Portrait of A Graduate

Josie Brin's face in the POG

We want our students to be creative, critical thinkers who question claims and embrace evidence in making decisions, who continue to be curious, and who seek solutions to problems of personal value.

We want our students to be able to communicate in a world where, increasingly, they will have the means and need to reach audiences in ways unfamiliar to us as adults. We want them to leverage the strengths of others and contribute their own strengths to reach goals that could not be accomplished without collaboration.

Finally, we share the hope of every parent that our children grow up to be good people, live with integrity and empathy, show personal, civic, and global responsibility, embrace change, and above all, seek balance in their lives, both now and in the future.

Our challenge in District 102 is to create the conditions which we believe have the greatest potential to develop and nurture these skills and characteristics in the children whose lives we touch. District 102 is living its Vision for every student, every day through its work around Connected Components.

Skills and competencies of a Portrait of a Graduate

Skilled Communicator & Collaborator

  • Speaks and writes for authentic purposes

  • Communicates in multiple formats

  • Listens actively to understand

  • Designs communication for target audiences

Effective Problem Solver & Decision Maker

  • Exhibits curiosity

  • Evaluates ideas based on evidence

  • Considers multiple points of view

  • Seeks new solutions

Ethical & Open-minded Global Citizen

  • Embraces unique perspectives of others

  • Disagrees respectfully

  • Exhibits integrity, honesty, empathy, fairness, and respect

  • Demonstrates personal, civic, social, and global responsibility

Determined & Empowered Individual

  • Accepts feedback and grows from it

  • Works persistently to reach goals

  • Embraces change with confidence

  • Seeks balance in life

Crafted from our Future Planning Process

D102’s Portrait of a Graduate was crafted with the help of students, staff, and community members as part of our Future Planning process during the 2015-16 school year, the portrait of a D102 graduate represents our aspirations for our students. It is by no means exhaustive. During as many as eleven years in our district, D102 students learn and grow academically, socially, and emotionally in a wide variety of contexts, and the sum total of those experiences can never be captured in a single image. Yet in conversations among stakeholders, several themes emerged and are outlined as attributes above.