SCHOOL CONFERENCES/SEMINARS
“Hosting the Pollyanna Conference presented important opportunities for us as a school that was already committed to diversity and social Justice but could benefit from a mechanism to deepen our understanding and our commitments.”
– Mikki Murphy, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Community, Far Brook School, NJ
Why Host a Pollyanna Experience?
Hosting a Pollyanna experience is more than bringing a program to your campus. It is a powerful signal of leadership.
At a time when many school communities are navigating complexity, pressure, and competing perspectives, hosting creates intentional space to come together, listen across roles, and focus on what matters most. It allows a school to move beyond reactive conversations and toward shared understanding, clarity, and action.
For host schools, the impact is both immediate and lasting. Hosting:
Positions your school as a leader in shaping thoughtful, connected communities
Engages your full community in meaningful dialogue and reflection
Strengthens relationships across constituencies
Creates momentum for continued learning and growth
Builds alignment between mission, values, and daily experience
Hosting also extends beyond your own campus. Whether welcoming other schools or focusing internally, it contributes to a broader network of communities committed to learning from one another and leading with intention.
To host is to lead with purpose. It is an opportunity to bring people together in a way that strengthens your community from within and contributes to something larger.
All in service of Building Stronger and Kinder Communities.
Interested in hosting? We would welcome the opportunity to partner with you.
The Leadership Seminar: Strengthen Your Team
The Leadership Seminar: Aligning Mission, Values, and Decision-Making
Strong communities require strong leadership, especially in moments of change, complexity, and challenge.
Pollyanna’s Leadership Seminars are designed for school leaders who are shaping culture, guiding communication, and making decisions that impact the entire community. These gatherings create space for leaders to step back from the urgency of daily demands and think more deeply about how mission, values, strategy, and leadership practices align.
Leadership can often feel isolating. Bringing leaders together in a thoughtful and candid environment allows for reflection, practical learning, and the opportunity to engage with peers facing many of the same questions and pressures.
Our Process
Each Leadership Seminar is intentionally designed to support both reflection and practical application and often includes:
Pre-planning conversations with leadership teams
Facilitated dialogue and case-based discussion
Reflection on mission, values, and decision-making
Opportunities for cross-school learning and connection
Action planning for next steps within each school community
Participants leave with stronger alignment, greater clarity, and concrete ideas they can bring back to their teams and institutions.
A Leadership Seminar is not simply professional development. It is an investment in the kind of leadership required for Building Stronger and Kinder Communities.
Multi-School Conference: Brings Local School Communities Together
A strong school community is shaped not only by what happens within its own walls, but also by the opportunity to learn alongside others.
Pollyanna’s Multi-School Conferences bring together schools from across a region or network for a day of shared learning, reflection, and action. These conferences create meaningful space for students and adults to engage across roles and across schools, helping communities explore important issues, strengthen relationships, and generate ideas that can be brought back home.
There is tremendous power in gathering a school’s full ecosystem. When students, faculty, staff, administrators, parents/caregivers, trustees, and alumni come together, schools are better positioned to move from conversation to shared responsibility and meaningful action.
Our Process
Each Multi-School Conference is thoughtfully designed in partnership with a host school and often includes:
A keynote or opening community conversation
Constituency-based breakout sessions
Cross-school dialogue and reflection
POD time for each school team to process learning together
Action planning for next steps back at school
Each participating school attends as a team, allowing community members to hear different perspectives, reflect together, and leave with greater clarity and alignment.
A Multi-School Conference is not simply a day of programming. It is an opportunity to connect, reflect, and build momentum in service of Building Stronger and Kinder Communities.
Intra-School Conference: A Unique Opportunity for Individual Schools
A strong school community requires time and space to come together, listen deeply, and reflect honestly.
Pollyanna’s Intra-School Conferences are designed for a single school community, bringing together students and adults across constituencies for a day of shared learning and dialogue. These conferences create a meaningful opportunity to pause from the pace of daily school life and focus intentionally on the health, culture, and future of the community.
By engaging a broad cross-section of the school, Intra-School Conferences help communities surface strengths, better understand differing experiences, and create a stronger foundation for trust, communication, and collective responsibility.
Our Process
Each Intra-School Conference is tailored to the unique culture and goals of the school and often includes:
Planning meetings with school leadership
A keynote, opening reflection, or framing conversation
Constituency-based breakout sessions
Cross-constituency learning and dialogue
POD time for reflection and collaborative next steps
Participants leave with a stronger understanding of one another, a shared language for moving forward, and practical ideas for strengthening community life.
An Intra-School Conference is not about a one-day event. It is about creating the conditions for deeper connection and sustained growth in service of Building Stronger and Kinder Communities.