In the newly created role of Director of Physical & Experiential Education, Mark Sullivan is focused on helping Marksmen thrive on and off campus.

Originally published in the Summer 2019 issue of The Pride magazine.

Over the past few years, with the guidance of Goals for St. Mark’s IV, the School’s most recent strategic plan, learning opportunities outside of the classroom have flourished. Specifically, Goals IV recommends that St. Mark’s “identify and develop opportunities for learning beyond the St. Mark’s campus, including outdoor education and expanded domestic and international student travel” and “develop a more comprehensive health education curriculum in scope and sequence.”

This year, St. Mark’s formed a new Department Chair position to help the School realize the goal of uniting the physical and experiential education programs, expanding health and wellness education, and strengthening current programming in these areas while developing new programming as needed.

“By connecting these important program areas and thinking about them as a coherent experience for our students, we will continue to strengthen these important programs well into the future, and they will continue to have a positive impact on the education of every boy at St. Mark’s,” said John Ashton, Associate Headmaster. “These programs currently exist in different stages of development; for example, the Wilderness Program has decades of history to build upon while comprehensive health education has potential for growth to ensure that we are meeting the evolving needs of adolescent boys.”

Considering his vast experience working with and leading Marksmen on campus and around the globe, Mark Sullivan was the perfect choice to become the first Director of Physical and Experiential Education. Throughout his 38-year career at St. Mark’s, including 20 years as Athletic Director, Mark has been a constant presence wherever Marksmen go and a stalwart supporter of every program he will now oversee, including the wilderness program, student travel, physical education, and health and wellness.

“There are so many opportunities for our boys when we expand the classroom off our campus,” Mark said. “We have to be intentional about teaching these boys what it means to be healthy and thriving young adults so that they can carry those lessons forward when they leave St. Mark’s.”

Many programs being housed within the new Physical and Experiential Education Department have been steadily evolving over the past few years. The Student Travel Program, for one, has grown immensely, both in the number of destinations and boys participating. Scott Hunt, Arnold E. Holtberg Master Teaching Chair and St. Mark’s Photography Instructor, has helped unite and organize these trips as the School’s first Director of Student Travel. Just this past school year, Marksmen and their teachers across all departments and divisions left St. Mark’s for 27 individual trips, from debate tournaments in Atlanta to foreign-language trips in China. Scott himself spent the summer of 2019 leading Marksmen on trips through France, Morocco, and the Pecos Wilderness.

In addition to broadening their worldview, Scott sees unique benefits to students when they are taken out of a familiar campus environment: “Leadership is best taught experientially, when you get boys to work as a team to solve problems, whether they are navigating a foreign country or starting a campfire in the Pecos. These are situations where we can establish responsibilities and roles and put boys in a safe environment where they can learn to become both good leaders and good followers.”

The opportunities for greater self-reliance and personal responsibility that travel provides are also inherent in the Wilderness Program. Boys must step out of their comfortable routines and take ownership for themselves and their group. Lessons in character and leadership come naturally when a group of boys are preparing their own food, setting up their own shelter, navigating the wild terrain, and dealing with unpredictable weather. And while Mark will help facilitate individual wilderness trips, he will also focus on reinforcing a broader institutional strength to ensure the program remains strong for decades to come.

In addition to fine-tuning the wilderness and travel programs, Mark, as the Director the Physical and Experiential Education, will also focus on how boys thrive when they are on campus. Across 10600 Preston Road, teachers, coaches, trainers, and nurses work tirelessly to ensure Marksmen are developing into healthy young men. St. Mark’s already provides a robust slate of programs and curriculum aimed at promoting health and wellness, from the Life Skills classes to strength and conditioning workouts.

Now, as stated in Goals IV, the School is working to “develop a more comprehensive health education curriculum in scope and sequence.” Mark will provide oversight and facilitate a platform for greater collaboration among various teams and departments, including counseling, physical education, and health education programming. From mental health and stress management to nutrition and injury prevention, these programs provide crucial lessons for the overall well-being of Marksmen.

In tandem with Mark’s work, St. Mark’s recently formed a Health & Wellness Committee, composed of teachers, coaches, trainers, medical staff, and administrators. This Committee began its work in the spring by launching a comprehensive review of the School’s physical and health education programs and curriculums. In 2019–2020, the Committee will review the program inventory, identify learning outcomes for students, and build or expand on programs to achieve those outcomes: equipping boys with the knowledge and skills to understand their physical, social, emotional, and relational health.

St. Mark’s mission is the development of the whole boy, a mission that extends well beyond the academic classroom. The seniors who walk across the Commencement stage are expected to be well-rounded men of character, ready to thrive in an ever-changing world. As Goals for St. Mark’s IV seeks new ways to build on this mission, the creation of the Director of Physical and Experiential Education marks another momentous step into the future.