Hello Burgundians! My name is David Weissman and I graduated from Burgundy Farm Country Day School in 2016 and am now a senior at St. Stephens and St. Agnes School in Alexandria, Virginia. I went to Burgundy for the majority of my life. Those were easily some of my most memorable and treasured years of my (albeit short) life. I have since gone back to campus to give tours and represent alumni as well as working as the Summer Camp Office Manager the last couple of summers. Both have been wonderful experiences and both I look forward to participating in for the foreseeable future!

I now am another high school senior looking to navigate the crazy college process. I’ve worked hard to take a focused, yet optimistic approach as I send out applications to schools up and down the East Coast. Burgundy played a unique role in my college process, however. Like many other high schoolers, I chose to write about something that made a big impact on me and my life. I started my essay off with “From a young age, I was taught to stand up and stand out for who you are and who you want to be. This all-important lesson stemmed from the education I received, starting as a junior kindergartener at Burgundy Farm Country Day School.” I continue in my essay citing Burgundy as an institution that “challenges social norms and defies tradition” and at its core “values diversity and acceptance of all types of people.” I continue on in my essay to talk about how my real-world experiences at Burgundy have led me to different leadership positions now in my school and community. I saw the significance of talking about the important history and uniqueness that Burgundy has compared to any other place in the world and decided that this is what colleges needed to hear in order to learn the most about me.

I started at Burgundy back in 2004 as a Junior Kindergartener, and from what I have been told I, like many other children, wasn’t too thrilled to be leaving home and starting school. However, little did I know what major impact and piece of my identity that Burgundy would grow to become in my life. As I got older and I began to run between buildings, began to learn the alto saxophone, and jump off the diving board at the pool, I began to see all of the things that made my educational experiences unique. I would talk to friends outside of the Burgundy community and they all thought I was crazy. I got to run around campus without lining up, learn a new instrument, and swim at our school pool all in one day. I truly began to appreciate what Burgundy meant to me and my family. Fast forward to June 2016, graduation. I didn’t want to say goodbye, but I knew I had to. I was excited to start high school but knew it would be monumentally different from my last 10 years. I remember walking across the gym floor to get my diploma and shake Jeff’s hand while the community cheered me on, but I also remember that emotion and symbolism that that moment carried with it. I would no longer be a student at Burgundy Farm Country Day School, but I was okay leaving the place where I grew up knowing that I was ready. Ready for high school, ready to discuss world issues, and ready to help make a change in my next community like how I was taught from a young age.

Special thank you to Jeff Sindler for reaching out to me to write for the blog, and to you for reading my story! I’ll leave you all with a challenge for you and your family: next time you are on campus take a step back and put Burgundy into perspective and think about all it has done for you in your life, and all it is capable of in the future. It truly is a special place you will forever hold close to your heart.