Susan Steen is one of the many valuable Principals in High Point striving to do the best for her students and the culture of her school. The High Point Community Foundation is proud to support her and every other educator in this city!
How are you changing the culture at Northwood?
We are working hard to make Northwood a school that everyone in High Point sees as a viable option for their children’s education. As an International Baccalaureate (IB) magnet school, anyone who lives in High Point may apply for their children to come to Northwood through the GCS magnet application process. My first priority is to ensure that we provide a quality education for all students with the end result being an increase in student achievement for all of our students. We have also worked this year to bolster our IB program by providing training and planning time for teachers to rewrite and expand on our IB units. The goal of our IB program is to develop globally-minded students who become inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring citizens of our community and world.
What attracted you to Northwood?
I am a High Point native, and I attended public schools in High Point. I graduated from Andrews High School and returned to High Point after college to begin my teaching career at Oak Hill Elementary. After teaching at Oak Hill for eight years, I worked as a curriculum facilitator at an elementary school in Greensboro for 15 years. Then, I returned to High Point as an assistant principal at Union Hill Elementary. I was excited to come back to High Point so I could work to make a difference in my community. I was attracted to the principal job at Northwood because it affords me the opportunity to impact the lives and futures of 500 students and their families who live in my community.
Why is Northwood important to the High Point Community?
As an IB school, we focus on character development and teaching our students to be inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced, and reflective. By developing these traits in our students, we are preparing them to be responsible citizens and the future leaders of High Point.
