A Sense of this Place: Discoveries from my First Year

By Dr. Delvin Dinkins, Head of School

Originally published in GSB Magazine - Summer 2026

When I arrived at Gill St. Bernard’s last summer, I came eager to learn. Every school has a mission. Every school has traditions. Every school has a story it tells about itself. But what I have learned over the course of my first year is that the most important things about a school are rarely found in websites, viewbooks, strategic plans, or speeches. They are discovered through experience.

As I reflect on my first year as Head of School, four discoveries stand out. Together, they have helped me better understand what makes this place so remarkable.

Relationships Here Drive Growth

Before arriving at GSB, I knew the school was warm and welcoming. What I did not fully appreciate was how deeply relationships here are connected to challenge, growth, and learning.

Throughout the fall, I met regularly with groups of seniors during advisory and break periods. We gathered in the Head of School residence and talked about favorite classes, influential teachers, friendships, challenges, and moments that shaped them.

When students reflected on the experiences that mattered most, they often spoke about teachers who pushed them to think more deeply, revise their work, take intellectual risks, or pursue a higher standard than they thought possible. What struck me most was that they rarely separated the people from the learning. The relationships mattered because they fueled growth.

Throughout the year, I encountered adults who knew students deeply, not only how they were performing academically, but how they were developing as people. I watched teachers challenge students while simultaneously creating the trust necessary for students to take risks, make mistakes, persevere, and grow.

I heard the same theme echoed by alumni, years after they had graduated. Many spoke fondly of experiences shaped by former Head of School Jack Wright's vision of learning beyond the classroom, from interdisciplinary projects and field studies to The Unit Plan itself. But what they remembered most vividly were the adults who believed in them, pushed them, and helped them discover what they were capable of becoming.

I arrived expecting strong relationships. What I discovered was something more powerful: relationships that drive growth.

Students Here Want to Be Challenged

One of the most persistent myths in education is that students want things to be easier. GSB proves otherwise. Over and over again, I encountered students eager for challenge, deeper understanding, and meaningful work.

I walked into a Middle School English classroom and found students eager to tell me about books they were reading that had not been assigned. They were recommendations from teachers and friends, books students chose because their curiosity had been sparked and they wanted to keep reading.

I watched Lower School students enthusiastically engage in a mathematics activity that transformed problem-solving into a spirited competition. One of my favorite examples of their ambitious curiosity came from a first-grade student studying the American Goldfinch. After hearing more from his teacher, he decided to initiate additional research on the Northern Cardinal simply because birds had become so interesting.

That kind of intellectual curiosity cannot be mandated. It must be cultivated. It emerges when students encounter teachers who know them well, expect much of them, and make learning worth pursuing. When challenge is paired with encouragement and learning feels meaningful, students often seek more of it, not less.

The same spirit appears beyond the classroom. I have seen it on our stages, athletic fields, in service initiatives, leadership efforts, entrepreneurial projects, and countless moments where students willingly stretched themselves in pursuit of something meaningful.

Students here are ambitious. They work hard. They care deeply about doing things well.

GSB Refuses Artificial Tradeoffs

Many conversations about education are framed as tradeoffs. Schools are often described as academically rigorous or nurturing. Challenging or supportive. Ambitious or balanced.

Yet the more time I spent within our community the more convinced I became that these are artificial tradeoffs. The school's greatest strength is not that it excels in one of these areas. It is that it refuses to separate them.

Here, challenge sits alongside balance. When people ask me what makes GSB different, I often find myself returning to the same answer: It is a place where students are ambitious and well-adjusted, where they pursue excellence without becoming one-dimensional, and where they care about one another as much as they care about achievement.

In a culture that often presents achievement and well-being as competing priorities, Gill St. Bernard’s demonstrates that both are possible.

Culture Reveals Itself in Unscripted Moments

A few months ago, a sprinkler head unexpectedly broke in Hockenbury Hall, home to much of our Upper School. Water flowed through multiple floors of the building. Alarms sounded. Classrooms and common spaces across three floors were flooded. What could have become a chaotic and frustrating day became something else entirely.

Facilities responded immediately. Faculty helped clear classrooms and redirect students. Staff coordinated logistics and communication. Wet vacs appeared alongside helping hands. Even students rolled up their sleeves and pitched in wherever they were needed, moving furniture, carrying materials, and helping restore spaces.

No one waited to be asked. 

There was no panic. No blame. Just steady hands and shared purpose. By the next day, classrooms had been relocated, damaged spaces had been cleaned, and learning continued.

Moments like these remind us that a school is not simply buildings or programs. It is people. It is relationships. It is culture revealed in unscripted moments.

The strongest aspects of a school's culture often appear when no one is performing for an audience, following a script, or responding to a formal expectation. They emerge in ordinary acts of generosity, responsibility, resilience, and care.

Again and again this year, I have seen evidence of those qualities throughout our community. When Hockenbury was suddenly disrupted, people throughout the community simply stepped forward. They saw what needed to be done and did it. That response told me as much about Gill St. Bernard's as any strategic plan, campus tour, or formal presentation ever could.

What makes GSB distinctive is not any single one of these qualities. It is the combination: high aspirations and deep relationships, intellectual challenge and genuine belonging, purposeful learning and joyful engagement, achievement and well-being. That combination is increasingly rare. And it is something more people should know about.

As I look back on my first year, I find myself returning to a simple conviction. The strength of GSB is not found in any single program, tradition, building, or accomplishment. It is found in the experience we create for young people every day. Students here are known. Learning here is purposeful. Relationships here drive growth.

After a year of listening and learning, I am more convinced than ever that the future of education does not belong to schools that choose between ambition and humanity. It belongs to schools that understand they need one another. At its best, that is what Gill St. Bernard's demonstrates every day.

Dr. Delvin Dinkins joined Gill St. Bernard’s on July 1, 2025, as the sixth Head of School post-merger. His career spans roles in both public and private education. Dinkins earned both a BA in English and a Secondary Teacher Certification from Swarthmore College where he was the co captain of the track and field team. He has an MA in Educational Studies from the University of Michigan and an EdD in Educational & Organizational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania.

Read more from the Summer 2026 edition of GSB Magazine