Recently in Alumni Category

We're always expounding on the boarding school experience and the fact that relationships set the boarding school experience apart. For students and faculty, the crux of the boarding school experience is what you make of your opportunities and relationships.

We recently found this reflection by a Phillips Andover alumnus and we like it- a lot.  It doesn't sugarcoat the boarding experience, but the author makes a nice, concise argument as to why boarding school is a great fit and experience for some students.

Read Chelsea Page's column from the Georgetown Voice.

Myron Rolle displays a rare combination of drive, insight, work ethic, achievement and innate ability. Out of The Hun School of Princeton, Rolle chose to attend Florida State University on a full football scholarship. Academics weighed heavily on his decision to go to Florida State. The school offered him the opportunity for an accelerated program in a pre-med track.

I've never heard of another potential scholarship athlete who met with the university president on his admission visit.

He's now on track to finish early (in 2 1/2 years), apply for a Rhodes Scholarship and prepare for medical school. Or, graduate and enter the National Football League draft where he is projected as a first round pick.

Defer the dream of becoming an MD to play professional football?

As he tells SI.com's Stewart Mandel, "I sort of fell in love with that profession (MD) and had my mind set that I wanted to do (pre-med) while still playing football," said Rolle. "Everything I did in high school built up to where I'm at now."

These decisions will come during and after the fall as he works hard to return FSU football to national prominence.

Rolle's inside view of Florida State football for the New York Times provides a peek into the life of a division I football player and the ways of a major college program.

Everyone's proud of their Olympians and boarding school alma maters are no exception. For fun, we took a few minutes to find as many boarding school athletes as we could competing in the Beijing 2008 games. We never cease to be amazed at the places and realms in which boarding school alumni participate.

Here's our list. We don't advertise it as exhaustive; if we've left someone out, add them to the comments section. Click the links to read their biographies and accomplishments.

Brentwood College School
Connor Grimes (field hockey),
Scott Frandsen (rowing), and Malcolm Howard (rowing)

Brooks School
Elle Logan (Rowing, women's eight)

Choate Rosemary Hall
Jamie Schroeder (rowing)

Kimball Union Academy
Andrew Wheating (track & field)

Peddie School
Peter Park (youth camp ambassador)

Salisbury School
Elliot Hovey (rowing)

Worcester Academy
Wes Piermarini (rowing)

Photo Credit: Marc van der Chijs

We recently had the opportunity to talk with Javier Colayco, founder of Boarding School Review (BSR), about how his boarding school experience shaped his efforts to help promote & feature boarding schools via the web.

BSR presents school profiles and alumni reviews to families exploring boarding school options. Javier is a 1996 graduate of Northfield Mount Hermon School.

Many thanks to Javier for taking part in the Q&A.

Question (Q): You graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon School. Tell us a little bit about your NMH experience and why you returned to working with boarding schools.
 
Javier Colayco (JC): Northfield Mount Hermon School (NMH) was a terrific experience - I felt I grew so much both intellectually and as a person. I had previously been more of a shy kid, but boarding school drew me out of my shell. It challenged me to become more independent, and as a result I grew more confident of myself. I feel that the more difficult things I've done later in life, such as starting a business, were possible partly because of the growth I experienced while at NMH.

Q: What appeal did working with schools hold for you? How did BSR evolve from an idea to a feature-rich site?
 
JC: Having had such a great experience in NMH, I wanted to help others also discover boarding school. And I recognized that at that time (early 2003), there weren't many websites where families could find college-prep boarding school information. Finding and comparing statistics on schools was difficult. Finding reviews of schools from former alumni was also hard. I thought that starting a website that addressed these difficulties could make the idea of attending boarding school more accessible, broaden the school choices that families would consider, and ultimately attract more students to the school search process.
 
Q: What presented the greatest challenge as you got started in the process?
 
JC: Getting started was probably the hardest part - there's a lot of inertia you need to overcome when starting a new business. It's a bit overwhelming since you're not quite sure where to start. There's naturally also some fear of failure that you need to overcome. This is where it helped to be focused, organized, and very self-motivated - which, coincidentally, are all traits you build in boarding school. Once we committed ourselves to the site and built some momentum, it became much easier to approach and deal with any problems that arose.
 
Q: Did schools welcome your perspective or did they require some convincing?
 
JC: It required some convincing at first, as I think a number of schools were still getting used to the idea of using the Internet as a main channel for reaching out to students. Soon, though, I think they saw that families were increasingly using Boarding School Review, finding it very helpful, and actually drawing in more students to the school search process. What also helped was that we tried to be very receptive to feedback from schools - some of the best features of the site have come from admissions and communications officers making great suggestions.
 
Q: What's the biggest change or adjustment that you had to make in your approach or plan?
 
JC: Initially, we thought that we could basically build a successful site with just our own vision and ideas. But we found out pretty quickly that that there were a lot more people out there - admissions officers, educational consultants, families in the search process - whose input and ideas were often better than ours. So we became much receptive to feedback, and pro-active in looking for any suggestions or areas where we could improve. That change in mindset helped a lot in both improving the site and involving schools in its evolution.
 
Q: What's your relationship with NMH like? Have you been featured in any of their materials or programs?
 
JC: I was actually featured in an NMH brochure - in 1995! I was a student at the time, and I had a small blurb about me since I was singing a brief solo for Christmas Vespers. I don't think the solo went very well, which is why they haven't asked me to appear in any materials since! Nonetheless, I think we're very friendly with the great admissions office and communications people there.