Episode 86: Exploring Community Collaborations

With Guybe Slangen and Jennifer Cherney

Available April 7, 2026

As independent schools strive to ever expand their impact on their communities and the world, what creative models exist to help them achieve their public purpose? On this episode of New View EDU, host Morva McDonald invites Guybe Slangen of Horizons National to speak about the innovative summer programming the organization designs in collaboration with schools nationwide, expanding equity, access, and community spirit. They are also joined by Jennifer Cherney of the Gateway School in New York City, one of the local partners who can speak to the school experience of working with this unique model.

Guests: Guybe Slangen and Jennifer Cherney

Resources, Transcript, and Expanded Show Notes

In This Episode:

• “You don't have to look far to the same headlines now, that we are still a divided nation. Opportunity is not equal for everybody. And then you put that in the context of these independent schools that are all mission driven. And every independent school, regardless of the context or the setting or the history, has, in their mission statement, some version of civic engagement, social impact, global citizenship, 21st century skills, you name it. I mean, that is what independent schools do. It's not just about educating the students while they are within the campus of that independent schools. No, you're setting them up for life, and also to be change makers in the greater community.” (12:19)
• “People really want to feel like they are part of the collective, that it's not just, and there is this old notion that, okay, if you're raising money for an independent school, you have people there that have deep pockets, you don't need my contribution. This is the kind of initiative that brings people to your door. Let's say I want to be able to contribute. I don't have $100,000 to give to you, but I do have something and I want to contribute. I want to be part of something.” (17:32)
• “We have a host of public school teachers, charter school teachers who obviously are coming into our program. They're more familiar with serving this population. Maybe they actually teach those same students during the school year. They're also seeing the benefits of this, you know, where it's smaller classrooms. There's more hands-on experience, with assistants, with literacy instructors, you know, and they're able to really kind of roll up their sleeves and focus in ways that unfortunately they just can't during the school year. So that's kind of also giving them this kind of renewed energy, renewed creativity, renewed sense of purpose.” (34:05)

Related Episodes: 85; 77; 74; 73; 69; 15

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