May 7, 2024

The School of Education will welcome David Hardy, President of Girard College, as the keynote speaker for the school’s 2024 Commencement Ceremony that will take place on Thursday, June 13th at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia.

President Hardy is a longtime leader and innovator in education in Philadelphia. He is the current president of Girard College, a private boarding school located in North Philadelphia. Founded in 1848, Girard College serves children from grades 1-12 from low-income, single parent families.

He also founded Boys Latin of Philadelphia charter school in 2007 with the mission to provide a world-class educational experience for underserved boys in grades 6-12 in West Philadelphia. The school has received national acclaim for high achievement and college graduation rates within its tight-knit community of students, supportive families, and dedicated educators.

President Hardy has also served on several school boards and is a distinguished senior fellow for the Commonwealth Foundation in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

President Hardy will be joined by graduate and undergraduate student speakers along with the faculty to honor the Class of 2024 at the School of Education’s Commencement ceremony. For details about Commencement, please visit, https://drexel.edu/commencement/.

David Hardy Biography
David Hardy is the President of Girard College which offers a tuition free boarding school education, for grades 1-12, to low-income children in single parent households. It is a selective, college preparatory program that has provided transformational education for 176 years.

Mr. Hardy is regarded as an outstanding educational leader, whose 38-year career includes the first bond financing of a charter school, the creation of Fairhill Community High School (now known as One Bright Ray), and the founding of Boys Latin of Philadelphia – a single-gender charter school whose student body is predominantly African American and economically disadvantaged – which earned national acclaim. After retiring from Boys Latin, Mr. Hardy served as Executive Director of Excellent Schools PA, a school choice advocacy organization. He also is the principal of a consulting practice, Parkway Educational Consultants. In addition, Mr. Hardy currently serves on the boards of the Pennsylvania State Coalition of Public Charter Schools, Independence Mission Schools, and the newly chartered Pennwood Cyber Charter school. He is the Vice President of the Freedom Coalition for Charter schools, the Vice Chair of the North Carolina Outward Bound School, and on the board of the Holocaust Awareness Museum and Education Center. He is also a Distinguished Senior Fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation. Mr. Hardy was a founding board member of the Philadelphia Schools Partnership and is a former board member of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the Center for Education Reform, the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), and Ad Prima Charter School.