Sunday was a busy day. Wilderness Orientation returned, Sports Camp ended and all students arrived back on campus! Dorms are meeting for the first time this evening to discuss expectations, community living, and to begin to build relationships that will last a lifetime. Tomorrow morning advisory groups will gather at 8:30 AM followed by our first all-school assembly of the 2014-2015 school year and abbreviated class periods. Here we go!
More than two-thirds of our population is in the midst of either Sports Camp or Wilderness Orientation. At the heart of each of these programs is the formation of relationships: relationships with faculty and fellow new students on Wilderness Orientation, relationships with teammates and coaches in pre-season sports camp, and a budding relationship with Proctor as a community.
Early Orientation for preseason athletes and Transition Days for new international students at Proctor are nearing completion. As we prepare for the arrival of all new students and their families tomorrow, we revisit Friday’s welcome of new students for Early Orientation. The perfect mix of nervousness and excitement accompanying the start of the year was present, and we had an opportunity to explain why every new student starts his or her experience at Proctor hiking and camping for five days in the White Mountains learning the value of experiential learning.
As Head of School, Mike Henriques, noted in his welcome to faculty and staff Monday morning, Proctor’s campus never truly shuts down. It slows down as students depart for the summer months, but between Gordon Research Conferences and on-going projects on campus, things never stop!
Central to Proctor's educational mission are our core values: respect, responsibility, honesty and compassion. Whether in the classroom, the dorm or the athletic field, teachable moments to reinforce these values exist. We are very proud that Proctor graduates are collaborative, ethical individuals, ready to contribute productively to their communities and Proctor's CORE Program reinforces these ideals.
We recently posted this article from Scientific American on the Advantages of Dyslexia on our Alumni Facebook page. The article is highly technical, but echoes many of the thoughts we shared in this blog post from January highlighting Proctor’s Art Department’s commitment to utilizing 3 dimensional learning to reach those Proctor students who have the advantage of dyslexia.
The cycle of the academic year is a fascinating thing. Events move at lightning speed during the school year and then screech to a halt following graduation in early June. While campus is hardly quiet during the summer months, there is a distinct energy students bring to campus that is missing during the summer months.
We have reached the midpoint in the summer. There are nearly as many days until students arrive as there have been since graduation. Fourth of July has passed. Students and faculty have returned from service learning opportunities. Students are working summer jobs, traveling, and of course completing their summer reading! New students and families are starting to think about their Proctor experience that will begin in just a few short weeks.
