This is the final part of a series of conversations with key Shortridge Academy leadership team members by Alumni Parent, Frank Anthony

Don Vardell recently joined Shortridge Academy as Executive Director. He has hit the ground running, and brings a great perspective from his successful career leading schools including The , and most recently, two Aspen/CRC Health flagship programs - Island View Residential Treatment Center and The Aspen Institute for Behavioral Assessment. His hands on approach to working in the healthcare field started with the Red Cross developing and implementing their Water Safety, Lifeguarding, and CPR curricula, and he continues his involvement there as an active national level volunteer. Don and his wife Becky are getting settled in their new home in NH and helping their two children get started in their new schools.

Frank: First of all, congratulations on your appointment as Executive Director. With your deep experience in the field, I'm sure that our readers would like to hear about what attracted you to Shortridge Academy.

Don: For most of my career, I have been leading programs that benefited from extensive corporate resources, but I have long been envious of Adam Rainer's opportunity to nimbly build Shortridge on the basis of what works best for students and families while remaining autonomous and free of the distractions that inevitably come with corporate ownership. His vision and thought leadership is a beacon for the industry, and he is way ahead of the curve in his commitment to embracing the principles of Positive Youth Development. When he invited me to take responsibility for daily operations allowing him to focus on careful measurement of our program outcomes, conducting further research on how best to incorporate PYD in every aspect of our work with students, and start an entrepreneurial leadership initiative, I jumped at the opportunity.

Frank: We continue to hear a lot about Positive Youth Development as a primary attribute that distinguishes Shortridge Academy. Perhaps you could talk about how it manifests itself in the life of the school.

Don: We focus on each student's strengths, emphasizing and building on areas of effectiveness rather than simply a deficit reduction mentality. We evaluate all that we do through a PYD lens so that it permeates the entire school, far beyond the therapeutic components and into our classrooms, our dorms, and on trips beyond the Shortridge campus. This level of infusion fosters a degree of student advocacy and ownership beyond what I have seen at most therapeutic boarding schools. We want to inspire our students to take responsibility for making their experiences here more meaningful and, in turn, to become effective role models for their peers, both here and ultimately beyond the Shortridge community. We reinforce that with a participatory and intentional student centered decision - making process that is designed to support our desired outcomes and to provide the transparency that is critical to building understanding and trust.

For example, in response to student's requests, we are launching a student advocacy initiative that provides a voice for each peer group as its members move through the program. We are taking a fresh look at our community expectations and adjusting rules that have outlived their original purposes and have begun to hinder the important priority of students developing positive relationships with the adults in their lives. We ask students to take a close look at themselves, and we want to lead by example by objectively doing the same.

Frank: I know that you have only been on board for a short time, but perhaps you could share some initial observations and priorities for the coming months.

Don: I am still at the stage of listening and learning about how things work around here, but my overwhelming first impression is that we have a terrific community that Adam has carefully nurtured since he started the school, led by a team of fully engaged professionals who are as passionate as they are competent in their work with our students and families. Everyone here brings their whole selves to Shortridge every day, and they are ever vigilant about keeping our students physically and emotionally safe, and ultimately, comfortable with who there are.

On one hand, my job is an easy one. I am continuing to advance the initiatives that have been underway since before I arrived. For example, we are considering how best to evolve our student workshops and how to introduce a community service component to our program. As with everything we do, we are approaching these initiatives carefully and with the benefit of research, evidence, and stakeholder participation to inform our decisions. The more challenging task at hand is to imbed the right systems and support to grow the school to where we want it to be. I am confident we can do that.

Speaking of stakeholders, our students' families are critically important, and I hope to find ways to deepen those relationships. Our parent survey feedback identifies a need for greater support in the weeks leading up to first home visits, as well as interest in an additional parent workshop for new families. We just wrapped up a great Parent Workshop/Weekend where the design was based in large part on parent feedback from previous workshops. This is the kind of tone we want to continue at Shortridge.

Frank: That sounds great. The conferences are always a great time to connect with families, and I know that everyone is eager to get to know you as well.

Shortridge Academy is a year round, college preparatory, therapeutic boarding school for young men and women ages 14-17 years old at enrollment, grades 9-12. Shortridge Academy is one of only a few therapeutic boarding schools in the Northeast accredited by the rigorous New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and the only school of its kind that explicitly utilizes the evidenced-based Positive Youth Development (PYD) curriculum to guide the individualized therapeutic programming for students. Since 2002, Shortridge Academy has been helping students and families who are struggling with academic performance, loss of interest in activities and increased conflict in family or peer relationships.

For more information please call 877-903-8968 or visit www.shortridgeacademy.com.