Roycemore’s Portrait of a Graduate identifies the skills and habits of mind that we believe are essential for young people to possess to achieve success in a rapidly changing and complex world.
Developed by a diverse cross-section of our community, including faculty, students, alumni and parents, Roycemore’s Portrait of a Graduate serves as the framework for our approach to the student experience school-wide and informs our curricular and co-curricular programs.
The three primary tenets of the Portrait are Scholarship, Citizenship and Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
Roycemore’s commitment to cultivating EQ equally with Scholarship and Citizenship in our Portrait of a Graduate sets our school apart from many other educational programs.
Scholarship is a key component of Roycemore’s Portrait of a Graduate, as well as one of our School’s core values. Scholarship encompasses intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, self-advocacy, as well as leadership and social influence. Some call these “soft skills;” however, at Roycemore we have come to call them “Power Skills.” They are essential skills that young people need to possess when they leave Roycemore and advance to higher education and careers. Our goal for each Roycemore student is to demonstrate these power skills across all learning experiences, including academic, artistic, athletic, performance and civic. Below, we offer additional thoughts about scholarship:
In some schools, emphasis on teaching Civics and Citizenship have at times taken a back seat to subjects that can be more easily assessed and “counted” such as math and science. However, uninformed and unengaged citizens can lead to a society that is dominated by a culture of passive compliance. At best, this can lead to a citizenry that simply accepts the status quo. At worst, an unengaged citizenry can lead to the rise of dangerous ideologies or dogmas that eat away at the very democracy that our founding fathers fought so hard to create.
As Sir Ken Robinson wrote in his book Creative Schools, “Democratic societies depend on informed citizens being actively involved in how they are run and led. For that to happen, it’s essential that young people leave school knowing how society works and in particular how the legal, economic, and political systems operate and affect them.” In line with Roycemore’s commitment to teach students how to communicate, collaborate, and think critically, these skills are vital to one’s ability to be an active and informed citizen.
Our view of citizenship in the Portrait of a Graduate at Roycemore, embodies a holistic perspective and aligns with our core values of respect, compassion, integrity and community to embrace both our Roycemore community and the global community. Four aspects of citizenship that we have highlighted in our portrait are:
Emotional Intelligence, or EQ, is part three of the trio of key tenets of Roycemore’s Portrait of a Graduate. First popularized by Daniel Goleman, internationally renowned psychologist and author, emotional intelligence has been identified as an important ability that is critical to reaching the highest levels of success in a variety of occupations. In fact, it has been suggested that it is twice as important as technical skills. EQ involves social perceptiveness and awareness of one’s own and others’ reactions, being cooperative and pleasant to work with, the ability to connect with others and be sensitive to their needs and feelings, and the ability to regulate one’s own emotions.
With Roycemore’s emphasis on teaching leadership skills to students at all levels through the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, we recognize that a critical leadership skill is the ability to manage one’s emotions and recognize the emotions of others. Without the intentional cultivation and training of EQ at a young age, our country runs the risk of a future characterized by a lack of diplomacy that could lead to a zero-sum game in which our entire world is worse off.
Our emphasis on EQ aligns with Roycemore’s core values of respect, compassion, integrity and community. In our thinking about EQ in the Portrait of a Graduate, we have focused on five aspects: