The Lawrenceville School

AI at Lawrenceville

Lawrenceville community members are actively shaping how AI is integrated into teaching, learning, and campus life through a collaborative framework grounded in ethics, creativity, and human-centered practices.

Our Approach

Our approach to AI in education is human-centered and values-oriented, prioritizing student leadership, interdisciplinary innovation, and community engagement. Across our school, we are committed to helping students think critically, creatively, and ethically in a complex and changing world.

Our Vision
Preserving Time-Tested Pedagogies While
Pursuing Innovative Approaches

Teaching and learning at Lawrenceville will remain a fundamentally in-person and relational undertaking. With our enduring purpose to challenge young people to lead lives of learning, integrity, and high purpose, we also recognize the potential of artificial intelligence to enhance education and expand human creativity. This recognition must be balanced with a careful, discerning caution regarding tempting shortcuts and easy fixes that undermine the development of critical thinking and confident, assertive self-expression.

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This leads us to pursue four targeted priorities:
 

Maintain an Ethical Stance

Understanding that nearly any advance in human technology brings unintended consequences to contend with, we will grapple with the ethical implications of AI and teach our students to seek solutions to complex challenges they encounter as they navigate and endeavor to improve the world they are entering.
 

Ensure Adult Support and Guidance for our Students

The unregulated nature of the AI landscape makes it all the more urgent that we equip all teachers and students with baseline AI literacy so that adults are positioned to guide, mentor, and counsel students as they explore this rapidly evolving landscape, and equally important, so that academic departments make their own informed decisions about productive uses of AI while also setting healthy boundaries.
 

Foster Ambitious Curiosity

We will create supportive, entrepreneurial spaces for students to take initiative and seek new and innovative ways to exercise their characteristic ambitious curiosity, a habit of mind we seek to instill in all of our students.
 

Recommit to Traditional Rigor While Leading in New Directions

In this way, Lawrenceville will become a model for preserving the ethos of Harkness teaching and other time-tested pedagogies while pursuing AI-driven, innovative approaches that will add depth and breadth to the learning environment and position Lawrenceville as a premier center for forward-thinking independent education.

 
Our Framework
Three Councils

Lawrenceville community members are actively shaping how AI is integrated into teaching, learning, and campus life through a collaborative framework grounded in ethics, creativity, and human-centered practices.

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This multifaceted framework includes a Student AI Council, a Faculty and Staff Council on the Ethics of Innovation, and an External Advisory Council on Innovation, all coordinated by Lawrenceville's Assistant Head of School, who partners closely with the Director of Innovation and AI Student Projects on student AI-related initiatives.
 

Student AI Council

Interested students come together to research emerging technologies, develop ethical frameworks, and apply their learning through innovative AI projects with real-world relevance. The Council reflects Lawrenceville’s belief that students should not simply consume AI technologies, but actively help shape how they are understood, evaluated, and used within a school community.

Through peer-led workshops, guest speakers, and regional design challenges, students foster informed and responsible engagement with AI while helping to demystify emerging technologies for the broader community. Council members also contribute directly to the School’s evolving approach to AI by offering student perspectives on policies and classroom guidelines, conducting research with publication potential, and partnering with faculty and staff offices to explore meaningful applications of AI across campus life.

 
Faculty and Staff Council on the Ethics of Innovation

A cross-disciplinary group of faculty and staff leaders help ensure that emerging technologies are integrated in ways that align with Lawrenceville’s mission, strengthen the Harkness ethos, and support thoughtful, responsible innovation.

The Council provides strategic guidance on AI policy, ethics, academic integrity, and institutional priorities while supporting faculty training, authentic assessment design, interdisciplinary collaboration, and community-wide programming focused on emerging technologies.

 
External AdvisorY Council on Innovation

Experienced Lawrenceville alumni, parents, and trustees, in addition to established researchers and industry leaders, offer critical insight to support an approach to AI that remains forward-thinking, responsible, and connected to a rapidly evolving world.

Spanning education, business, medicine, and other fields, the Council provides strategic acumen, thought partnership, and opportunities for mentorship and collaboration.

Our Continued Evolution

We believe that the future of AI in education must be guided by relational practices, ethical reflection, and a deep commitment to student growth.

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Lawrenceville is taking the following steps to further refine our institutional approach to AI. 

  • Investing in faculty training to establish a shared baseline of AI literacy across disciplines to help ensure that teachers can thoughtfully evaluate both the opportunities and limitations of these technologies.
  • Developing discipline-specific guidelines that encourage uses of AI that deepen learning, creativity, and inquiry, while also establishing clear boundaries where AI may diminish authentic engagement or independent thinking.
  • Actively reexamining assessment practices and definitions of independent work to preserve the intellectual rigor, original analysis, and habits of mind that define a Lawrenceville education.
  • Considering the environmental implications of emerging technologies and exploring how responsible use aligns with institutional values around sustainability and stewardship.
  • Reinforcing the importance of students seeking support, mentorship, and connection from trusted adults and peers – not AI companions – in order to preserve genuine care, empathy, and community.

 

AI News

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A grand building with a prominent seal is visible in the background, while the foreground displays text about "AI at The Lawrenceville School."
Webinar: AI at the Lawrenceville School (opens in new window/tab)

Join Assistant Head of School Dr. Marquis Scott and Director of Innovation and AI Projects Jennifer Parnell to hear about Lawrenceville's continually evolving approach to artificial intelligence in the classroom and beyond. Families will gain insight into how the School is balancing AI literacy and innovation with an unwavering commitment to academic integrity and relational teaching practices.

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Jenn Parnell Marquis Scott
A New Model for AI Emerges at Lawrenceville — Built for and with Students

At the 2025 National Association of Independent Schools Symposium on AI and the Future of Learning, The Lawrenceville School shared how it is reimagining AI through a Campus Service-Based Model — an approach that empowers students to design practical, mission-aligned AI solutions that strengthen both learning and operations.

Read More about A New Model for AI Emerges at Lawrenceville — Built for and with Students
Jennifer Parnell and Ajay Dhaul -1
Parenting in the Age of AI: How Education Is Adapting for Your Teen’s Future

Featuring Jennifer Parnell, Director of Innovation and AI Projects at The Lawrenceville School, and Ajay Dhaul, Senior Vice President of Global Data Solutions and Applied AI for a Fortune 500 consumer products company. This conversation was summarized by AI from our 18:10 podcast: The AI Balancing Act: Ethics, Efficiency, and Innovation and Rewiring Education: Harnessing AI for Good.

Read More about Parenting in the Age of AI: How Education Is Adapting for Your Teen’s Future
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Evaluating the Relationship Between Socioeconomic Disparity and Potential PFAS Contamination in the United States with Machine Learning (opens in new window/tab)

This study used quantitative techniques, including both statistical analyses and machine learning algorithms, to investigate the relationships between each of the designated socioeconomic factors and proximal PFAS industry density, in an effort to generate actionable insights for public health officials. 

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Leadership

Lawrenceville's Senior Staff group is the principal administrative committee representing all the major school departments.

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Lawrenceville's faculty and staff build and support a dynamic, ever-evolving learning experience for our students.

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Employment

The Lawrenceville School community strives to ensure that everyone is valued, affirmed, and welcomed. We seek diverse and dedicated candidates who value continuous, cooperative learning, commitment to quality service, compassion, and curiosity. We welcome you to become a Lawrentian.

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