The steady stream of prospective families through our Admissions Office over the past month resulted in a 20% increase in October tours over our five year average. While a far-too-early indicator of enrollment numbers for the 2020-2021 school year, it is a data point. There’s something intriguing about this random school plopped on 2,500 acres in the Blackwater River valley between Ragged Mountain and Mount Kearsarge. So what is it? Why are families interested in Proctor when all of the data shared by the Enrollment Management Association (EMA) and TABS on independent boarding school enrollment trend the opposite direction? 

The Proctor football program has a long and storied history of success, including three undefeated seasons in the last decade. With expectations high once again for the 2019 campaign, the team is holding true to the winning tradition of Proctor football well known throughout New England as the team boasts a 5-1 record heading into the final two games of the regular season.

Our trip to Barcelona commenced on a sunny Wednesday morning. We boarded the bus, which shuttles travelers and commuters between Segovia and Madrid. Once we arrived in Madrid, the crowded and confusing metro brought us to the train station. The journey to Barcelona was easy, although we were all slightly anxious about what lay ahead.

Proctor’s Ocean Classroom program met up with director Brooks Bicknell ‘77 in Savannah, Georgia this weekend. Entering the final third of their eight-week voyage to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, all reports from the crew are that they are happy, healthy, and loving life at sea. Read more from their Ship’s Log entries below.

Browse the news and it does not take long to recognize the current struggle we have as a society to honor the humanity of the other. A culture of polarization encourages us to seek opportunities for division, to highlight our differences rather than the bonds we share as a human race. As powerful as these voices of despair feel, they pale in comparison to the joy we experience when we actually spend time playing alongside others. Today, we made a powerful step toward unity as we welcomed our friends from Special Olympics New Hampshire to Proctor’s sixth annual Special Olympics Fun Day. 

We’re obsessed with sports. So many fans, so many teams, so many opportunities to lose oneself in a quarter, a half, or a period. I’m not saying that it is a bad thing, and truth be told it might be one of the few distractions that can push the dire din of news off to the side. At least temporarily. One can only imagine that having the Washington Nationals in the World Series is a good thing for D.C. How could the first two games played in Houston and won by the Nationals not bring needed distraction and cheer to the beltway region? It’s just the nature of the beast. 

When we pause long enough to listen, to truly listen, we can softly hear purpose as the background music to our journey through life. We begin to piece together good out of bad and recenter ourselves on that which holds the deepest meaning in our lives. 

Proctor’s girls’ varsity soccer team boasts a 6-3-2 record as they head into Wednesday afternoon’s home game versus a talented Berwick Academy squad. Under first-year head coach Kyle Connolly, the team is looking to continue their strong play, individual skill development, and teamwork as they enter the back half of the season. Building off a strong team culture forged by former Head Coach Karl Methven, Coach Connolly has the program headed in the right direction with a core of young players contributing to the team’s success and following the example set by experienced seniors. 

I heard that Proctor used to have a radio station. I’ve seen pictures of the old radio station building to the right of Shirley Hall in old yearbooks, and Scott Allenby told me about this alum from 1941 who started a radio club in the third floor of MLS. I thought to myself why do we not have that anymore? We have a student newspaper, The Hornet’s Nest, that discusses current issues once a month or so, but I wanted to bring back a forum for live, in person conversations about our community. 

Proctor's Ocean Classroom crew has surpassed the 30 day mark on their eight week voyage down the eastern seaboard to the US Virgin Islands. The changing of watches has become routine, the roll of the deck as the schooner Roseway cuts through the Atlantic second nature. Read this past week's Ship's Logs below. 

Begun in the fall of 2014 by Ilyena Kozain '10, Proctor's crew team enters its fifth season on the water. With twenty students involved in the program, Proctor's boats are rowing as fast as ever. The cold waters of Lake Sunapee, the team's home training venue, and countless blisters are a price worth paying for the beautiful scenery, wildlife encounters, and endless supply of stories that emerge as the season unfolds.

Traipse through the New England woods long enough and you will run across old stone walls bisecting a dense forest. Follow those walls and you will likely find an old cellar hole. Once a home, these remnants transport you to a different era when Proctor’s 2,500 acres were clear cut pasture sprinkled with farms of hardworking men, women, and children scraping a living off the rocky soil. An era when connection was found through human interaction, walking to your neighbor’s home to help bring in the hay, share a meal, repair a wagon. An era when it was acceptable to care deeply about those walking through life with you to show your emotional investment in their well-being. 

Our first trip to Madrid was a success! An eventful day of history lessons, fútbol games, bus rides, and lots of laughs. The day began mid-morning when the group met at the bus station where we were greeted by Ryan and Laura. We discussed the itinerary and the game plan for our excursion. We had an action-packed day ahead of us. The whole group was so excited we could barely sit still for the hour-long bus ride from Segovia to Madrid. When we arrived we were instantly introduced to the long confusing metro system. Julia ‘21 and Ollie ‘21 were in charge of navigating our paths to get to the center of town. Through the process of elimination, we successfully arrived!

