Dean Vachon, Dean of Faculty and Curriculum, emphasizes a diversity of learners when talking about Dunn School’s academic program.

More than just a varied curriculum, Dunn (a coed boarding school in Los Olivos, CA) recognizes and serves a diversity of students with courses that fit different kinds of learners.

The fact that each Dunn student learns differently drives Dunn’s academics. Dunn teachers teach every lesson in different ways.

Dunn alumni graduate knowing how to learn;  how to ask for help and interact with faculty; and with an ability to seek and grow relationships with their teachers.

Katie Isaacson talks about the role that Midland School’s organic garden plays in the school community.

Midland (a coed boarding school in Los Olivos, CA) cultivates 10 acres for both production and education. The school eats seasonally from the farm bounty putting-up by freezing or canning the surplus. A chalk board in the dining hall charts produce seasonal availability. Livestock are also part of the Midland farm production. The farm raises eight pigs and 10 steers annually for school consumption.

Students are involved in the farm daily in activities ranging from food harvesting, to composting, to livestock husbandry. Students interested learning and exploring the farm in-depth can elect farming as their afternoon sport/activity which puts them working on the farm four afternoons weekly.

• “Leaving the Reservation…“
• “I Tell My Brothers They Have Choices to Make“
• “The Application Process Was Daunting…“
• “My Essay Was About My Struggles Growing Up.”

Aaron offers his stories, encouragement, and perspectives as part of the College Board’s “You Can Go” campaign.

The “You Can Go” campaign makes the case for college, and college options, to students who, for a variety of reasons, might remove themselves from the college admission process.

Addressing collegiate entrance hurdles such as cost, grades, and adult responsibilities, students are urged to take the collegiate leap even though it can feel risky.

“Don’t hold back” runs through each student’s story.

We first met Aaron in 2010 as a Proctor (Andover, NH) student and, then, learned Aaron’s broader story, writing in 2010:

“When we visited Proctor Academy’s campus in June, Aaron Thomas was kind enough to take time during our tour to talk about why he values Proctor. We had no idea that Aaron would open up a great back story that we had never heard. Aaron hails from the Navaho Nation and he attends Proctor as part of the school’s Native American Scholarship Fund.”

You can watch our video interview with Aaron below:

Stevenson School junior J.J. shares his insights into the strengths of a Stevenson education. The school’s a coed boarding school in Pebble Beach, California.

Academics at Stevenson (www.stevenson.org) are second-to-none with multiple advanced, and Advanced Placement, classes in all subjects. Tennis, golf, swimming, water polo, volleyball, soccer and track are the strong athletic programs. Music features band, jazz band, orchestra, and choir.

Opportunity, freedom, trust and responsibility are the themes that surface again and again throughout the tour. Whether it’s practicing one’s instrument, signing out to go on a trip, taking an off campus class, or, going into Monterey, Stevenson requires a great deal of responsibility and good judgement from its students.

As J.J. relates, Stevenson is a cornucopia of opportunities and it is the Stevenson students job to grab those opportunities and take them as far as they can. J.J. is an athlete, prefect, violinist, and outdoor education leader- in short, a Stevenson student.

The intallments feature students, and teachers, talking about their programs and, often, the benefits of a small interconnected community.

Dixson’s reports show Marvelwood students engaged in experiences ranging from the service oriented caring and training of future service dogs, to the artistic pursuit of jewelry making, to athletic rock climbing.

Each story offers a window into, not only what Marvelwood students experience, but also how Marvelwood faculty work, as well as the things that the greater Marvelwood community holds important and valuable. The high level of connection and individual pursuit is classic small school.

Marvelwood School: Cool for Puppies

Marvelwood School: Cool for Jewelry

Marvelwood School: Cool for Critters

Marvelwood School: Cool for Rock Climbing

To watch the reports go to: http://www.wfsb.com/category/211215/cool-schools

The entire Cool Schools series is kept on a single page. You’ll find the Marvelwood reports individually available in the past reports bar below the main video viewer window.

What sets a pre-professional arts boarding school and a pre-preprofessional arts student apart? Drive, desire, and dedication.

In this short video, Jewel talks about what she learned and expereienced at Interlochen Arts Academy.

“I’d never seen discipline like that…You’d have a cello major that was practicing 6-8 hours on top of all their studies. Every major was just so good and so passionate about what they did that it made me rise and try to be better myself.”

To learn more about pre-professional arts boarding schools, I encourage you to read an article that we published a few years ago (Dedicated Study of the Arts in a Boarding School). It goes into more depth and showcases the three arts boarding schools in the US.

A Gould Academy student share her insights into what it’s like to be a student at Gould. Two programs that she shares will strike viewers as setting Gould apart.

The first is Gould’s On Snow program. Adjacent to Sunday River ski area, Gould encourages and designs its programs so that students make maximum use of their ‘backyard’ outdoor opportunities. On Snow program puts as many students as possible on snow during the winter in capacities that allow students to grow in a variety of directions- as ski racers, as ski instructors for children.

During the winter, Gould ‘flips’ two days a week with students hitting the mountain first thing in the morning, then, returning to campus for classes in the evening.

Viewers will also be struck by Gould’s Farm and Forest Program.

In place of a traditional afternoon athletic requirement, students can gain first hand experience in working on and running the school’s farm. Animals and crops from the farm make into the school’s dining hall and the farm uses school waste in composting.

Gould features strong small class, discussion driven academics shaped by an engaged faculty. A strong arts program that offers another uniquely Gould class- blacksmithing.

Evenings feature traditional study hall and library hours.

Weekend are highlighted by activities ranging from relaxing to intense- shopping to ice climbing.

Rachael Scott director of residential life and housemaster at Ridley College talks about Ridley’s residential life curriculum and its role in student lives. Ridley’s residential live program focuses on supporting success at Ridley while instilling tools and lessons that students will carry and use throughout life.

Ridley’s highly developed residential life curriculum features age and developmentally appropriate lessons and concepts. In Ridley’s case, this means grade 5-8 students work through their age and developmentally appropriate residential life curriculum. While upper school students work through a curriculum that supports the personal and academic development of high school students.

Additional resources:

Ridley College – www.ridleycollege.com

Ridley College athletic director and alumnus presents a brief overview of athletics at Ridley.

Ridley (a coed boarding school in St. Catharines, ON Canada) offers competitive athletics in parallel with Sports For Life. Students in both programs benefit from daily physical activity but with programs and goals that fit with their abilities and interests.

Sports for Life are exactly those- healthy physical activities that can be practiced for a lifetime- such as soccer, Zumba, Yoga, Ultimate Frisbee.

Ridley focuses its competitive athletic energies on four “program development sports-” soccer, basketball, rowing, and ice hockey. These programs allow athletic students to hone their skills at high levels in preparation for collegiate athletics and/or international competition.

Ridley College seniors explore why they were drawn to this Canadian boarding school as international students, what they’ve found at Ridley, and how this shapes their college search.

Both appreciate that Ridely offers and international community in which students can excel in any number of ways- academics, athletics, and the arts.

They share that some of the challenges of being an international boarder, are the very things that benefit one the most.

The Ridley experience has been so transformative for both that they wish they would have come to the school earlier in their secondary school years.

Additional resources:

Ridley College - www.ridleycollege.com