Cardigan Joins Dartmouth Fellowship for Aspiring Educators

For Associate Head of School and Dean of Faculty Josh LeRoy, spring at Cardigan is hiring season. Looking to fill vacant positions, he has a lot to consider, including what each candidate will contribute to a community that is increasingly seeking diverse perspectives. A pilot partnership with Dartmouth is helping with his recruitment efforts.

“Our faculty need to reflect what our kids see beyond our campus,” says Mr. LeRoy. “I can convey trust to our students, but in order for our students to have the best experience here, to have the best opportunity to grow and learn, they need to be able to have conversations with adults who have similar backgrounds and outlooks as they do. For our students and for our community, we have to be ready as a school to recruit and retain any type of faculty, no matter their religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, culture, or citizenship.”

Mr. LeRoy is not alone in his thinking. In fact, as Cardigan developed action areas for The Strategic Plan for Cardigan 2032, diversity, equity, and inclusion took center stage: “In all areas of school life, Cardigan will seek to understand our strengths and weaknesses around issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Using this as a platform, the School will construct and implement intentional programming and curricula that provides for self and community reflection, and an introduction to and celebration of others and otherness, transforming awareness into hope, empowerment, and action.”

The strategic plan also calls for “seeking new opportunities for attracting diverse faculty, staff, and board members, and reviewing, constructing, and implementing policies that support their success at Cardigan.” This means changing the School’s hiring processes and expanding recruitment tools to include additional agencies and a wider range of referrals. 

Cardigan has also committed to a partnership with Dartmouth College. The goal of the project, called the Dartmouth Fellowship for Aspiring Educators, is to recruit promising candidates from underrepresented populations and help them prepare for successful high school teaching careers.

Accepted fellows will commit to enrolling in Dartmouth’s 10-week program for three consecutive summers and to working at Cardigan for two years, either teaching or working in advancement, admission, college counseling, or DEI development. Cardigan will pay a base salary with benefits, provide room and board, and cover half the fellow’s MALS tuition. Dartmouth will cover the other half of tuition and provide access to the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning, which helps faculty members develop teaching tools and strategies.

Cardigan is not the only independent school involved in this project. The Lakes Region Consortium––including Dublin School, Holderness School, Kents Hill School, Kimball Union Academy, New Hampton School, Proctor Academy, and Vermont Academy––have all committed to the partnership as well. “As the head of school at Cardigan I'm so pleased, and as a graduate of the MALS program I'm so proud that Cardigan is able to partner with Dartmouth and other Lakes Region boarding schools in this incredible opportunity," says Head of School Christopher Day P’12,’13.

Dublin School Head Brad Bates, who helped spearhead the Dartmouth partnership, says the Lakes Region fellowships will help diversify faculty in a way that strengthens the entire school community: “It will be transformative, with talented people coming to our schools and bringing their own perspectives from a variety of backgrounds. It’s getting all of us to think differently about the student experience, especially for an underrepresented population that is, happily for us, growing.”

While Cardigan does not currently have any faculty involved in the program, Mr. LeRoy is working closely with Dartmouth to enroll a candidate by next summer. “There are a lot of good candidates out there,” he says. “If we’re going to make change, we have to start now.”