Fall Family Weekend 2019 kicks off with the 29th Annual Proctor Invitational Golf Tournament at Lake Sunapee Country Club Thursday morning, followed by an open house at Mike and Betsy’s home for all parents later that evening. On Friday, parents are invited to attend two classes followed by all-school assembly, athletic practices, and Parent/Teacher conferences before a two Friday evening games. On Saturday morning, boarding families and day families are invited to gather for socializing and breakfast in the Brown Dining Commons before Parent/Teacher conferences and athletic contests round out the weekend. Parents, click below for a complete schedule for Fall Family Weekend and read on for advice on how we believe you can get the most out of the weekend ahead.

Perhaps my voice is not the right one for this blog post. It’s a voice that did not choose the situation I was born into, but most certainly has benefited from it. A voice that has only recently started to grapple with the privilege my family experiences. A voice that will unlikely know what it feels like to walk through daily life with an experience other than that of the majority. A voice that harbors guilt for this privilege, yet is reluctant to give it up. 

Proctor Academy's Ocean Classroom program is more than a third of the way through their eight week journey down the eastern seaboard, and eventually to St. Croix. Proctor's twenty-one students are becoming sailors, and the daily glimpse into life aboard the schooner Roseway reinforces the transformation taking place on Ocean Classroom 2019. Read more from our students in the entries below. 

I wish I could say I am just nibbling almonds and leafy greens, have quit sugar and dialed back on dairy, but the truth? It’s different. In the last week there was a road stop at Five Guys and a cheeseburger. And fries. And a carbonated beverage that was not kombucha. When I scroll back further, I do recall eating most of a pot of tapioca pudding and I have faltered around potato chips. Seriously faltered. Perfect in my diet? Far from it.

Proctor’s Cross Country team is off to a fast start to the season, continuing the long history of successful runners on the Proctor campus. After graduating their top runners last spring, Head Coach Sarah Daney and her coaching staff are centering their philosophy around how to approach training intelligently and how to become stronger all-around athletes as they build a foundation of fitness around their group of young runners. 

Crafting a mission statement is an impossible task. How, in a paragraph or two, can you capture the entirety of a complex learning community like Proctor? How can you concisely provide the north star toward which your school constantly works? We talk about our core values and key programs, but one short phrase in the middle of our mission statement cuts to the very heart of our beliefs about education: We recognize the potential of each member of the community to stretch beyond what had been thought possible.

Drive along NH Route 11 and you will encounter beautiful scenery, farms, open fields, views of Mount Kearsarge and Ragged Mountain, and the varied architecture that speaks to an evolution of a town without strict zoning laws. You might conclude that while quaint, the village of Andover is far from a cultural center. Take a step off of Main Street into the Lovejoy Library, Wilkins Meeting House, or Brown Dining Commons and you will quickly realize your premature conclusion to be false.  

The twenty-one students aboard Schooner Roseway on Proctor's Ocean Classroom program have begun their third week at sea. They are settling into routines, learning how to live in close quarters with their classmates, and adjusting to interrupted sleep, middle of the night watches, and the unfiltered beauty of the open ocean. Read the past week's Ship's Logs from Roseway below. 

Last week, the Proctor en Segovia group walked part of the Camino de Santiago, a little under forty miles to be exact. The Camino de Santiago is a path that starts in France and ends on the coast of Galicia. The journey across Spain is walked for many reasons. Some people do it as a physical challenge and/or to take time to reflect on an aspect of their lives, but, traditionally, the Camino de Santiago is walked as a religious pilgrimage. 

On some level we see it all. We see teachers tack back and forth from Maxwell to Shirley to Fowler Learning Center, see the maintenance trucks and mowers move across campus, see and hear the coaches on the fields in the afternoon, the kitchen crew roll out meals. It’s pretty simple. The workings of community sit right in front of us and are easy enough to discern. But then there are the other layers.

We thrive when our entire body is healthy, when blood pumps through every vein and we tune into the interconnectedness of individual parts as we operate the whole. The same goes for communities. We are only healthy when every layer of our community feels engaged, heard, and empowered to effect change. 

After a challenging 2018 season that saw Proctor’s Varsity Field Hockey team struggle to a 1-14 record, the 2019 version of the team sits with a 2-1-2 record as they enter the month of October. The squad is proving a long-term impacts of a foundation of hard work, determination, and positivity forged through the hardships 2018 season. With a goal of extending this season into mid-November, coaches Kate ‘01 and Trish Austin's ‘01 have their team laser focused being the best version of themselves each and every day.