Dear Menaul School Family,
128 years after its modest beginning as a boarding school for Spanish speaking boys, Menaul School has grown into a robust global community that inspires, equips, and prepares students from vastly different cultures, traditions, and socioeconomic backgrounds to be truly World Smart leaders. This diversity sets us apart from all other private New Mexico schools and is something to be celebrated and enthusiastically shared!
It is for this reason that I am particularity excited and genuinely blessed to have been called to serve as Interim President and Head of School. Especially as this was not something to which I aspired, rather it is what the Lord inspired and brought about through the leadership of the Menaul School Board of Trustees. I will officially take up my office on September 1st.
Having served most recently as Vice Chair of the Menaul School Board, my initial introduction to our amazing school was by way of the international aspect of our community.
For the last nine years I have served as Executive Director of Spiritual Orphans Network (SON), a 30-year-old international missions organization working in former communist and Soviet bloc nations in East and Central Europe, the Balkans, Baltic States, Ethiopia, and United Arab Emirates. Preceding my work at SON, I served for 14 years as an Associate Pastor and Director of Global Missions for a large congregation in Northeast Albuquerque; and prior to that enjoyed a 14-year career in broadcast television, also here in Albuquerque.
God was definitely up to something in preparing our hearts for what would come. After 7 years as “empty nesters” God blessed my wife, Angela, and me with three international daughters – two sisters from Ukraine, and one from Albania. The youngest Ukrainian sister, Marta, and our Albanian daughter, Alba, attended their senior year and graduated from Menaul this last spring. All three ladies are attending CNM this fall, before matriculating to UNM upon completion of their prerequisite coursework.
Having seen firsthand how life changing the Menaul experience was for our international daughters, I look forward to helping Menaul School continue to identify areas in the world where international schools are most needed and would benefit the greatest number of international students, for whom a boarding school experience in Albuquerque might not be possible. At the same time, I look forward to helping strengthen our presence and public awareness of the opportunities Menaul School offers for New Mexico families.
Being Menaul parents introduced us more personally to the local and regional extension of the Menaul School family. So many New Mexico family legacies are part of the rich history and vast traditions which are at the heart Menaul School. As native New Mexicans, my wife, Angela, and I feel a strong sense of calling to help continue promoting, celebrating, and growing our Menaul School family and extending opportunities to those who might not otherwise have the chance at an outstanding college preparatory education.
These personal experiences with the Menaul School family, along with my own passion for developing global leaders, and having worked alongside Menaul School on expanding the international impact of World Smart education, are what make this call as Interim President and Head of School an especially exciting opportunity. It is my goal to be a facilitator and a resource for empowering the staff and faculty of Menaul during this time of transition and preparation for the next, permanent Head of School. There remains much for me to learn about our community and, while I know it will be a challenge, it is important to remember that the Lord is leading this charge. At the same time, I recognize this is only a temporary call and so I invite you to keep praying with me that the new, permanent Head of School would soon be revealed to the Head of School Search Committee. To God be the glory!
If we have not yet met, I look forward to connecting with you soon and, together, making Menaul an even greater school. We will continue to share the vision, focus the mission, and enthusiastically communicate what makes Menaul unique; a place where, more and more, others see value in becoming members of our family!
Go Panthers!
In His service,
Pastor David R. Breidenbach
Interim President & Head of School
dbreidenbach@menaulschool.org