Mr. Steve Moll has started his new role as Dean of Students for the 2023-2024 school year, bringing a fresh face to oversee the student body and Upper School life as a whole.
Mr. Moll replaced former Dean of Students, Ms. Rachel Lintgen, as she departed to become the new Upper School Director for Hathaway Brown in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Previously, Mr. Moll served as Washington House Head at GA. Additionally, he was also an assistant football coach and head track coach which he will be continuing this year.
The Dean of Students position is a relatively new role, as it was only started three years ago. Before this, the only coordination and connection between students and administration was the house heads, who attempted to plan student programming and discipline.
This role allows for more direct connection to students, while also creating an outlet for student advocacy among administrators. Essentially, it is a large-scale version of house management, where administration is not just planned among each respective house, but among the entire Upper School.
Mr. Moll noted that upon being offered the position, he was interested in taking up this role because it would allow him to find ways to support student growth outside of the classroom and coaching. While he found fulfillment in his position as house head, the Dean of Students role would allow for this student growth on a larger scale and include collaboration from more individuals.
With this, however, comes a significant transition. When describing the difference between being house head and being Dean of Students, he reflected on the relative smallness of a house.
“You are able to hone in on what their needs are, and it’s a smaller sub-community of the school,” Mr. Moll said. However, with this transition, the focus is more broadly on the entire student body. For example, this could include Community Time periods, GA/PC day related events and other milestones in the year.
This change meant working and getting the “big picture thinking” done over the course of the summer. While Moll would serve as an assistant football coach for pre-season, the new role as Dean of Students encouraged him to focus on larger events and plans for the rest of the school year. Despite this, however, he notes that his time so far has been quite fulfilling. “It’s been a really cool experience, especially working cross divisionally with different people.”
In terms of plans for the rest of the school year, Mr. Moll intends to discuss policy initiative changes as they become relevant throughout the school year, essentially taking the opportunity to make changes as needed rather than anything immediate.