Teacher of the year Mr. Grund has always been heavily involved in the school since the day he arrived. 19 years ago Mr. Grund was originally hired as a student assistant counselor and school social worker for the district and his position has developed into student assistance counselor and  anti-bullying specialist and he has left a lasting impact on many students and faculty members.

Mr. Grund first became interested in Bernards High School because of its unique environment. After previously working at Livingston High School, Bayonne High School, and at Upsala College, Mr. Grund looked for a change from large schools and began to look for a smaller school. Bernards intrigued him. The growing diversity of the community and the alternative school that Bernards used to have lured him in. The school’s reputation also attracted him.

Mr. Grund’s main focus is on student’s emotional development, and he has been involved in many different things to aid students in this process. As a student assistant counselor, he tries to be someone that students can trust and talk to on a personal level on any topic that need help with. There is always someone in his office. He was also involved with Quest (now called the Adventure Club) at the YMCA for 15 years. He got many BHS students into the program that challenges students to step out of their comfort zone through exciting activities and promote self esteem, healthy habits, self-regulation. Mr. Grund also chaperoned band trips to Disney Land and  World and New Orleans, assisted in exchange programs between urban and suburban schools, and is a part of the medical emergency response and the community response teams.

From the moment he arrived at the school, Mr. Grund became heavily involved in the peer leadership program. After one year at the school he took over the program completely. For the past fifteen years he has  traveled with the eight peer leadership advisory board members to Massachusetts to train with Project Adventure staff to prepare these leaders to train the remaining forty plus peer leaders to lead the freshman orientation process. The peer leaders guide freshman through their first year in high school. Junior peer leader Avery Bolton said, “Mr. Grund makes peer leadership seem like a family. He is always there to listen and to make us laugh.” Junior peer leader Neeyati Sheth added “Whoever takes over next has big shoes to fill.”

Mr. Grund likes to remember the compassion of the community. He recalls the community service the school completed together on MLK day. One MLK day that stands out is when he helped get kids from Matheny on the rope courses. Another community service event was Operation Santa, where students dressed up as elves and delivered presents to kids in New York City. Lastly, the togetherness the Bernards community showed on 9/11 and the unified effort to help Hurricane Katrina victims will leave a lasting impression on Mr. Grund.

While this year is Mr. Grund’s last at the school, he is most certainly not retiring. He is picking up a full time private practice as a psychotherapist and consultant in Chatham and Chester. While many people would be satisfied with this job only, Mr. Grund is taking on many other jobs as well. He is working as a Project Adventure trainer, where he will be sent around the United States and  the world to places like Brazil, France, Japan, China, and India. His job will be to train people in utilizing Adventure or Active Learning theory and challenge ropes courses in therapeutic, educational and corporate settings.  Mr. Grund will also work as a consultant for LEAP in Connecticut. He will work with urban and suburban kids to promote team building, emotional intelligence, personal development, mindfulness and leadership training. The mixed group then travels to a developing country to complete community service with local adolescents.

Mr. Grund also dreams of working for Search Inside Yourself(SIY) by Google. The program is about emotional intelligence and mindfulness. He describes the model as “amazing and much needed” and has already completed the first level of training. He has been  talking with Google leaders to work with them to integrate the model into education. He hopes to be accepted into the SIY leadership institute next fall and to become a certified trainer for Google’s Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute.

In his personal life he looks forward to the ability to set his own schedule. He hopes to utilize his early mornings to work out, read, write and spend more time with his boys. His wife has also made him sign a contract that he must have lunch with her at least once a week.

Mr. Grund will miss being able to have such meaningful interactions with students,staff and the Somerset Hills community. He said “It’s been really important and inspiring that students see me as someone they can talk to and trust. I will miss the high school staff the most. They are some of the brightest, hard working and most caring people I have ever worked with..”