“Marvelwood gave me confidence in who I was–and who I could become.”
I first met Damon Colquhoun ’91 last fall during a campus visit as he toured Marvelwood with his son, Milo, who was applying for admission to our freshman class. Watching the two of them walk the grounds together, Damon reflecting and Milo imagining, felt like witnessing something come full circle.
For Damon, returning to Marvelwood wasn’t just about revisiting a place. It was about reconnecting with a chapter of his life that helped shape everything that came after.
Thinking back to his early high school years, “I wasn’t locked in at the time,” Damon told me. “I just knew I needed something different.” That search led him to Marvelwood midway through his freshman year, a transition that would quietly but profoundly change his trajectory.
The difference was immediate.
“It was peaceful,” he said. “People knew your name. It felt like a real community right away.”
In that environment, small, diverse, and deeply personal, Damon found something he hadn’t experienced before: Space. Space to think, to grow, and to begin understanding who he was becoming. “There wasn’t just one mold you had to fit into,” he said. “I was allowed to figure out who I was.”
Living on campus accelerated that process. Without the daily structure of home, Damon learned how to navigate life on his own. He managed responsibilities, built relationships, and developed independence in real time. “We were kind of forced, in a good way, to figure things out for ourselves,” he explained. “There’s support, but you’re managing your life. It’s like a rapid but supportive maturation process.”
Within that structure, something shifted. Through friendships, shared experiences, and the everyday rhythm of boarding life, Damon began to see himself more clearly. “I remember someone describing me as someone who could handle himself, someone who wouldn’t let people walk over him,” he said. “That was the first time I really saw myself that way.”
That moment stayed with him, not just as a memory, but as a foundation.
Equally impactful were the teachers who met him with patience and belief. Rather than defining him by where he was struggling, they focused on helping him move forward. “The best teachers didn’t assume. They just worked with you,” Damon said. “They took things step by step.”
One message, in particular, never left him. “I remember being told, ‘I just want to see effort.’ That stuck with me. It changed how I approached everything.” That idea–effort over perfection and growth over immediate results–became a throughline in Damon’s life.
His path after Marvelwood didn’t follow a straight line. What remained constant was the belief he had developed there, that he could grow, create, and carve out his own direction. “I always had this belief that I could learn, that I could build something meaningful,” he said. That belief eventually led him into storytelling.
As a writer and filmmaker, Damon began developing original work centered on voice, perspective, and lived experience. In one pivotal moment, a project he created was selected for a competitive fellowship within the public television space, opening doors in ways he hadn’t imagined. The project caught the attention of industry professionals, including collaborators connected to HBO’s Insecure, who recognized the originality and depth of his work and advocated for its potential. For Damon, it was a defining moment, not just professionally, but personally. “One of my proudest moments was breaking into the industry based on my work, my voice,” he said. “People believed in what I was creating. That meant everything. That was when I knew I belonged in that space,” he reflected.
Today, Damon’s work continues to evolve. Most recently, his storytelling reached a national audience through a deeply personal piece published in The New York Times, “Band-Aid Over a Bullet Wound.” In it, he explores his experiences with honesty and reflection, continuing a pattern of using storytelling as both craft and connection.
He is currently working on a memoir, expanding on the same themes that have shaped his journey: resilience, identity, and the ongoing process of becoming. “I’m always chasing growth,” Damon said. “Always trying to understand more, to do more, to become more.” That mindset was something I could feel even as we walked campus together.
Now, as a parent, Damon sees Marvelwood with a different kind of clarity.
“My son is incredibly bright, and I want him to be in a place where he can really thrive,” he said. “When I came back to visit, I saw a school that truly understands how to support students as individuals.” What stood out most wasn’t just what had changed, but what had always been true. “They don’t define you by your hardest moments,” he said. “They see your potential and help you grow into it.”
Watching Damon and Milo that day, it was clear that Marvelwood’s impact doesn’t end at graduation. It carries forward in confidence, in perspective, and in the choices alumni make for the next generation.
For Damon, that impact is simple to describe, but lasting in its effect.
“The school gave me confidence,” he said. “Not just academically, but in who I was as a person.”
And in the end, that’s what stayed with him, and what he hopes for his son, who will join the Class of 2030 in September:
A place where you’re known.
A place where you grow.
A place where you become yourself.
Written by Director of Advancement Ashley Souk
