On Aug. 23 Pinewood Preparatory’s approximate 675 students return to a school – and its new Head of School, Daniel Seiden, is “chompin’ at the bit.”
“This has been a long time coming,” he said.
For the last seven months, Seiden said he has been learning and listening as much as he can about his new school.
“Now it’s game time,” he said.
Seiden is a “recovering Yankee” from Avon, Connecticut. He grew up visiting Hilton Head in the springtime – Seiden said that is his real tie to the lowcountry and that coming to South Carolina was more like a homecoming to be close to his wife, Brooke’s, family in Hilton Head.
Seiden’s educational background goes back 14 years. He started his career at his alma mater, Avon Old Farms, an all-boys prep school.
He went to Emory University in Atlanta for his undergrad and then a mentor of his – a former teacher at Avon – encouraged him to work at Avon Old Farms.
“You stay young forever in education…being around that energy,” Seiden said.
He got hired as a history teacher, a basketball coach and a dorm parent – “they call that ‘the triple threat model’,” he said.
“I just really loved everything about that independent school world where you could essentially change kids’ lives and you have that connection in a really meaningful way with your students,” he said.
After Avon he went to be a teacher at Hilton Head Prep for one year and met his wife during that time.
Avon then pulled him back and he transitioned from teaching to administration.
Seiden said he and his wife wanted to get closer to her family in the south so they moved to Asheville, North Carolina and he was the assistant head of school for advancement at Asheville School, a boarding school at the high school level, for the last four years before taking the job at Pinewood Prep.
“Always steadily and making our way back to the lowcountry is what we’ve always had in the back of our mind…so we’re really proud to call this our home,” he said.
Seiden said he wants this to be a really fun year.
“I think when you get into education, that’s why you get into it – you want it to be fun every day and I think that parents are excited, and faculty and students are excited for the new year,” he said.
Seiden said he is very committed to athletics and the arts.
“I believe in the power of athletics in a young person’s life; I played sports all growing up, I know what it’s like to be on a team, I’ve always taken that team approach to anything that I do…so I’m really excited on the athletic front,” he said.
He said the school has new leadership in the drama program named Kathy Keber; he said the school had somebody who built a program from scratch and put the school on the map, making it a big spot to fill.
“I think we’ve just got somebody there who’s going to knock it out of the park,” he said.
Seiden said thinks he has a lot to learn to find out about the school in his first year.
He said he is anxious to establish roots in the community and represent Pinewood “and let folks know what a great educational institution is in their own backyard.”
Seider also doted on the schools STEM and robotics programs.
“We have incredible faculty leadership in that area and I’m interested to see what we do there – I think Pinewood can really carve out…a niche in the area of STEM and robotics in particular,” he said.
He said he used to be an avid golfer but has now gotten into running. Seiden and his wife have a 4-year-old named Stella and a 1-year-old named Sullivan – or “Liv.” Stella will be in 4-year-old pre-kindergarten at Pinewood.
Seiden received an MBA through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is obtaining his educational doctorate in educational leadership from Vanderbilt University.
“I practice what I preach – I think what we want lifelong learners,” he said. “That’s really what we try to instill in the next generation, is to constantly be learning.”
