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.
Mountain Classroom has been on the road for three weeks. Most recently our adventures have found us traveling through remote parts of Northern Arizona and Southern Utah. Our limited access to the internet means we are delayed in sharing stories from this part of our adventure with you, so thanks for your patience! Below, we share thoughts on our rock climbing experience in Cochise Stronghold after getting acquainted outside of Tucson. Stay tuned for upcoming blogs on Grand Canyon backpacking and their hunter/gatherer experience near Boulder, Utah!
They make it exceedingly difficult to write these blogs. How am I supposed to put into words the experience that we are having here. Sure, I can explain it to any one of the people here, but how is it possible to convey something so incredible to someone who isn’t here experiencing it?
The first day was a jetlag-drenched adventure, a whirling, overstimulating blur of sunlight and new food and French. There was nothing for it but to follow the Flemings and hope not to fall asleep standing.
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.
Proctor's Mountain Classroom program reconvened for the Spring Term with a new group of students ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime over the next nine weeks. The group arrived in Tucson, AZ last week and headed to their first campsite at Gilbert Ray Campground. We oriented to our academic courses and the equipment that will play a large role in our lives for the next couple months: the bus, trailer, kitchen, tents, and food planning systems. While in Tucson we also enjoyed an afternoon at the stunning Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Our next stop: rock climbing in Cochise Stronghold! Enjoy student reflections from the first week of the term below.
I have been looking forward to this term since my application to Proctor. Finally being here closes my time of being a student at Proctor. I sit with my peers on this final night I am truly happy with what this term has given me. Dave always lectures us about living in the moment, and I think those are words that everyone should live by. European Art Classroom has been everything I hoped it would be and more.
Mountain Classroomstudents wrote their final blogs of the term on their climbing in Cochise Stronghold. After climbing, they traveled north to Prescott, Arizona and found audiences for their final projects. Students presented children’s books they wrote describing their science research to 3rd graders, and then they presented their final English assignment to Prescott College students. The term finished with a student-led and designed backpacking trip that left from Arcosanti.
