The Haverford School is grounded in the principles of morality, virtue, and character. To carry the moniker of “Ford” is to uphold these standards, on the football field or in the classroom. Perhaps it is only fitting, then, that one student leader does so by name.
As a member of the Signet Society, Sixth Former Jack Ford is both the face and the foundation of the Haverford community.
“One of the roles of Signet is to embody Haverford’s values and act as role models for the younger students on how to follow those values,” Ford said. “I think for me that’s been one of the most important parts of Signet that I’ve really tried to embody in my day-to-day life.”
Attending Haverford since pre-Kindergarten, Ford has long been involved with various parts of the community, holding countless leadership positions. Besides serving as a Signet Society member, he is also the co-captain of the robotics and cross-country teams; the co-founder of the Haverford Electronics Group; and a member of the speech and debate team, Newton’s Notebook, and Honor Council.
“ I’ve gone out of my way to talk to the freshmen on the team, especially during cross-country preseason,” Ford said, “just making sure that they’re doing well, asking them about their classes, saying ‘hi’ to them in the halls, and making sure that they feel like they’ve got somebody that they can turn to.”
In doing so, Ford carries a fraternal legacy.
“ I always had someone I could look up to, which was my brother [Render Ford ’24],” he said. “He’s an incredible person and someone that I really look up to on just how to be a great, genuine guy. And now that I’m a senior in Signet Society, I feel like it’s my responsibility to do the same for the younger guys.”
To underclassmen, Ford has three major pieces of advice.
“ Number one is to be curious,” Ford said. “Try to see everything, whether it’s a lecture in a classroom, a discussion, an extracurricular, as a chance to grow and as a chance to explore something new about yourself.”
Ford encourages students to embrace uncertainty.
“ When I was a sophomore, I joined Haverford’s Vex Robotics team, and I was asked to join the team because I knew how to code,” he said. “ At first, I was very uncertain about this because I’d never done robotics before. I didn’t really know anybody on the team. The only person I knew was Finn Kelly [’25], and it just didn’t seem like something that I’d be really interested in. But almost immediately after joining robotics, I knew that this was my place.”
Ford’s final suggestion is to embrace the Haverford community.
“ Find support in others, because I think at Haverford it’s very easy to get caught up in the competitiveness [of] trying to be number one: trying to be the best lacrosse player, or the best football player, or the smartest guy in the class,” Ford said. “If you’re so fixated on that idea of working alone and being by yourself and being the best, you’re never gonna really discover what Haverford has to offer.”
Ford explored this connection with others in the musical.
“ I love the musical, not because I’m a ‘theater kid’ or because I’m some incredible singer, but because it is truly one of the only communities where I feel like everyone there is just trying to be their best selves and lift up everyone else around them,” he said. “It is an unbelievably supportive community.”
“We were given a ton of privilege, and really, we were born into an extremely lucky scenario that many people in the world are not born into, and I think that I owe it to the world, to myself, to take that position of privilege and use it to give back to people in every way I can.”
Jack Ford ’26
In his recent opening to the Reflection series, Ford tied these ideas into a short and digestible presentation focusing on AI models.
“ I asked to go first because I thought what I had to share was something that people should really take with them throughout the entire school year,” he said. “[My reflection] had three goals. The first was to teach students how AI models actually work. My second [goal] was that I wanted to show students that these AI models don’t actually think, at least not right now. And then the last goal for my reflection was really just to make it engaging and to make it something that every student could relate to.”
Outside school, Ford continues to embody the school’s virtues, helping people as president of Food4Philly, a student-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to fight food insecurity in the greater Philadelphia area.
“Honestly, I was just looking to give back to my community, and this [was] the perfect opportunity,” he said. “We were given a ton of privilege, and really, we were born into an extremely lucky scenario that many people in the world are not born into, and I think that I owe it to the world, to myself, to take that position of privilege and use it to give back to people in every way I can.”
In his free time, Ford is a serious coder. Having taught himself how to code during COVID, he has written programs and developed apps for Haverford, Food4Philly, the Congressional App Challenge, and for his own enjoyment. One of his personal projects is derived from his enjoyment of Icelandic songwriter and musician Laufey’s music.
“ I really like this artist, Laufey, and I wanted to build an app to test [if I can] guess what song is playing just from the first few seconds. And so I just built an app that lets me try that out,” he said. “Programming is a skill that anybody who’s interested in creating and in bringing their ideas to life should really know how to do.”
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