Interview with Crescent School Alum, Christian M

I think Crescent really teaches you about opportunity. If you get ahead of it and you're interested in finding out how to do it, there really is opportunity everywhere. It sometimes won't be presented in the most obvious way. But that's what makes seeking opportunities so hard and what makes those that find it so excellent. When I look back at Crescent, I think, ‘Oh, in this opportunity, I learned how to do this. In this situation, I learned how to manage these two things.’

I always joke that Crescent was the place where someone could ask a student, ‘What's your favourite thing?’ and they would just say, ‘Yes.’ Crescent gives an opportunity to really run with something if you feel as though it grips you. It doesn't necessarily hand it to you. You have to pursue it on your own.

One of the things about Crescent having this relatively small-school feel, despite being relatively large, certainly well endowed, is that if you're interested in creating something, pursuing something, or turning yourself into a better version of yourself … the resources are there.

I think the Crescent environment really enables you to not just expose yourself to things, but really dig in just deep enough to be dangerous. I think that's where passions are made, skills are born, and people are really shaped. And frankly, I think that's something Crescent does really well.

One of the best things that Crescent does is the heterogeneity within the way people think, act, what they bring to the table and what they're interested in and how they perform in those interests, whether you're a student or a staff member at the school. All of those words serve to say that I think Crescent would be best described as the friend that I look to when I want someone who's going to be a real person. That's going to be someone who's nuanced, because when you're honest and when you're honest with yourself and others, your perspective is nuanced.

An ideal Crescent student is not one archetype of a quiet, hard worker or a loud leader. It's just someone that knows that internal code for being a good thinker or a member of whatever group or society you're in. And above all, someone who's honest with themself.

With all the big-school facilities and gifts and resources that that comes with, it still has that small-school feel. What defines us is the fact that you really can't just do one and done in Crescent, whether that's with a person or an aptitude. I think that is part of what makes us a relatively resilient, gregarious, outgoing, and above all, just striving group of people. Just in terms of character, I think that's what sets us apart.

Crescent has four core values. I think they describe different aptitudes of someone who is not only a good person, a hard working person, someone who's honest, someone who behaves to good norms as a good teammate, but also realises that that's hard. I think realising that everyone has to pay into that shared social contract that we have makes the school work and is a big part of realising that the best humans are those that don't judge people by their worst moments and can really see character and find ways to bring the good character out of someone.

One of the things about Crescent is that there's always room for interpretation, and that's something that's tolerated and encouraged. It's all about paying into the system and your ability to help others do the same. You don't have to be loud to be heard, I guess is the right way to put it.

It's really hard to become sequestered at Crescent. Crescent really enables people to not only find their voices, but for other people to find a way to give them space and give them a place to do that. I think even those who are quiet still have their moment to be loud, or maybe it's their quietness that makes them all the much more important to hear when they do raise it. I think that that's something that really happens in a healthy community with the right size and the right set up. I think that's something that Crescent does well.

I think Crescent does a really good job of showing you how big the world is and not necessarily how small you are, but how much bigger you can be in it. Whether that's through size or volume or what you pull from it or put into it or gain or learn or whatever. I guess what I'm trying to say is it really shows you where you can go. Obviously, the path is not clear.

I think Crescent does a pretty good job of showing you that it's going to be hard because nothing worth doing is easy. But pressure is a privilege, so go for it. That's certainly something that I carry forward. I've crystallised it into that little phrase that I found there. But I think it's something that Crescent doesn't teach you explicitly, but very implicitly through the time you spend there. Find out what's out there and then don't be afraid to go get it. I got that from Crescent and I carry that forward.

Even though Crescent is over 100 years old, it's still very much a work in progress. I think education should be dynamic. I think that just as the students are going to grow up, the school should grow up, maybe not at the same time scale, but it should grow up with itself, too. I like the fact that at Crescent, there was never so much, ‘Well, this is how we've always done it. So, ergo, it should be so.’ I think that's a sign of a certain humility that Crescent has that I think is valuable.

At Crescent I learned that good things don't feel good all the time. Don't expect this to be easy or pleasant or feel fulfilling all the time. Just trust the process to a certain extent. Always be questioning, always make sure that something is justified. Don't just settle in. But think to yourself, ‘Is this worth taking a shot at and just seeing how things play out?’ Definitely let the system justify itself.