Community
Opportunities & Outcomes
Barnard Partners with Harvard's MCC Project
Derryfield is excited to announce that Director of College Counseling Brennan Barnard has earned a one-year, grant-funded appointment as College Admissions Program Manager for Harvard Graduate School of Education's Making Caring Common Project. Mr. Barnard has led the Derryfield College Counseling Office for the past ten years and will continue to do so during this temporary partnership. In this role he will help coordinate the project's initiatives to encourage ethical engagement, reduce achievement pressure, and increase access in college admission. Writing and speaking about this topic has been a passion of Mr. Barnard’s throughout his career, and countless Derryfield seniors have been the direct beneficiaries of his wisdom.
Started in 2013, the vision of the Making Caring Common project is “a world in which children learn to care about others and the common good, treat people well day to day, come to understand and seek fairness and justice, and do what is right even at times at a cost to themselves. We believe that young people with these capacities will become community members and citizens who can strengthen our democracy, mend the fractures that divide us, and create a more caring, just world.”
Through this one-year, grant-funded partnership, Mr. Barnard will:
- Lead the College Counseling office at Derryfield.
- Work individually with Derryfield students and their families through the admission process.
- Guide and support the exciting program development at Derryfield.
- Travel to colleges and national conferences as an ambassador for Derryfield and Harvard to present on topics in admission and character.
- Participate in ongoing research at Harvard to develop a new assessment tool for student resilience, grit, and ethical character in the admissions process.
- Conduct a landscape analysis of admissions practices related to Making Caring Common’s goals.
- Publish blogs, news articles and white papers about best practices in admission.
- Contribute to the Caring Schools #CommonGood campaign for which Derryfield was a founding school.
Mr. Barnard’s partnership with the Harvard Graduate School of Education benefits Derryfield in many ways, especially in light of the School’s strategic plan goal of elevating the reputation of Derryfield as the premier day school in the region and an integral community convener.
Mr. Barnard has written extensively about college admission for The New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, HuffPost, Concord Monitor, and Journal of College Admission, and has presented widely on athletic recruiting, mindfulness and other topics in education. He has attended the Harvard Institute on College Admission and is on the Executive Committee for the Institute for Character in Admission and the Advisory Board for the New Hampshire College and University Council’s NH Scholars Program. He is a New England Association of College Admission Counselors Professional of the Year for 2017.
Associate Director of College Counseling Jill Teeters will continue in the College Counseling Office at Derryfield in an increased capacity. Learn more about the Making Caring Common project at mcc.gse.harvard.edu/.
The Derryfield School
Located in Manchester, NH, The Derryfield School is a private day school for grades 6-12. Students benefit from a challenging academic program, fine and performing arts, competitive athletics, and a wide selection of extracurricular activities.