Mission and Core Values
Our Mission
At St. David's School, we consider it an extraordinary gift to journey with students as they learn and grow, developing an imagination for how to animate their gifts and live their lives with faithfulness.
Our mission comes directly from the text of 2 Peter 1:5 "For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge."
St. David’s is an independent school in the Episcopal school tradition that prepares young men and women for college and life by challenging them to excel in the vital areas of faith, virtue and knowledge.
Core Values
As we seek to live our our mission, we are guided by eight Core Values that further expand upon its three pillars of faith, virtue and knowledge, recognizing that each pillar is inseparable from the other two.
These core values serve as anchor points for making practical decisions about programming, recruitment, student support and formation, policy and the strategic use of resources.
Faith
- Know, love and follow Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, becoming more like Him in how we act, serve and think about ourselves and others.
- As a faculty of Christians, teach from a thoroughly Christian foundation, upholding the authority and trustworthiness of Scripture and the meaning of the text as summarized in the Nicene Creed and the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion (Anglican theological tradition).
- Honor each other as made in the image of God and therefore endowed with undiminishable dignity by aspiring to love our neighbor (and our enemies!) as ourselves.
Virtue
- Take responsibility for the unique role that each of us plays our community and fellowship, owning the impact of our actions and inactions.
- Strive for excellence and embrace worthy challenges that foster courage and resilience while humbly accepting that each of us is "on the way" (in-process, unfinished).
- Work to be sincerely invested citizens in our neighborhoods, city and nation by "doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humble with God," with gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy and with abiding commitment to the country we call home.
Knowledge
- Wholeheartedly enter into lively, curious, honest engagement with the wonders of God's creation and the rich cultural and intellectual tradition of Western Civilization, emerging as perceptive listeners, careful thinkers and winsome communicators.
- Grow in talent, ingenuity and deep understanding guided by teachers whose wisdom and example cultivate heart, soul, mind and strength, equipping students to reach their best potential.