According to the
National Intelligence Council, the world as we constructed it after World War
II will have been revolutionized by 2025.
The balance of power in the world will have tipped more to the east as nations
like China, India, and Russia rise to the fore of the international stage.
Economic and population growth will put pressure on resources raising the
specter of scarcities emerging as demand outstrips supply. The potential for armed conflict will
increase as different world powers divide the international stage more equally
and regions like the Middle East grow more turbulent.
But by 2025 the average GA student will have all this
information and more literally at her fingertips. As the Greenwich Academy of 2012 expands its
technological capacities, the Greenwich Academy of 2025 becomes more and more
high tech. The possibility of every student
having her own tablet computer is not unreasonable, nor is it unlikely. Touch screens already grace our hallways in
the form of the Library’s iPads and the seemingly ubiquitous iPhones. Envisioning a day on which the halls are not made
minefields by book bags overstuffed with textbooks because those textbooks have
been replaced by tablets is not only a likely vision but also a welcome one.
With this expansion of technology, I would also project a
greener Greenwich Academy. I can clearly
and enviously imagine a day when GA’s students no longer have to deal with a
printer on the fritz because those printers have been rendered obsolete. A paperless Greenwich Academy is just one way
in which we could become greener by 2025.
Bathrooms could become more high tech as water becomes scarcer. We could expand our use of solar power to
power our tablets, phones, and computers.
Our gardens could also expand – and very likely become more efficient
with agricultural innovations of the future – and diversify to provide
hyper-local food for the dining hall.
As we become more high tech, we will surely become more
global as well. The Upper School’s
Global Scholars program is still in its infancy, but in time it could become a
way to connect the future leaders of Greenwich Academy with their counterparts
in emerging nations. Chinese classes may
begin to connect more and more with students in China, both to foster global thinking
and our language skills. Economics
classes at GA may be able to video chat with economics classes in Brazil. Our student body could become more
international as study abroad and exchange programs expand.
Yet, in spite of a changing world, there are certain
things at Greenwich Academy that I do hope remain as eternal as they seem to me
in 2012. I can clearly imagine returning
as an alum in 13 years and seeing many of the same sights: the frenetic
freshmen, the sophomore trying to talk a teacher out of giving her a uniform
infraction, the junior freaking out over a B+, and the senior apprehensive
about college (a phrase I am now sure is accompanied by claps of lightning and
horses whinnying). The girls of the
current PC class will become seniors in a world that will be unrecognizable to
the Lauren Eames of 2012. I firmly
believe that GA will grow and change to reflect and embrace that changing world
and that the girls that graduate from GA will be as competitive and well
prepared for that world as they are for this one. However, those girls, I am sure, will walk
the same halls with many of the same concerns and in the same kilt that I do
now.
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