50 Stories for 50 Years: Brian Morgan, Former Heads of Schools, ASSIST Orientation staff volunteer (2012-2018)

To celebrate our 50th anniversary year during 2018/19, we collected stories and profiles of people and institutions that have helped us build our organization, which first began as one person's dream in 1968. We will feature one story per week on our blog. Please enjoy these “50 for 50” profiles featuring ASSIST's dedicated board members, dynamic staff, welcoming host families and enthusiastic ASSIST Scholars.

Brian Morgan
Former Heads of Schools, ASSIST Orientation staff volunteer (2012-2018)

I have had the privilege of serving as Head at two very different, but equally unique boarding schools in New England. In short, I enjoyed the presence of ASSIST Scholars in my schools for a total of sixteen years.

During each and every one of those years the ASSIST Scholars were among the outstanding students and citizens. Now that I no longer serve as Head of School, I have been invited to interview finalists in a variety of countries. The dreams that those finalists have as they vie for a place in an American independent school are inspirational. I also enjoy getting to know various country coordinators, and I value and appreciate deeply the effort and dedication each one invests in the ASSIST program. I also have enjoyed helping at Orientation at Pomfret School and meeting the fortunate few who are selected for the ASSIST year in the United States. I also visit some students in their American schools during the fall. Not only is it gratifying to see the ways they revel in their new environment, academically and socially, but it is affirming to speak with school administrators who rave about their ASSIST Scholars.

While visiting different parts of the country in the fall, I often take advantage of the opportunity to visit potential ASSIST schools and to talk to Heads of School about the many benefits of including an ASSIST Scholar in their student body. I usually share the memory I have of a particular ASSIST Scholar who joined the school where I was last Head.

It was early in my tenure at this school, perhaps my second year. This school had always welcomed at least two Scholars every year since the seventies. I was at my desk during the summer when the telephone rang. Marty Milne informed me that one of the Scholars who was scheduled to come had been taken ill and had to drop out of the program. Would I consider taking a Scholar from the wait list? Not having yet been invited at that time to interview for ASSIST, I was dubious about the meaning of “wait list.” Since we had a bed waiting, however, I decided to take a chance and accept the Scholar from the wait list. I later found out that this Scholar from the wait list was a nationally ranked nordic skier, was a stellar student, and was president of the junior choir in her national capital.

During the school year she excelled in many extracurricular activities and at the end of year walked off with most of the school prizes. Such is the calibre of ASSIST Scholars, even those that come off the wait list!

Many Heads of School are impressed with this story, and it has helped to recruit a new ASSIST school on occasion. If only ASSIST had enough schools to host all the excellent students who find themselves on the wait list! The value of ASSIST goes well beyond the different educational setting, the socratic classroom, the extracurricular opportunities in American independent schools, or even the cultural differences that confront ASSIST Scholars. The value is twofold. For the host school community, the value lies in the chance for American students and their families to really get to know someone very different. It is not unusual for those relationships to endure for decades. For the ASSIST Scholar, the value lies in the opportunity to “grow into ones own skin” as a result of many new challenges, both academic and personal. Moreover, the Scholar returns home at the end of the ASSIST year a changed and enriched person, confident in herself and a qualified spokesperson for international interaction.

ASSIST has contributed to global awareness for fifty years, and as it grows, it will continue to bring people together, one Scholar at a time.

About Brian:
Brian was raised in Putney, U.K. and now lives in Putney, Vermont. After pursuing a degree in England with a year at Moscow State University, he accompanied his wife to the U.S.A., where he began teaching French and Russian at Phillips Exeter Academy. Brian only planned to spend a year or two at Phillips Exeter, but that year or two became 26. He then became Director at the Putney School in Vermont before moving to New Hampshire to head White Mountain School; both Putney and White Mountain School hosted ASSIST Scholars. Brian retired in 2011 and currently enjoys volunteering for ASSIST in a number of capacities.