Cross-Divisional Community: Upper and Lower School Buddies Chat

The school year at GFS is all about building and nurturing community. For our younger students at the beginning of their educational journeys, summer is a break before the next grade begins. For our seniors, it means their last few weeks here before heading off to new adventures.

We asked a few pairs from the Senior & Lower School Buddy program—a new community-building initiative this year—to reflect from their different vantage points on questions like: What is your favorite place on campus? and What does community mean to you?

Throughout the year, the buddies got to hang out and get to know each other in the classroom, at the Halloween parade, and at All-School Meeting for Worship. In this video, we asked three Senior & Lower School Buddy pairs to interview one other about school, life, and their reflections on the end of the year: Rachel Jiang ’25 and Eva Morra ’36; Anand Rajagopalan ’25 and Niam Basil ’36; and Isabella Bynum ’25 and Oliver Suberman ’36.

Isabella said she sees this relationship-building as a way to make a difference in the GFS community, which may ripple out wider.

“I really like the idea of helping younger students, because I want to make big changes in the world,” she said. “Showing them that there are a lot of people who want to help them can really motivate them.“ 

She particularly enjoyed cheering for her buddies at the Halloween parade in October, which was a favorite tradition for her as a Lower Schooler. The experience also gave her insights into the imagination and thought processes of younger kids. 

“Generally, surround yourself with your peers who are a year or two on either side of you. It's so different to be with a first grader and see what it is like to be a six-year old in 2025!”