August is upon us and that means the start of the school year is just around the corner! For boarding school students, normal start of year jitters are sometimes amplified by the unknown of living with a roommate for the first time. As we prepare to welcome 125 new students to campus, the vast majority of whom will be boarding students, we asked a few of our dorm leaders their thoughts on sharing their space with their roommate and the lessons they’ve learned from living away from home at boarding school.  

Proctor in China is a four-week culture and language immersion trip for Proctor students interested in experiencing cultural immersion, developing their Mandarin language skills, and earning one full year of language credit toward their graduation requirements. For this summer's group of eight students and two faculty members, Mandarin teacher Jon Beard and Admissions Counselor Ilyena Kozain '10, the past month of once in a lifetime experiences will certainly take time to fully appreciate. 

For each of Proctor's three Summer Service trips, student access to technology is intentionally limited. While we have not been able to share many photos or blog updates from our trip in China (students are starting Week 3 of 4 with host families!) or our trip to our friends on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota (happening right now), the real impact of these trips on Proctor students seeps into their lives over time. This spring, Sage Fletcher '18 reflected while on Mountain Classroom about her experience at Rosebud during last summer's Rosebud trip. Dive into Sage's heart and mind through her words below. 

A little over a week ago, a group of seven Proctor students and three faculty departed for Proctor's annual summer service trip to Guatemala. Despite a significant earthquake and volcanic eruption that occurred just hours before their departure, all travel and activity plans have remained intact and on schedule. For the sixth straight year, the group completed the first service portion of their trip spending two days at a primary school in San Martin, a town to the west of Guatemala City. Read about their experiences and reflections below.

After many days of long drives, pit stops at new places and the old, to new and happy memories, Mountain Classroom has finally made it back, full circle, to New Hampshire. 

Proctor’s annual Senior Project Exhibition and Express Fest marks the end of our seniors’ high school academic responsibilities, while providing a perfect experiential bookend to the journey that began on Wilderness Orientation four years ago. This final afternoon of exhibits also provides a powerful window for 9th, 10th, and 11th graders into what might be possible during their own senior projects in the future. 

Seeing as this is, unfortunately, the last blog post of the term, everyone is going to be contributing a paragraph about our experience on the whole. And seeing as it was finals week last week, I need to cover two weeks in a short space of time. As a result, I am going to focus on my highlights, instead of a meticulous chronological run through.