If you were to create a musical score for the school year, you would feel the cyclical crescendos building toward the end of each trimester. Over the past week, the beat quickened and volume intensified in the background music of our lives at Proctor as we celebrated student work and began preparations for commencement on Saturday.
The signs of the end of school are everywhere. As I write this, I can hear the concluding strains of Act I of the spring musical wafting down the halls in the basement of the Wilkins Meeting House and Norris Family Theater. We have great representation of students and faculty from Proctor, as well as faculty children from Andover Elementary and Middle School; I, too, am in the play. “Shrek!” is Proctor’s spring musical, which opened last evening.
Proctor's Academic Concentrations lie at the intersection of intellectual curiosity and academic rigor. By empowering self-directed students to design an individualized program of coursework, experiential learning beyond campus, and a culminating capstone, Concentrations assist intellectual development on a sophisticated level. Each of the five Concentrations aligns with intentional interdisciplinary guidelines that students tailor to create individualized academic and experiential plans.
The culmination of the Fall Term provides rapid fire opportunity to see Proctor’s on-campus educational model in action. We regularly highlight the remarkable experience taking place on Ocean Classroom, Proctor en Segovia, European Art Classroom, Mountain Classroom, and Proctor en Monteverde through our off-campus programs, however, there is powerful experiential learning taking place daily on campus as well. The following events this week spotlighted just a portion of this work.
Proctor's STEM Academic Concentration allows students with a passion for the sciences, tech, engineering and/or math to put it all together. Camden Fletcher has the honor of completing the first Proctor Academic Concentration in the STEM track and he did an incredible job. Not only did he achieve specific target competencies but he did so in spite of seemingly endless COVID challenges.
The creative studies concentration provides added perspectives for students who are passionate about the arts by requiring them to engage in multiple artistic disciplines throughout their time at Proctor. As a prolific studio artist and 3 year junior, Beth jumped into the Winter drama performance her junior year and stuck with the challenge making a fantastic impact on stage. For her capstone she returns to her visual art to create dozens of surreal portraits inspired by reclaimed glass she collected along the East River while in quarantine. This was a shift from the oils and markers Beth used to create portraits previously.
Despite over 135 course offerings, individual classes do not differentiate Proctor from other independent schools. Instead, the entirety of the Proctor experience, and the collective opportunities available to students, set us apart. In order to help students synthesize their varying experiences, on campus and off, Proctor introduced the Academic Concentrations Program in 2015.
Born out of our belief that our deepest learning comes from a synthesis of all aspects of the Proctor experience, the Academic Concentration Program affords students an opportunity to weave content, independent research, internships, off-campus programs, and on-campus courses into a cohesive learning experience.
