After COVID shut down Judge Memorial’s in-person learning, causing all teaching to become online, the school lost one of its core values: its strong sense of community. Long-standing traditions such as stomps, coffee house, and the Bulldog Press all suffered. Many struggled to return, with some failing to fully recover at all. However, the Judge has community evolved to return to its former glory. And in several ways, this school year is looking to be the first year since before the shutdown that will showcase this strong sense of community.
A return to pre-COVID activities, coupled with a new “golden age” of student-led groups (Black Student Union, Student Ambassadors, and Chemistry Club to name a few), is restoring Judge Memorial’s student community to the distinction it once had. We, the Bulldog Press, are a prime example of Judge’s evolution: our transition away from print towards the world of fast-paced digital news has launched our newspaper into a new era that will enable us to keep up with the ever-changing student body.
With the revitalized sense of community, the 2023-24 school year will be one to remember. Proof of this can be seen when looking at our incoming freshmen class. At a shocking total of 174 students, it will be the most populous in the school, and the largest since the height of Judge attendance in the years before Covid. Judge is growing, and with greater size comes further diversity and exciting change in both community and culture from years past. Additionally, 15 teachers and administrators left their jobs. Although their presence and time at Judge will be missed, this change has allowed the school to hire a team of new educators, creating a fresh teaching and leadership scene at Judge. The team’s presence has already been observed.: Assistant dean Mr. Cyrus Nassersaeid runs a revamped after-school detention system, English Teacher Ms. Abby Robertson advises the Student Government, and Science Teacher Mr. Nathan McKnight helps out with the cross country team.
On top of these new teachers, administrators, and students, this year boasts an incredible roster of student body leaders. Dean of Students Mr. Matthew Douglas has brought together all student leadership teams (Student Ambassadors, Peer Ministry, and Student Government) through his formation of the Bulldog Leadership Team (BLT). I was able to sit down with Mr. Douglas after the group last met on Monday, August 14, and hear his thoughts on the year ahead. Below is a transcript of that interview.
Ted Hyngstrom (TH): How do you expect this school year to be different from other school years?
Matthew Douglas (MD): I’m really looking forward to the school year because we’ve got an incredible group of student leaders who are going to be sort of the paragons of everything we want for all of our student body going forward, so I’m pretty excited to see what and how they do it this year.
TH: That’s awesome. There’s obviously been a lot of turnover in the teachers and 174 new freshmen. How do you think that’s going to affect the school and the community?
MD: So certainly turnover is always a fact of life in schools. And it’s always sad to see colleagues depart. That being said, you know, just like any other place, we really want our people to go. If they have different aspirations, if they want to work at different schools, absolutely, God bless and Godspeed.
TH: That’s great. What words come to mind when you think about starting the new year?
MD: You know, I always think of the renaissance, because you’ve got this opportunity to remake something that has been here for 103 years. And we’ve got this great tradition. But now we have an opportunity to make it new, unique, and something special for our graduating seniors this year.
