McLean School In Potomac, Maryland Has Received A $1.5 Million Gift
POTOMAC, Md., Feb. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- McLean School in Potomac, Maryland has received a $1.5 million gift from David Gregory and Beth Wilkinson. This gift will enable the K-12 college preparatory independent school to establish a first of a kind initiative, The McLean School Athletic Coaching and Mentoring Program, to deliver research-based mentoring and educational approaches through athletic coaching. The program will be led by David Long, Head Coach of McLean's Boys Varsity Basketball team. Coach Long has been a coach, teacher and school administrator in the DC area for over 20 years.
Dissertation research conducted by McLean School's Head of Upper School, Dr. Josephine Diemond, confirmed that the mentoring relationships students build with their teachers is centrally important to college success. Under the leadership of a new Athletic Coaching and Mentoring Program Director, McLean School coaches will receive professional development training in pedagogical practices developed and successfully employed in McLean School classrooms. By creating linkages between academics and athletics, The McLean School Athletic Coaching and Mentoring Program will provide a comprehensive approach, from the classroom to the playing court, to foster hard work, resilience, and teamwork.
McLean School is distinguished by its Abilities Model®, which recognizes that the very things that challenge students in the classroom are often the flip side of tremendous strengths. McLean School's full-scope program sets a high bar and shows students how to reach it, providing support where necessary. Extensive extracurricular opportunities in athletics, the arts, and STEM, including more than three dozen clubs and student-led activities, provide holistic programming through which every student can shine. Students build self-awareness and the ability to self-advocate— keys to success in school, college, and life.
The impetus for the Athletic Coaching and Mentoring Program grew out of successful approaches already in place at McLean School. The donors observed the effectiveness of the ways in which McLean School—in its basketball program and elsewhere—uses mentoring and other techniques to simultaneously challenge and support its students. They saw what mentoring has done for the players on the Boy's Varsity Basketball team, and wanted to ensure that McLean School students of the future--both girls and boys--would enjoy similar benefits. Through their generosity, that vision will now be a reality.
David Gregory and Beth Wilkinson are both parents at McLean School. David Gregory is a television journalist and CNN political analyst. Mr. Gregory was the moderator of NBC News' Sunday morning talk show Meet the Press. Beth Wilkinson is a founding partner of Wilkinson Walsh, a specialty trial and litigation law firm.
Contact:
Elizabeth Shannon
Co-Director of Communications & Marketing
McLean School
8224 Lochinver Lane
Potomac, Maryland 20854
240.395.0686
[email protected]
mcleanschool.org
SOURCE McLean School
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