The power of Proctor's community has sustained us during a most difficult year. It is a community that values each individual's journey, while embracing the power of together. It appreciates the diversity of our life experiences, yet is solidified by a shared vision for what education could and should be for this generation of adolescents. Today, we have the honor of inviting an incredibly talented, unique, and down-right fun group of Accepted Students to join us in our pursuit of community building.

For Proctor’s drama department, it has been exactly one year since students last took the stage. With the annual spring musical canceled due to Covid-19 last spring, director Jen Summers is thrilled her company will produce Peter and the Star Catcher this week for the community. An extended production run over four nights this week has provided the cast and crew the invaluable feedback of a live audience, something every performer and lover of the performing arts has missed over the past year. 

In a term that bridged remote learning, on-campus quarantine, and in-person instruction, Proctor’s Arts Department has shown the entire community what perseverance looks like. On Friday evening, the Dance Team and Jazz/Rock Ensemble shared their talents with the community in back-to-back performances, and while rehearsal time was roughly half of what it would have been during a “normal” term, the students shone as brightly as the full moon over campus this weekend. 

Courage, like leadership, comes in all forms. Today we recognize the beautiful bravery of our sophomore class as they all stood before their peers to take part in Proctor's 22nd Annual Hays Speaking Contest. 

Proctor is far from a traditional boarding school. Sure, we have traditions (Holderness Weekend, Polar Swim, the Hays Speaking Contest, and Winter Carnival), but we are not driven by them; they are simply nice features layered on top of the core of who we are as a community. We thrive on evolutions and shifts and changes, recognizing that when we become stagnant as a community, we stop growing as individuals. 

Proctor’s athletic teams last took part in interscholastic competitions on November 14. For the past 82 days, our students and coaches have awaited this weekend’s first games and races of the winter athletic season. Check out a preview of this weekend’s games and races, as well as our first video team spotlight of the term! 

When we walked our eldest child to kindergarten for the first time, we shared a short phrase before releasing his hand into the big, scary world of elementary school: “Be kind, be brave, and have fun.” Every day since, with each of our children, we utter these words before saying goodbye for the day. It is our mantra, words that center us before going about our day’s work. 

Words are used to build up and to tear down, to communicate the intricacies of self and to oversimplify the complexities of each other’s humanity. When we seek to use the words given to us by society, we fail to capture the whole of who we are in this moment, and who we must become. Today’s community celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, albeit virtual, provided a powerful reminder of the power of words and the intricacies of our interwoven stories.