READY FOR SCHOOL: Celebrating the completion of the new Cor Cordis Center for Exceptional Leadership at Stuart Country Day School are, from left: Julia Wall, head of school at Stuart; Paul Meyer, W.S. Cumby Construction; Bill Cumby, CEO of W.S. Cumby Construction; Darren Malone, director of facilities and sustainability at Stuart; Paul Teti, co-chair of the Stuart Board of Trustees; Woodney Wachter, co-chair of the Stuart Board of Trustees; and Beth Marks, director of development at Stuart.

By Anne Levin

Thanks to an aggressive construction schedule, a new student services hub at Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart will make its debut on the opening day of school, September 4. The Cor Cordis Center for Exceptional Leadership takes its name from the Latin for “heart of hearts,” and it is designed to be exactly that — the heart of the school.

The center is more of a reimagining than a reconstruction. Architects Hone + Associates used the existing footprint of the two floors surrounding the school’s “Stairway of Intellectuality” to modernize and centralize the space. The goal was to foster a collaborative approach to teaching courses and providing guidance related to prioritizing students’ well-being.

“We really focused on breaking down the silos between all of the different student support services, which were all over the school,” said Stuart’s Head of School Julia Wall. “I’m a big believer of when you’re in close proximity, you work together. So now everything will be more synergistic. For the students to visibly see the interconnections between mind, heart, and spirit, all embedded together, it’s a shift of the mindset. It makes them more aware of how these parts of themselves are working together.”

Wall is especially enthusiastic about the way the Cor Cordis Center combines key courses into one program. An interdisciplinary wellness curriculum designed to foster social, emotional, physical, spiritual, and intellectual development has been developed for fifth to 12th grade students.

“We built a whole new curriculum around this concept of holistic health and wellness sense of being,” said Wall. “So whereas before, they would go to health and wellness class, very focused on their physical and sometimes mental health, and then go to a class speaking about equity and a sense of belonging, and then to a religion class — now all of those pieces are interwoven.”

A press release about the project details the way wellness courses will include “a collaborative approach to teaching with topic-specific lessons taught by school counselors; the director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging; Learning Center staff, and other faculty and staff members within the Cor Cordis Center.”

Part of the impetus for the initiative came from the recognition that girls today face certain challenges that can leave them feeling persistently sad or hopeless. The press release references a 2021 youth risk behavior survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that says nearly 60 percent of teenage girls in the U.S. reported these negative feelings.

“Additional research from The Journal of Adolescent Health highlights similar findings, noting that rates of depression among teens have significantly increased in the past decade, with a more pronounced rise among girls compared to boys,” it reads. “As a school dedicated to empowering girls, Stuart sees this as a crucial call to action.”

Wall sees girls as often more emotive than boys. “And there’s room for that,” she said. “Girls are natural community builders, always looking and sensing where their spot is in the world. It’s almost a sign of maturity and intelligence, this wonder about how people are feeling.”

The holistic approach of the center is an extension of the school’s philosophy. “It has been part of Stuart’s mission and vision for 60 years to pay close attention to the interconnectedness of a child’s mind, body, and heart,” Wall is quoted in the release. “One cannot move forward without the other. This self-awareness fuels their development as curious, influential, and empathic leaders, and sustains them for lifelong ambitious pursuit. When girls figure out that a powerful leadership skill they can learn at Stuart is the ability to adapt eagerly and with resilience, the sky is their limit.”