Recently, law students from the Community Empowerment Law Project at @uiowa College of Law visited Friends Select School to get a better sense of a Quaker education! They met with Michael Gary, head of school; Miriam Rock, English department Chair and QUAKE coordinator; and Ingrid Lakey '89, P’27, former board clerk. They also took a tour of Friends Select’s campus and the @friendscounciloneducation with Jan Burns P’15, Friends Select’s assistant head of school.
Enjoy photos from Friends Select’s recent Awards Ceremony held by our Alumni Association! Congratulations again to all of this year’s award winners: Desiree J. Harmon P'19 (Distinguished Teaching Award); Steven Lawrence '81 (Meritorious Service Award); and Traci Green '96, Bill Klose P’21, '25, and the 2000-04 Champion Girls' Varsity Basketball Teams (Athletic Hall of Fame).
Read more about this year’s award winners at the link in our bio.
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend our spectacular Celebrate a Decade of Growth event on the rooftop field of our Parkway Building! Friends Select parents, guardians, employees, trustees, alumni, and special friends gathered to enjoy food, drinks, live music, and more, as we celebrated the progress we have made as a school community in the past 10 years.
Friends Select students, families, and employees are invited to our Book Fair! Stop by the Falcon’s Nest in our Parkway Building today from 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Tuesday-Thursday, May 12-14, from 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Friday, May 15, from 8-11 a.m. (note early closing). The Book Fair features a large selection of lower school books, middle school summer reading books, a table of DEI Book Awards nominees, a writer/illustrator section, and more.
And don’t miss our 4th-annual DEI Book Awards, celebrating the power of storytelling and inclusion: Wednesday, May 20, from 5:30-7:15 p.m., at the Arch Street Meeting House. Presented by our lower school, the DEI Book Awards honor the books that have sparked meaningful conversations around identity, fairness, and belonging in our classrooms. This joyful event, which is open to everyone, will highlight student participation, celebrate diverse stories, and bring our community together.
RSVP for the DEI Book Awards at the link in our bio.
Watch “Friends Select School Philly Service Project: Meals from Friends,” which members of Helping Hands, our upper school service club, created to explain their recent @phillyserviceaward project combating food insecurity in the Philadelphia area.
Helping Hands members partnered with Vetri Community Partnership (@vetricommunitypartnership ), and cooked and packaged nutritious meals in their Teaching Kitchen while learning valuable life skills. These hot meals were donated to Hub of Hope (@projecthomephl ) and distributed to individuals in Center City who may be experiencing poverty, homelessness, and/or food insecurity.
Congratulations to the two teams of Friends Select students who won the Barnes Foundation’s Art of Math Challenge! Teams of our middle and upper school students used their math skills to determine scale and linear perspective in 3D models of artwork. "The Juniors" (Izzie ’27, Elsa ’27, Anna ’27, and Andes ’27) won the 7th-11th grade "Best Creative Math Strategy" award, and "Pink Malaria Onika Burgers" (Harper ’28, Sonia ’28, Layla ’28, and Mei ’28) won a special award for "Artistic Design." Both teams based their models on Henri Matisse's painting, "Interior with Two Figures, Open Window," from the @barnesfoundation collection.
On Thursday, May 14, from 3:30-5 p.m., the Friends Select community is invited to join us for the opening reception of our “All-School Art Exhibition,” featuring artworks by Friends Select students in pre-K through 12th grade. Light refreshments will be provided. This exhibition will be on view in our Parkway Building Lobby and Commons through May 29.
“What Can You Do While You’re Waiting,” a project by Friends Select lower school assistant teacher Emily Schreiner (@emily_schreiner_creative ), features artworks by our lower school students! Created for the “What Now: 2026” project (@artphilly2026 ), in conjunction with the Y Kids team at WHYY (@WHYY ), “What Can You Do While You’re Waiting” is installed in SEPTA bus shelters along Broad Street through May, with the goal of getting adults and children to look at the world together, rather than looking down and alone at screens.
Friends Select seniors recently gathered with their families for our College Decision Day celebration on our Parkway Building rooftop field. Congratulations to the class of 2026!
More photos at the link in bio.
In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, Friends Select’s Family Association held our annual Employee Appreciation Breakfast today! Friends Select employees enjoyed an elaborate brunch spread in our Parkway Building lobby, as a token of appreciation for their dedication, tireless efforts, and amazing work with our students and our community throughout the school year.
