Earlier this month, teachers Courtney Miller, Lara Munch, and Rodri Saldana led 17 WFS upper school students on a trip to Panama as part of Vámonos Tours. Students spent time visiting with the indigenous people of the Emberá-Wounaan community, engaging in service work on the San Blas Islands, assisting older adults at Hogar Bolivar, exploring the Panama Canal, learning how to salsa dance, and touring the Sergio Perez Delgado Bilingual School.
Students enjoyed their time with the indigenous people of the Emberá-Wounaan community. They helped community members clean Lake Gatún as the Emberá people are part of efforts to keep Panama free and clean from the trash and plastic that lands in the water. They also danced, played football, and ate a traditional lunch with the Emberá people. The Emberá community leader also remarked that, while interacting with many American groups, they had never seen a group who spoke Spanish as well as this group of WFS upper school students.
During their time in the San Blas Islands, WFS students were led by their tour guide, Toto. Toto introduced them to his family, the village leader, and took them to their village meeting space. Speaking in Guna, the village leader informed students about their traditional land, its importance to their community, and why they do not wish to move to housing on the mainland, for it is where they belong. WFS students also helped Toto paint a school with the children. Afterward, they swam together in a natural swimming pool in the Guna Yala Archipelago and played volleyball on the beach. The archipelago consists of 365 islands, of which only 49 are inhabited.
Students enjoyed visiting the Sergio Perez Delgado Bilingual School in Monagrillo. They spoke Spanish, played various sports and games with the children, and helped clean the school. Afterward, students learned from two artisans. The first artisan created devil masks, which were used for specific dances. He demonstrated his mask-making process and explained how many hours it takes to create various types of masks. The second artisan they learned from made drums and walked them through the process of making one drum. After lunch, WFS students joined the locals and learned how to salsa dance.
It was a beautiful day to welcome our students and families back to campus for our lower school open house, middle school and upper school orientations, and the senior ice cream social.
As we welcome our faculty and staff back to campus, early year teachers created bouquets after discussing what they plan to bring to their classrooms this year to make them grow and flourish.
The International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma is often considered the highest standard for college preparatory education. This year, 40 members from the Class of 2024 were IB diploma candidates.
Lilly Zawadzkas ’25 (far left) connected with Rose Mulveny ’26 (middle) and Abbie Thurlow ’26 to discuss her School Year Abroad (SYA) experience in Rennes, France last year and give them some tips as they prepare for their own SYA travel.
The WFS football team recently hosted athletes from Special Olympics Delaware! WFS student-athletes and Special Olympians participated in drills together and enjoyed water ice together.
“Most of all, we want our Reading Tour to be about kids, about our responsibility to them, including our responsibility to nurture their promise, to see each of them for who they are, and to listen and talk with, not just to and about them.”
As part of our comprehensive College Guidance program, we welcomed the Class of 2025 back to campus for Application 101. Students worked on completing the Common App, refining their personal essays, and scheduling their 1-on-1 college counseling meetings for September. Afterward, seniors gathered for a pizza lunch. It was great to see them excited and engaged about the college process!
Tripp Young ’25 was presented with a 2024 Union League of Philadelphia Good Citizenship Award in March. Starting in 1946, the Good Citizenship Award recognizes high school students who demonstrate good citizenship and encourages them to stay actively engaged in their communities. This annual program recognizes and awards nearly 300 high school juniors from the Greater Philadelphia region.
Ellie Driscoll ’25 and Jillian Farley ’25 traveled to Indiana University in Bloomington to attend the Best Buddies Leadership Conference 2024. They spent three days learning how to become better leaders, how to spread awareness and kindness, and how to promote inclusion through sessions, classes, and guest speakers. They also met students from all over the country and world to share ideas.
Temi Lufadeju '25, Elizabeth Pisano '25, Tripp Young '25, and Avery Martinenza '25 participated in the Congressional Delegation Youth Conference at Delaware State University, where they met with Senator Chris Coons, Senator Tom Carper, and Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester. They learned about their roles as the next generation in government and engaged in conversation about ongoing issues such as pollution, climate change, and women's rights. During the afternoon, they broke into small groups and met with experts in fields ranging from World Peace to social justice in Wilmington.
Inspired by their mothers’ entrepreneurial spirits, Anya Agarwal ’25 and Layla Baynes ’25 founded the Entrepreneurship Club at WFS during the 2023-24 school year.
Congratulations to Major League Baseball draft pick Eddie Micheletti Jr. ’20! Eddie was selected during the 8th round by the Toronto Blue Jays. During the 2024 season with Virginia Tech, he batted .311 with 12 home runs and drove in 50 runs for the Hokies.
Wilmington Friends School has partnered with the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Social Impact Strategy and Schoolyard Ventures, an organization that develops university-level, real-world learning opportunities for high school students, to offer the Social Innovators Program to upper schoolers.
WFS faculty and staff members traveled to Bryan Stevenson's Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, on Juneteenth to attend the unveiling of Freedom Memorial Sculpture Park. This new park uses art to honor and remember the ten million Black Americans who were enslaved in America.
In late June, 11 WFS upper school students traveled to Acadia National Park in Maine with teachers Kelley Cox and Sara Woodward for a QUEST service learning trip in partnership with Earthwatch.
Earlier this month, teachers Courtney Miller, Lara Munch, and Rodri Saldana led 17 WFS upper school students on a trip to Panama as part of Vámonos Tours. Students spent time visiting with the indigenous people of the Emberá-Wounaan community, engaging in service work on the San Blas Islands, assisting older adults at Hogar Bolivar, exploring the Panama Canal, learning how to salsa dance, and touring the Sergio Perez Delgado Bilingual School.
J.R. comes to us from The New School in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he has served as Head of Upper School since 2020. Over his four years there, J.R. developed an interim term program consisting of 2-week experiential “mini” courses; created a seminar program for students with weekly sessions on topics such as wellness, study skills, and college counseling; and worked on setting up K-12 community group structures to facilitate better cross-divisional communication and understanding.
Statement of Nondiscrimination as to Student Enrollment
Wilmington Friends School admits students of any race, color, gender, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students of these schools. Wilmington Friends School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, national and ethnic origin in administration of their educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school administered programs.