Each spring, Proctor celebrates Earth Day with an entire day dedicated to learning, experiencing, and loving the natural world around us. While we don't observe Earth Day on the official day, the impact of our celebration on our community is very real.
Karen Hoskin ‘86 left the comforts of her rural Maine milltown in the fall of 1985 and arrived on Proctor’s campus as a first year senior. Familiar friends, coaches, and family, were replaced by countless unknowns, but she was confident the journey on which she was about to embark would change her life. She was right. As her 30th Proctor Reunion approaches, Karen reflects on her journey since Proctor; one that led her to Williams College, to working in an enlightening, albeit unsuccessful, political campaign, to living off the grid with her husband for ten years, to a successful career as a brand builder, and most recently, to starting her own craft distillery in Crested Butte.
Perhaps the most powerful aspect of working at a boarding school are those moments throughout the course of the year when you are able to experience tangible moments of transformation. Spring Family Weekend is one of those moments (as are Fall Family Weekend, Commencement, and Reunion Weekend). Our family comes together and we are reminded of the hard, very real, work we all are doing alongside our families to help our students navigate adolecence.
During today’s assembly, nine School Leader candidates shared brief speeches on Proctor’s core values of respect, responsibility, honesty, and compassion. Over the past week, this group of rising seniors has stepped out on a limb to be considered for School Leader by their peers and by faculty. They have taken part in two student panel conversations and have risked failure in a very public manner. Today, we take a closer look at what one of our core values: compassion.
Too often we take for granted the food that enters our bodies. We wake up, grab something for breakfast and off we go into the busyness of our day. Living at a New England boarding school, our connection to the food we eat becomes even more distant as we are fortunate to have talented dining service teams provide three warm meals a day to us. Thankfully, Proctor's Dining Services team's creativity in the kitchen and passion for serving healthy, local food options regularly reminds us to be acutely aware of how we are fueling our bodies for learning.
Just as Friday’s student panel during Revisit Day highlighted the impact of a Proctor education, today’s conversation between visiting families and current students reinforced how important it is to allow yourself to be curious. Nearly every student on the panel articulated how his or her experience at Proctor has been one of redefinition. But why is this? What environmental factors allow for this type of uncharacteristic vulnerability among adolescents at Proctor?
During Friday's Admissions Revisit Day, eleven students volunteered their time and to serve on a student-panel for visiting families. After Director of Admission Christina Dotchin opened the floor to questions from families, students responded without a script, prompts, or direction from any adults. It was a wonderful hour long window into the power of the Proctor experience from the student perspective.
Over the next week, more than 100 accepted students and their families will visit Proctor’s campus for one of our two Admissions Revisit Days. Proctor will most likely not be their only stop as each student weighs options and makes an important decision about investing in his or her high school experience. As our accepted students prepare for Revisit Days at Proctor and other schools, we encourage each to follow the following tips:
