Matt Glendinning is the head of school for Providence-based Quaker private institution Moses Brown School. Glendinning will be leaving Moses Brown School after 13 years there and will become the next head of school at Hopkins School in New Haven, Conn.
Glendinning spoke with Providence Business News about his time at Moses Brown and what he’ll miss the most when he departs from the school on June 20.
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PBN: Is it bittersweet leaving the campus community?
GLENDINNING: Oh, I cannot tell you. Everything I’m doing now is the last meeting, last this and last that. It’s all becoming very sad. I’ve published my final newsletter to the community where I reflect on seven things I loved about Moses Brown and what I’m going to miss. I loved this place, every minute of it and I think the community has done some great things together the last decade.
PBN: The school says it recently completed its largest fundraising campaign ever. What was the impetus behind that? How much money did the school raise and what will it be used for?
GLENDINNING: We ran a campaign across seven years that raised $65 million. It was in service to a comprehensive plan for the school and its future, which focused on some academic programs. We made some significant moves toward experiential learning, such as creating a global travel program. We adopted project-based learning across the school and other hands-on disciplines like engineering and entrepreneurship.
We made some investments in the people here. The biggest of which, we raised $5 million for endowment for new scholarships to make the school much more affordable and accessible for all students. The demographic of the school has dramatically changed, as well.
We also made significant investments in the campus. We’ve built a new Woodman Family Community & Performance Center, upgrades to athletic fields, and renovated and expanded the Lower School. We also created a new engineering and design studio called the “Y-Lab.”
PBN: Can you describe the demographic changes at Moses Brown?
GLENDINNING: When I started at Moses Brown, we had about 15% of students supported with scholarships or financial aid. Now, that’s 41%. Similarly, it is also true that the school is more racially diverse. For example, we were at 15% students of color when I started. Now, we’re at 30%.
PBN: How much of a priority was growing admissions at Moses Brown for you in your time as head of school and how did the school achieve that?
GLENDINNING: It hasn’t so much grown in size because we’re more or less maxed out on how many kids we can have on campus at once. But we were very intentional on wanting the blend of students to be more reflective of the area surrounding us. We set some specific goals, but we’ve been working on them slowly but surely. Through fundraising, budgeting and great admissions work, we’ve changed the demographic makeup.
PBN: What would you say is your proudest achievement as a leader for the school?
GLENDINNING: The success of the plan and the campaign is what I view as my legacy. It wasn’t any one single thing. It was a combination of all those successes, which I think has positioned the school well for its next chapter.
I’m proud of helping Moses Brown stay true to its Quaker identity, which is about honoring what’s special and unique about every single person in our community. It’s not always easy work, but it was important.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
