Building a Foundation for the Future - San Marcos Academy

VISION
OF THE
FUTURE
At graduation last spring, I walked out of the auditorium in the midst of
cheerful cap-and-gown clad faculty members and was greeted by a
senior who had just received her diploma. As we awaited parents and
friends, I noticed the tears streaming down her face. She said, “I am
really happy today and I am really sad. I am graduating with honors
from the Academy, but I am leaving as well. I am happy that I will be in
college soon, but I really don't want to leave. This is my home. My best
friends are here. I love it here, and if I could, I would like to start all over
again and relive every single day that I have been here.”
DR. JOHN H.
GARRISON
President, San Marcos Academy
“The vision of this campaign
represents not only a destination,
but a transformational journey of
hope, commitment and
dedication to future generations”
San Marcos Academy is a special place with marvelous students. This
graduating senior was a great example of the phenomenon we call
“The Academy Experience.” The Academy experience is easy to
recognize but difficult to describe. It is life-changing. For some students,
it happens in the stillness before early morning chapel when all is quiet
except for the soft pealing of the chimes. For others it is on a
sun-drenched playing field amidst cheers and struggles shared with
teammates. It also can happen during a walk across campus with a best
friend at the end of a busy day, a time when plans and dreams are
shared in lives that are unfolding day by day at San Marcos Academy.
Wherever it happens, the Academy experience is companion to
traditions and special times that transcend the classroom, and it
happens because of the steadfast support, the financial generosity, and
the encouragement of people like you.
For more than 100 years, San Marcos Academy students have
embraced the Academy's core values of faith, integrity, academic
excellence, and servant leadership. Once these students have finished
their course of studies, they have gone on in their lives to make a
significant impact in their community and in the world. Lee Jamail was
one of those students.
Lee arrived on the Academy campus during the depths of the Great
Depression. She was only four years old--too young to be placed in
traditional campus housing--so she moved into the Academy
president's home to live with the president's family. From being the
Academy's youngest student, to becoming one of our most
distinguished graduates, Lee Jamail traveled a great distance during
her personal Academy experience and later on in the life she lived.
Winston Churchill once said, “we make a living by what we get; we
make a life by what we give.” Lee Jamail lived by that principle, coming
from humble beginnings and achieving a remarkable list of
accomplishments as a community leader, a philanthropist of great
distinction, and a supporter of the arts and education.
The spirit of Lee Jamail drives our Transforming Lives Campaign at the
Academy. The vision of this campaign represents not only a destination,
but a transformational journey of hope, commitment and dedication to
future generations of students who will come to the Academy and find
their own personal Academy experiences. The building that will carry
Lee's name will be the centerpiece of the campus and a symbol of the
Academy in motion as we bring up a new generation of leaders. My
heartfelt appreciation to alumni, donors and friends of the Academy
who will join us in our Transforming Lives Campaign. Let us continue to
dream big dreams. Together we can build a special place for our
students where they might find their own Academy experience. . .their
foundation for the future.