On Wednesday, September 22, 2021, the students of the Agnes Irwin School took part in the first day of a new initiative called Core Days. The theme of the day was “Character” and students were encouraged to articulate for themselves what character means and how it affects our everyday lives. 

Prior to the day, we students were able to pick up special core-day shirts, each with our respective class color. The morning of Core Day, we all wore our shirts and gathered in an all-school assembly in which we heard from a few speakers including Mrs. Keidel, the three division heads, and alumnae speaker, Neveen Mahmoud ‘07. After those wise words, we were able to go back to our advisories and listen to a speech Jeff Bezos delivered at a Princeton Commencement, in which he emphasized the importance of being kind and how character can better communities. Then, we were joined by our buddy advisories and completed an online Breakout EDU about character with a fun prize at the end, of course. One event with many positive reviews was when we joined with other grades and did activities together. We were split into groups of students with our same class color and drew and wrote on paper squares to make a kindness quilt. Finally, at the end of the day, we came together in another all-school assembly and shared some reflections and reactions to the day. At first, some students were nervous to go up in front of the whole school and share their opinions; however as more people got up, it became less daunting and even kindergarteners shared what they thought of the day. 

Throughout the school year, there will be three more Core Days in which we will discuss Agnes Irwin’s other core values: Excellence, Community, and Respect. Overall, students really seemed to enjoy the day; even though there were those among us who were not looking forward to it beforehand, it turned out to be an enjoyable community-building day.