Leadership Symposium

 

 

 

 

As Program Director, Kiran Bhai oversees Making Caring Common’s K-12 and parenting programs, focusing on expanding empathy, justice, and care across differences. Kiran is passionate about education, mental health, and the holistic wellbeing of children and youth. Prior to her time at MCC, Kiran was a school counselor in Massachusetts and New Mexico and worked at several global health nonprofits across the country focusing on mental health. Kiran received her master’s degree in education and counseling from Harvard Graduate School of Education and her Bachelor of Arts in Global Health from Duke University.

 

Dialing Up Connection, Dialing Down Pressure: Building School Cultures of Belonging, Wellbeing, and Purpose
Research increasingly shows that high achievement pressure is linked to rising student anxiety, burnout, and disengagement. This session draws on insights from Making Caring Common’s Turning the Tide to examine how schools can redefine success in ways that better support both performance and wellbeing. Participants will gain practical strategies to dial up purpose, relationships, and connection as an antidote to unhealthy academic pressure. Through an interactive format, we will explore how to create environments where students feel valued, engaged, and motivated by a deeper sense of meaning in their learning and a stronger connection to their school community. Attendees will leave with actionable tools to build more balanced school cultures that support high achievement alongside wellbeing, belonging, and purpose.

 

 

 

As the Stemmons Family Senior Chaplain at The Episcopal School of Dallas, Father Nate Bostian connects with children, faculty, and families across three divisions.  As a sought-after resource and champion of Episcopal Identity,  Father Nate has recently developed a Handbook of E.P.I.S.C.O.P.A.L. Virtues.  Designed for Episcopal educators and leaders in schools, churches, and dioceses, this comprehensive curriculum provides the deep theological grounding and practical tools needed to implement a robust, year-long character formation program in schools. Join us as Father Nate highlights a series of nine E.P.I.S.C.O.P.A.L. virtues that are aligned with the themes of the Liturgical year and the School calendar to give a framework for the formation of the whole child: ethically, spiritually, socially, and emotionally. 

 

 

For more than three decades, Tim Breen has worked in schools as a teacher, academic dean, and head of school. Tim now helps lead New Civic K12, a nonprofit working with schools across the country to turn coursework into contribution – real work for real partners, built into the academic program. He has presented on student learning and schools' roles in their communities at national conferences including NAIS, NAES, and EL Education. 

Too often in our schools, service to others sits at the periphery. At New Civic K12 we ask: what if it were built into the core of the school – into the academic program itself? Aligned with the Episcopal conviction that service is integral to school life, we provide tools and funding to help schools turn coursework into contribution. This working session explores how the approach speaks to several pressures converging on our schools: disengagement, the well-being crisis, individualism, and AI. The through-line: when the academic work is real, students engage and their work improves – higher-quality thinking, stronger skills, and products that matter beyond the school walls. And underneath, purpose and agency grow.  Participants will leave with concrete next steps for their own schools.