More than two-thirds of our population is in the midst of either Sports Camp or Wilderness Orientation. At the heart of each of these programs is the formation of relationships: relationships with faculty and fellow new students on Wilderness Orientation, relationships with teammates and coaches in pre-season sports camp, and a budding relationship with Proctor as a community.
Early Orientation for preseason athletes and Transition Days for new international students at Proctor are nearing completion. As we prepare for the arrival of all new students and their families tomorrow, we revisit Friday’s welcome of new students for Early Orientation. The perfect mix of nervousness and excitement accompanying the start of the year was present, and we had an opportunity to explain why every new student starts his or her experience at Proctor hiking and camping for five days in the White Mountains learning the value of experiential learning.
As Head of School, Mike Henriques, noted in his welcome to faculty and staff Monday morning, Proctor’s campus never truly shuts down. It slows down as students depart for the summer months, but between Gordon Research Conferences and on-going projects on campus, things never stop!
The cycle of the academic year is a fascinating thing. Events move at lightning speed during the school year and then screech to a halt following graduation in early June. While campus is hardly quiet during the summer months, there is a distinct energy students bring to campus that is missing during the summer months.
Our lives are layered. As a boarding school, understanding the interconnected nature of our students’ lives is critical to the education we provide. Our diet is linked to our health, which is directly connected to our energy level, and consequently our ability to learn. If you disrupt any piece of this sequence, every step is impacted. Developing an approach to education centered around active learning, exercise and healthy social interactions will result in increased learning, and even increased intelligence.
