Each year, Proctor’s Allan S. Bursaw Chapter of the National Honor Society inducts members of the senior class as academic leaders in the community. Selected by a committee of faculty, members of the National Honor Society have demonstrated excellence in the organization’s four pillars of character, scholarship, leadership, and service.
One of my favorite podcasts is Guy Raz’s How I Built This. There’s something about the raw, unfiltered stories he tells of entrepreneurs and their journey that resonates with the work we do each day with adolescents at Proctor. Very few successful businesses, or students, have a linear path to success, and it is during the valleys where lessons are learned and business models are refined.
Each year on Indigenous Peoples Day we pause to recognize the Abenaki people who lived on this beautiful land before European settlers colonized it. We look out from Balanced Rock toward Mount Kearsarge (g’wizawajo in Western Abenaki meaning Rough Mountain) and honor those who first called this valley home.
We shared the following communication with our parents last evening, and share here knowing the message others in the Proctor family should read as well.
Although Proctor's Admissions Team is unable to host on-campus visits this fall, we would love to connect virtually with families interested in learning more about Proctor. We will offer "Explore Proctor" information sessions throughout October and November for families to learn about all that Proctor has to offer.
Late Friday afternoon, we posted the image below on our social media channels with a caption that read, “These posts never get the most likes or shares, but this group (and a few more that didn't fit on the Webex screen) of Board Members and Members of the Corporation is so critical to our school and its future that they deserve a little air time.”
We all experience moments when we struggle to initiate. We stare at our computer screen and wait for inspiration to strike, longing for our to-do list to snap into a sharp focus we have not experienced for months. Sometimes it does and we experience that elusive sensation called productivity. Far more often, we don’t. We drift through our days, doing our best to engage over Zoom meetings, Webex calls, and emails, longing for face-to-face human interaction.
In between meetings and a seemingly endless to-do list, I sat in one of the green Adirondack chairs scattered about campus. I closed my eyes and let the September sun warm my face. For the briefest of moments, I was transported back to a pre-Covid fall.
