For the past five years, The Mount Vernon School has been an active participant in the city of Sandy Springs’ Sparkle Village, a month-long display of miniature homes designed by local organizations. This unique project involves designing a house that not only captures the festive spirit of the holiday season but also reflects the distinctive…
Last week’s Council on Innovation (COI) event was an opportunity for our students, faculty, and esteemed industry leaders to come together, share ideas, and collaborate on critical issues related to the future of leadership. This year’s event welcomed executives representing Fortune 50 companies, including heavyweights like Coca-Cola and Mercedes Benz, as well as leading tech…
Read More from Council on Innovation 2023: Lead from Where You Are
An Interview with the Designers of the Impact Design Lab “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” – Albert Einstein We sat down for an insightful conversation with the three educational designers innovating the way students learn in the Middle School. We dove deep into how Impact…
From neuroscience in Grade 4, the landscape of Georgia 230 Million years ago in Grade 2, and optimizing Santa’s sleigh for inclement weather in Kindergarten, the Lower School has been buzzing with student wonders and rich conversations with MVXperts. Last week Santa traveled from the North Pole to help Kindergarten students with their weather-resistant sleigh…
How Might We Foster Connection Across Campuses? For many years Mount Vernon has had an end-of-year tradition known as the Senior Salute, where on the eve of baccalaureate, graduating seniors dressed in their caps and gowns parade through the Lower Campus to cheers and high fives from younger Mustangs. Starting in August, as a way…
Read More from Fostering Meaningful Connections Across Campuses
What if students could choose what they learned about? What if students could explore their passions and curiosities at school? What if students could be in collaborative groups with teachers and students with similar interests? What if we entrusted them to befriend how they learn, to navigate certain questions on their own, and to find…
Read More from iProject Mini Makes Its Debut On Lower Campus
Grade 5 is starting the year with a Project-Based Learning (PBL) unit on playground design. Have you or your child ever seen a playground and wondered why it was built the way it was or how it could be improved? This unit encourages students to ask those same questions but this time with the intention…
Read More from Grade 5, 2 Weeks, 6 Expeditions, The Best Playground PBL Ever
This story was contributed by Brad Droke, Director of Innovation Diploma and was featured in the Spring 2022 SAIS Newsletter. In the spring of 2014, Mount Vernon Ventures at The Mount Vernon School hosted an event called the Council on Innovation, where several groups of students were assembled to engage in a design sprint with local…
The Mount Vernon experience is intentionally designed around choice. Choices increase as students move through each division. In Upper School, students choose their pathway: Inquiry, Innovation, or Impact, each offering opportunities to explore passions, solve real-world problems, and design their journey of purpose. Yet, some experiences transcend pathways altogether. The Global Exchange Program is one…
Read More from More Than Travel: A Fully Immersive Exchange Experience
How Middle School French Connects Language, Inquiry, and Global Learning In Mount Vernon’s Middle School, world language learning is designed to do more than build vocabulary, it cultivates curiosity, cultural proficiency, and global perspective. Through an inquiry-driven French Food Unit, Grade 8 students explore how language, history, and culture intersect, reflecting Mount Vernon’s commitment to…