joining Friends Seminary for the 2026–2027 school year.

Get to know our newest colleagues and learn more about the experiences, interests and perspectives they bring to the School: https://www.friendsseminary.org/news/2026-08-31/friends-seminary-welcomes-new-faculty-and-staff-for-the-2026-2027-school-year

09/04/2026

There’s a special energy building on 16th Street! We’re excited to welcome students back to campus next week—and to extend an especially warm welcome to those joining Friends for the first time.

We can’t wait for a year of learning, connection and community together. See you soon, Friends! ❤️🦉

09/01/2026

Applications are now open! ✨

Friends Seminary is now accepting applications for the 2027–2028 academic year. We look forward to welcoming prospective students and families to learn more about our community, our Quaker values and the distinctive learning experience at Friends.

Applications are available now through Ravenna. Visit the link in our bio to learn more and begin your application.

https://www.friendsseminary.org/admissions/apply

08/12/2026

Last March, Friends’ Global Education program brought Upper School students to Morocco, where faculty members Kara Kutner, Joseph Sills, and Mouna Fdilat led visits to the Hassan II Mosque, the blue-and-white streets of Rabat, the Ben Youssef Madrasa, the souks of Marrakech, and the Atlas Mountains. Along the way, students considered the relationship between Islamic and Quaker worship, learned about Amazigh history, and visited Dar Taliba, a residential school that provides girls from rural communities with access to education.

The trip was also full of joy: card games and karaoke on train rides, camel rides, calligraphy lessons, henna, shared meals, and music. By the final night, students were left, as Oona ’27 put it, standing in “a sea of smiles and tears.”

Oona’s personal reflection on the program will also be featured in the Fall 2026 issue of Meetinghouse. Read her full reflection: https://www.friendsseminary.org/news/2026-08-04/crossroads-of-culture-a-personal-reflection-by-oona-27

07/29/2026

Congratulations to Ezra ’27, recipient of the inaugural Robert S. Wennett and Mario Cader-Frech Foundation Award! YoungArts recently launched the award, which provides $25,000 to an artist working in design, film, photography or visual art whose practice uplifts or embodies the LGBTQ+ community.

As a Filipino Jewish American and trans-identifying emerging creator, Ezra uses a wide-ranging technical and emotional vocabulary in printmaking and experimental photography to navigate the complexities of mixed-faith and q***r identity. Their practice is dedicated to making the intangible nuances of identity and accessibility visible and felt in the public sphere.

Read Ezra’s interview with YoungArts and learn about their most ambitious project to date, “Putting Myself Out There."

The Robert S. Wennett and Mario Cader-Frech Foundation Award provides $25,000 to an artist with a practice in design, film, photography or visual art, whose work uplifts or embodies the LGBTQ+ community.

07/10/2026

Each year, fourth graders take on a culminating project that marks the close of their Lower School journey. This year, students completed a final research project on immigration, exploring the histories, experiences and perspectives of specific immigrant groups.

The project invited students to think deeply about migration: why people leave one place for another, what they carry with them, what challenges they encounter and how communities are shaped across borders and generations. Grounded in interdisciplinary learning, students drew on research, writing, historical inquiry and creative expression to build a fuller understanding of immigration and its place within the American story.
Each student selected an immigrant group to study and developed multiple pieces to share their learning. Their final work included a presentation, a creative writing piece, a primary source document and an artifact connected to the group they researched.

Together, these elements asked students to move beyond facts alone. They practiced gathering and organizing information, interpreting historical evidence, writing with clarity and empathy, and considering how individual stories help illuminate broader historical patterns. The artifact component gave students an opportunity to imagine the material culture of migration—an object, document or keepsake that might hold memory, identity, hope or loss.

In the final days of school, Lower Schoolers presented their projects to visitors, explaining their research process, sharing what they learned and answering questions about the immigrant groups they studied. The presentations reflected careful work and gave students the opportunity to speak with confidence about complex histories.

07/06/2026

The school year ended with faculty and staff practicing what they ask of students every day: approaching new ideas with curiosity, reflecting on their work and learning alongside one another.

Lower School teachers spent a full day with a consultant from the Math Learning Center learning about Bridges in Mathematics, a curriculum resource the Lower School will use across the division starting this fall. Teachers explored a student-centered, inquiry-based curriculum that uses open-ended tasks and visual models to strengthen mathematical reasoning, conceptual understanding, fluency and problem-solving. The team left energized by the opportunities Bridges will offer teachers in their efforts to build confidence, make connections and see themselves as mathematical thinkers.

The learning continued the following day when faculty and staff across the School drew on the knowledge and expertise of their colleagues. The morning began with Adia Whitaker sharing how her sabbatical deepened her artistic research and interdisciplinary practice—and how that work now informs the culturally grounded, experience-based dance learning she develops with students at Friends.

Employees then joined workshops designed and led by faculty and staff: An Overview of ADHD; Research Design for Lower Schoolers; Experience-Based Learning; Flipped Learning; From Conflict to Connection; Socio-Economic Diversity; Rethinking Curricula in the Age of AI; and Visual Thinking Strategies.

Across the sessions, colleagues considered how students process information, conduct meaningful research, learn through direct experience and engage more actively with course material. They also explored approaches to conflict, socio-economic diversity, emerging technologies and close observation as a tool for deeper discussion and interpretation.