Author: Jamie Laurens, Dean of the Middle School

Jamie Laurens joined the Lycée in 2007. A native of the Rockies, Jamie began working on student wellness as a college student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and in Avignon, France, where she chose education as a vocation. She began at Idyllwild Arts Academy and Westridge School before moving to New York and the Lycée. She has taught in the English program in middle and high school, co-developed the Advisory and Social Entrepreneurship programs, and researched the links between attention, learning, and well-being. Jamie enjoys reading poetry and being in the outdoors.
Well-Being

The Protective Power of Ritual

Ritual offers two gifts: unlocking smaller, easily attainable joys, and fostering a healthy climate of prevention in this period of Covid-19.  As we had to simplify and let go of many of our habitual patterns around the holidays, for some it may have felt as strong as a shift in

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Community / Well-Being

Summer of…Possibilities?

A Note to Students for Whom 2020 Feels Canceled The summer ahead of you probably doesn’t look much like what you had planned. We have all seen deadlines vanish, plans evaporate, and routines replaced. We have had to give up, change, and let go of many things, and it has

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Community / Well-Being

Connected, Apart

Human connection is a protective power. We have had to adapt to this new normal quickly– a challenge that many of our students are rising to, while supporting others along the way. Like many times of change, the turbulence has brought with it opportunity. It has given rise to new

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Community / Well-Being

The Power of Balance

In 2010, when Generation Alpha was still in gestation, Dr. Peter Gray, author of Free to Learn, wrote about research suggesting a strong link between happiness and a child’s ability to spend personally-directed time in a mode of discovery. Dr. Gray attributed these findings to a few core needs: a

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Secondary / Service Learning / Well-Being

The Joy of Service

Two 10th graders read Dr. Seuss to the children of Little Tots Red Wagon preschool. How did the project originate? Our class of 10th-grade students chose tree planting as their annual group community service project, but the plan was swept away with Hurricane Sandy. The most overwhelming feeling during the hurricane,

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