From Day to Boarding: Finding a New Rhythm at St. Mark’s
April 23, 2026
By Dan Mercurio
Chief Communications Officer
Since joining St. Mark’s School in July 2025, Dan Mercurio has embraced a new chapter shaped by both familiarity and discovery. With a professional background spanning higher education, collegiate and professional athletics, and independent schools, Dan brings a perspective rooted in storytelling, community-building, and student engagement. His transition from day school leadership to the rhythms of boarding school life has offered new challenges and unexpected rewards, deepening his understanding of what it means to live and work in a truly immersive educational environment. In the post below, Dan reflects on his journey to St. Mark’s, the shift from day to boarding school culture, and how this experience has reshaped his sense of connection, purpose, and community.
Transitions in education can be energizing and humbling. Before St. Mark’s, I spent a number of years in higher education at Boston University and the College of the Holy Cross, working in student affairs and athletics. I then made the move to independent schools and found a home at a small PreK–12 day school in Massachusetts where I could be close to the student experience, make an impact in meaningful ways in my Marketing Director role, and coach basketball, something I’ve loved since my AAU days.
In a small school, you feel your impact right away. Everyone matters. Everyone contributes. By my fifth year, I was fortunate to become Assistant Head of School and thought, honestly, I might stay there for the long haul. And then St. Mark’s came along. A prestigious boarding school just a few miles from home, and a model I had never worked in before with an opening that fit my skill set. It felt like a risk. It also felt like the right next step. I was humbled to get an offer to join ‘The Pride’ and just like that, I was a Lion.
Nine months in, I can say this without hesitation: the experience has been transformative.
So what’s different? At St. Mark’s, it comes down to connection. In a boarding school, relationships don’t end when the last class does. They continue at meals, in the dorms, on the fields, and throughout the day and evening. We also gather in Chapel, most notably in the strikingly beautiful Belmont Chapel, where the entire community comes together in a way that is reflective, grounding, and distinctly St. Mark’s. These shared spaces and rhythms create a different kind of connection.
We don’t clock in and clock out. We live this work alongside our students and colleagues. That changes everything. You get to know students in a more complete way. You see them succeed, struggle, grow, and bounce back. You’re there for the big moments and the small ones. The wins feel shared, and the challenges are met together, with a level of care that is constant and real. The same is true for faculty and staff. The community here is not just professional, it’s personal. Colleagues become neighbors. Our kids play together. We grab meals together, sometimes more than once a day. People step in to help, both in and out of the classroom. It’s a support system that makes the work more sustainable and a lot more meaningful.
And then there’s the energy of the place itself. Boarding schools have a way of creating moments that stick with you. A faculty-staff basketball game on a Friday night to support a school in Haiti. Alumni returning to campus to speak with students. Standing on the sideline, cheering on a team with colleagues, students, and families all around you. These moments aren’t extras. They are part of the fabric of the experience.
When your school is also your home, you treat it that way. St. Mark’s makes that easy. The campus in Southborough feels like something out of a New England storybook. The original brick entryway and cloisters have that classic boarding school feel, the kind that immediately brings a sense of history and tradition. And then, just steps away, you have state of the art STEM facilities that point clearly to the future. It’s an environment that manages to feel both timeless and forward-looking at the same time.
For someone who spent years in day schools and higher education, this transition has stretched me in the best ways. It’s deepened my understanding of what a school community can be and reminded me why I got into this work to begin with. Boarding schools don’t just educate students. They build communities where relationships, experiences, and growth are fully intertwined. And for me, that has made all the difference.
