Award-winning journalist and poet TyLisa C. Johnson ’13 was recently recognized with the 2025 Wilmington Friends School Distinguished Alumni Award for her exceptional contributions to journalism, community storytelling, and social impact.
A proud Wilmington native, TyLisa currently serves as the audience engagement producer at the Poynter Institute, helping to shape the future of media through connection, clarity, and purpose.
Over the past decade, TyLisa’s bylines have appeared in Carnegie Magazine, the Tampa Bay Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Dallas Morning News, The Points Guy, and PublicSource. Her work explores powerful stories about education, equity, and everyday life—and her voice has reached listeners through guest appearances on WHYY, WESA 90.5, and CityCast Pittsburgh.
During the 2025 Alumni Awards celebration, TyLisa accepted her honor with deep gratitude and reflection, sharing how WFS shaped her path. "One of the most powerful lessons I learned here as a girl is that you must let your life speak," she said. "It empowers me to walk in my truth and to stand firm on my values."
She encouraged students and alumni alike to "be bold with grace," to live their values every day, and to keep showing up for their communities. "When you let your life speak," she said, "there is no dream too big. You are limitless."
Storytelling is a central theme of the lower school Visual Arts curriculum, and fourth graders are exploring that theme by experimenting with ways to communicate without using words, applying visual choices alone to convey meaning.
Ninth-grade English students are wrapping up their short story unit with a collaborative Hexagonal Thinking exercise that challenges them to see literature through a more analytical lens.
Right now, in International Baccalaureate (IB) English: Power and Performance, 11th- and 12th-graders are studying Anton Chekhov’s short stories and experimenting with his craft techniques in their own writing.
Early years students enjoyed a fantastic Fall Festival in the lower school outdoor classroom today — planned with so much creativity and care by their teachers!
WFS 8th graders had the incredible opportunity to meet virtually with Congresswoman Sarah McBride, Delaware’s at-large representative and a lifelong resident dedicated to public service.
Congratulations to our community members who shared their talents at this week's Informal Concert! This concert is designed to showcase the talent of our students, parents, and faculty in an informal, yet serious, chamber concert or recital format.
WFS families gathered on Friday evening for the Home & School Engagement, Inclusion and Belonging Movie Night — complete with pajamas, blankets, popcorn, chicken fingers, snacks, and a full candy “salad bar” as we transformed the space into the colorful world of The Lorax.
This morning, Nick Heckles ’28, Kylie Poole ’28, Head of School Ken Aldridge, Samantha Poole, and Matt Heckles gathered for an appreciation and reflection breakfast with Austin and Vega, our exchange students from The Friends’ School Hobart in Tasmania, Australia.
WFS Director of College Guidance Kathleen Martin recently joined 11 other guidance counselors from Quaker-affiliated independent schools across the East Coast for a two-day visit to Guilford College, the only Quaker-founded college in the Southeast.
Statement of Nondiscrimination as to Student Enrollment
Wilmington Friends School admits students of any race, color, gender, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students of these schools. Wilmington Friends School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, national and ethnic origin in administration of their educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school administered programs.