After sixteen years of service to the Governor’s School, David L. Schreiber (“Les”) will retire in June from the Social Studies Department. Mr. Schreiber arrived in the fall of 1992 after a lengthy career as an international bond and foreign exchange trader in New York and Europe. He entered the program in its second year of operation along with the first full class admitted to the institution, the Class of 1996. Les’ length of service to the program is matched by only six current staff members.Upon his arrival, Mr. Schreiber helped pioneer the Global Studies curriculum, which is still the core of the freshman year experience at the Governor’s School. As the school matured, Mr. Schreiber created the AP Economics program and the AP Comparative Government course. He taught the AP American Government class for many years and was responsible for a collaborative effort with Mr. David Barnes of the Science Department which focused on the interrelationship between environmental and economic policy. The latter is still one of the few co-taught, interdisciplinary classes ever offered at the Governor’s School. Mr. Schreiber also originated the first-ever History of Richmond seminar at the school.
Beginning in the late 1990s, Mr. Schreiber guided a group of Governor’s School students to the first of two district championships in the “Fed Challenge” competition sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank. Through extensive study and rigorous questioning by Fed officials, Fed Challenges probes student understanding of macroeconomic and national bank policies. “District” championships are awarded for first-place in the Federal Reserve Bank’s multi-state districts of which there are twelve nationally. In 2000, The Governor’s School team took fourth in the country earning each student participant a $4,000 cash gift and $11,000 for the school. In 2002, Maggie Walker secured the national championship after withering questioning from the Fed’s Board of Governors, including then-Chairman, Alan Greenspan. Team members earned $5,000 each and the school accepted a gift of $10,000.
Mr. Schreiber received his B.A. from the University of Tennessee and his Master’s in Education from New York University. His also earned certification from the University of Amsterdam (Neth.) for completing a year-long program in European monetary and economic integration.
He looks forward to never missing another Yankee game on television.
--John Wilkes, Global Studies Department Chair
