Coleman Horn's '86 journey to becoming a revolutionary soft goods design consultant began in Proctor's woodshop, metal shop, and dark room more than thirty years ago. Read more about Coleman's work designing many of the outdoor products we use today and his reflections on the impact Proctor had on his path in this alumni profile.
This is a story taking a little over half a century to unfold, and at the same time it is a promise of what is yet to unfold. It is a tale that is neither epic nor incidental. It’s personal, yes. I could claim it’s only about me. But somehow it seems much bigger. Whatever it is, Proctor is at the center of it.
Four times a year Proctor’s Board of Trustees arrive on campus for two days of meetings, conversations, and planning. They are parents, alumni, and friends of the school and their relationship can stretch back decades or just a year or two. They come to Andover to share their talents and their love for the school, bringing invaluable perspective from different worlds. Renovations or running an endowment? What it takes to be a successful entrepreneur or artist? They’ve got that. They are not on campus four times a year to be prescriptive but to help, and their wisdom and work contributes mightily to the success of Proctor.
The past two weeks for Proctor Academy's Mountain Classroom group have been packed with challenges that have forced students to get proximate to their learning. The Borderlinks portion of the Mountain Classroom program exposes students in person to the border issues that exist between Mexico and the United States. Through time spent on both sides of the border, students gained a powerful window into the depth and layers of border issues. Following border studies, the group traveled to Baja California for a sea kayaking expedition. This post is a long, so buckle up and enjoy the ride!
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Student leadership sold Candy-Grams during lunch today and will place them in mailboxes tomorrow morning. We anticipate the normal adolescent flirting to tick up just a bit on this day of love, and there will probably be at least a few deliveries of flowers by secret admirers before the end of the day tomorrow. This post may have been triggered by Valentine's Day, but the focus is far from the Hallmark holiday before us. Instead, I want to dig into an aspect of “love” that I believe every school should nurture with more intentionality. So bear with me as we take a circuitous route through Valentine’s Day, hugs, love, academics, and institutional evolution.
Proctor Academy's European Art Classroom group welcomed Proctor Art Department faculty member Corby Leith '92 to Aix-en-Provence for a visit this week. They shared the following reflections, photos, and video prior to heading out on their next weeklong excursion. Read more below!
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Have you ever fallen in love? With a city of course, because we have. The group was going to embark on one of the biggest adventures of a lifetime. On Wednesday morning the group boarded the bus that would take us to the Segovia train station, which would take us to Madrid and then into Barcelona. A day full of travel, worse than it seems. We went from bus to train to another train and finally rode the high-speed train right into Barcelona. “Big, Bad, and Bold” as Nicole said when we found out this was going to be the city we would explore for the next three days.
It’s the mountain that clanked and rattled and almost shut down. The t-bar gears clattered so much you could hear them across the valley. The cement slabs across the Hameshop Brook, the “bridge”, was slowly settling to become a beaver dam accessory. The “groomer,” better suited to smoothing snowmobile trails, labored up and down the hill, coaxed along by Garry George. The snow making was first generation, vintage at best, and when the lights flickered on at dusk, dusky corners held their ground. A dozen years ago this was the question on everybody’s mind: Why keep the little big mountain going?
