This year’s Beyond King’s is one of the biggest issues we’ve ever produced! Perhaps this is partly a function of school getting back to normal after the two years of reduced activity due to the pandemic. But clearly, it also points to the fact that so much has been going on at King’s that we can barely keep up and cover it all. Towards the end of this year, we saw a transition in school leadership, as Peter Nilsson finished his fourth year as head of school and Penny Townsend took the helm in April. Curious about Penny? Make sure to check out my interview with her on page 4.

Last summer we had our very first all-school reunion — a beautiful event that you can see the highlights of on page 14. Throughout this year we have been celebrating 15 years of King’s in various ways, not least of which through a multitude of engaging speakers who have enlightened our community—you will find articles about those encounters peppered throughout the magazine.

Other highlights in this issue include an article about two fascinating skill-based courses being offered in the Upper School (page 6) and various pieces about the successes of our very special Middle School. And of course, our alumni stories keep getting better, as our alumni get older and do more and more interesting things with their lives.

While Beyond King’s is produced exclusively by the school’s Department of Communications and Publications (from story ideas, writing and editing to photos and design), we have been trying to increase the number of voices that appear in the magazine. I am happy to see a larger number of contributions this year, by faculty, former faculty, and alumni (and even our first student! See page 58). Looking forward to many more future contributions from our community to this magazine that is for all of you.

Vera Azar