Moryam VanOpstal, Head of School, The Cambridge School of Dallas

In an interview with Invest:, Moryam VanOpstal, head of school for The Cambridge School of Dallas, talked about the school’s transition to a new campus, which opens up growth opportunities while maintaining core values. The school is focused on expanding its curriculum, supporting faculty, and maintaining affordability through community partnerships, he said.

What are your immediate priorities for the school? 

We are at the start of a new chapter for our school in a few different ways. In January, we moved into a campus that we have been waiting for years to be able to build. It is a permanent home that we look forward to being in for many decades to come. There are a lot of new opportunities for us here to grow our enrollment and the programs and offerings we have. We are looking to manage responsible growth, as there are all sorts of challenges that come with scaling and changes to the way we have done things. We recognize that we need to change in order to stay the same. We are deeply committed to keeping and prioritizing the core commitments that we have as an institution and that is encapsulated in the idea of academic discipleship: We want to transform the possibilities of the lives of our students and their families through the education we offer. 

What are some recent achievements or milestones for the school over the last year? 

In terms of growth, we have had an unprecedented number of new inquiries for enrollment, many of them beyond the upcoming year. That has come with some challenges for development, so we have transitioned the form of our development role to focus on outreach to the broader community, leveraging relationships built over the past 15 years.

How has the facility enhanced student and faculty experience? 

What we do is accomplished through relationships and classrooms, and we believe that the best we can offer students is a transformative education that prepares them for what the future will bring. There is a lot of education that often focuses on the challenges of the present, but at the pace things move, those challenges will be different in 10 or 15 years. We are deeply embracing preparing people with the capacities to take on new challenges and adjust and pivot to face new challenges as they come. What the new campus allows us to do is focus on fundamentals without distractions of classroom size or temperature or other day to day operational issues. 

What strategies are you implementing to incorporate international and diverse students?

A top-of-mind concern is making sure we do not grow too quickly. Because we are a small school, that means the addition of even 20-25 students right now could fundamentally change the culture of any classroom. As a result, we aim to be discerning as we scale. We are trying to broaden our presence in the market so more people know who we are and what we want to do, and to have partnerships with a number of local organizers who can help facilitate relationships and connections. As we grow in our footprint in the Dallas area, we want to remain clear with our constituency about what our fundamental commitments are and what students and families can expect.  

Are there any new programs you are looking to introduce? 

One of the things we look forward to is offering more diversity in our curriculum, alongside our core classes and commitments. That would include expanding opportunities in math, sciences, statistics, engineering, and humanities in order to round out what it is we are doing here.

How are you creating a great workspace for faculty? 

One of the hallmarks of Cambridge since I’ve been here is the size of the school, but also the commitment, as faculty tend to join us for missional reasons. Maintaining the best faculty is a challenge every year, but we continue to create partnerships to support our mission and to have the resources needed to recruit and maintain quality talent. 

How are you ensuring affordability and value in your offerings? 

The missional commitment our school has that allows us to attract and maintain stability in the staff is something that extends to the wider community. We have partnerships with schools in underserved areas of Dallas that have continued to send us some of their brightest students Because of the wider community commitment to the missional priorities we have, we have a number of partners who have given in astonishing ways in order to make it possible for many of our students to be able to attend and for us to maintain our offerings. 

What support services do you have in terms of counseling and mental health? 

The need for counseling services among young people has grown exponentially over recent years, and we have found it necessary to create partnerships with various counseling organizations in the area. We are happy to see there is much less shame when it comes to mental health, so when we have opportunities to talk to families about counseling as an option, they are receptive to our recommendations. 

What makes Dallas a great place to be located? 

Dallas is growing by leaps and bounds with people coming from all over the country. Something that has been a challenge in the past is that it hasn’t had the full array of opportunities recreationally that many people have found in other cities, but that is changing now and growing in those ways as well. And Cambridge isn’t just a place for students; it’s committed to a kind of life where families walk alongside each other in an intentional and intimate community.

What are your near- to midterm priorities for Cambridge? 

Looking four to five years ahead, we aim to absorb growth in a way that energizes us and fulfills the unity of mission that has characterized us all along. All of our attention is thinking through how we can deeply root ourselves in who we are and what we offer as we grow.