PORTRAIT OF A GRADUATE

The mission of Bernard Zell is to develop exceptional young people who put Jewish values into action. This commitment is evident from the earliest stages of a child's education, well before they proudly read from the Torah or embark on a life-changing Tiyul (Israel trip) experience. We believe that the foundational moments, from a nursery student's first turn as a dreidel on stage to the traditional graduating class photo, are all part of a journey that cultivates the education and skills needed for our students to grow into future leaders of the Jewish community. This is our Portrait of a Graduate.

Creative and Critical Thinkers

Creative and critical thinkers who demonstrate a love of learning, and have the confidence to listen, question, and consider different perspectives.

Our students explore and practice the skills needed for social and historical research, and can approach these topics through the lens of Jewish values and texts.
Our students are critical and purposeful consumers of media and information.
Our students are capable of critically reading and engaging with Jewish texts, and are able to apply their lessons to their personal lives.
Our students are deeply engaged in literature and the arts.
Our students are appreciative of aesthetics, and able to engage in the enjoyment and creation of artistic endeavors.
Our students have experienced the act of contributing in a substantive way to a performance and/or production, onstage, backstage, or behind the scenes.
Our students have learned to play a musical instrument (or to sing, or to dance) as a form of performance.
Our students have been exposed to, and have learned to appreciate, different forms of creative expression.
Our students are able to engage in nuanced, complex thinking about difficult social problems, and develop the ability to understand positions different from their own.
Our students are historically and politically literate, and able to think outside of themselves.
Our students understand that learning is a way of life, rather than a process with a finite endpoint.
Our students understand the design process and its inherent value.
Our students know how and why to "fail forward,” to learn from their mistakes.

Compassionate and Kind Human Beings

Compassionate and kind human beings who embrace a diverse and inclusive community, are guided by Jewish values and knowledge and are inspired to forge their own Jewish identities.

Our students have been exposed to Jewish thought, history, and tradition.
Our students understand and appreciate the different perspectives of multiple denominations and Jewish communities; and can compare and contrast the Jewish perspective with the perspective of other religions and cultures.
Our students are knowledgeable and conversant about Judaism, Jewish history, Jewish practice, and commonalities and differences within the Jewish community, and how they inform our practice of Tikkun Olam B'Maclhut Shaddai.
Our students are able to speak and understand Hebrew with at least a basic level of competency, and are able to interact with written Jewish texts for purposes of study and spiritual practice.
Our students have a strong positive connection to their school, their community, their nation, and the Jewish people.
Our students have the ability and inclination to consider Jewish values when making important decisions.
Our students are able to engage in spiritual practice and Jewish ritual in nearly any Jewish community, and understand why it is important to be able to do so.
Our students identify with Jewish values, and are able to view the modern world through a Jewish lens.
Our students are proudly Jewish, and respectful and appreciative of differences within the Jewish community.
Our students have great empathy for, and demonstrate appropriate solidarity with, cultures and communities other than their own.
Our students are kind, mindful, and able to take agency over their lives.
Our students are compassionate.
Our students are "God-wrestlers."

Resilient and Resourceful Individuals

Resilient and resourceful individuals who are prepared to advocate for themselves and others and to act as upstanders.

Our students are knowledgeable about, and interested in, the world around them.
Our students develop a high degree of executive functioning ability.
Our students learn how to engage in thoughtful self-care.
Our students learn to "read between the lines,” and to appreciate context, in social situations.
Our students understand what it means to be a "mensch," and that ּבְמָקוֹם שֶׁאֵין אֲנָשִׁים, הִשְׁתַּדֵּל לִהְיוֹת אִישׁ: in a place where there are no good people, strive to be a good person.
Our students believe that every person is made in God's image, and should therefore always be afforded honor and dignity.
Our students believe that it is our responsibility to help heal an imperfect world.
Our students have the grit and resilience necessary to persevere in the face of adversity.
Our students have purposefully and thoughtfully developed their emotional intelligence.
Our students strive to be healthy in mind and body.
Our students practice gratitude.
Our students are internally motivated, humble, balanced, and humane.
Our students recognize that we were once "the other," and that to oppose injustice is at the heart of Jewish identity.

Active Leaders

Active leaders in their chosen communities who make significant contributions to our world, and inspire others to do the same.

Our students are capable and persuasive public speakers.
Our students are savvy consumers of technology, and learn how to use technology to solve real-world problems.
Our students learn the skills necessary to plan, implement, evaluate, and reflect upon a meaningful, complex project, and to see it through to its conclusion.
Our students are able to interact with and create technological solutions to social problems.
Our students develop the skills necessary to identify and solve ambiguous, complex problems with unclear solutions, both individually and collaboratively.
Our students develop as innovative problem solvers.
Our students are proud Jews who care deeply about Israel.
Our students take responsibility for themselves, and for those around them.
Our students know how and when to lead, and when to follow.
Our students know how and when to be competitive, cooperative, and collaborative.
Our students have the ability and desire to actively engage in Tikkun Olam as a matter both of habit and conscious decision-making.
Our students have, in some meaningful and observable way, consciously attempted to bring positive change to a community.
Our students are ambassadors for Israel and the Jewish community.

Extraordinarily Well-prepared alumni

Extraordinarily well-prepared alumni who are ready to embrace their future academic pursuits, foster meaningful relationships, and live lives of fulfillment and purpose.

Our students are aware of their strengths and opportunities for growth as learners, and are enthusiastically capable of taking intellectual risks.
Our students are evidence-based thinkers who use, interpret, analyze, and question data in making decisions.
Our students are able to articulate and receive critical responses to their own work and the work of others.
Our students are mathematically, quantitatively, and statistically literate, and can apply these skills to other fields of study, as well as to their daily lives.
Our students are able to think scientifically.
Our students are strong, passionate readers and writers, with clear, distinct voices and keen, practiced ears.
Our students excel in STREAM (Science, Technology, Research, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) fields, and can use Jewish values to make ethical decisions around them.
Our students are able to write, research, and share a formal research project in and across multiple subject domains.
Our students are capable researchers who are also able to contribute to existing bodies of knowledge.
Our students are able to apply historical lessons to important contemporary issues.
Our students are able to summarize, synthesize, and apply knowledge in valuable, concrete ways.
Our students demonstrate adaptive expertise, and apply lessons from one domain to another without losing the “uniqueness” of the original content.
Our students are conscious of and knowledgeable about our shared historical memory.
Our students are effective communicators capable of engaging in civil debate.
Our students are able to apply their "school learning" in such a way as to improve the human condition.
Our students are highly admissible to outstanding academic programs.
Our students thrive in high school and beyond.
Our students know how to discover and explore new passions, and to pursue them enthusiastically and responsibly.

Bernard Zell's Mission, Vision, & Values

Our Shared Commitments

Portrait of a Graduate

Faculty & Staff

Board of Trustees

School Hours and Calendar

Career Opportunities