In this age of technology, when we endure a constant flow of information, notifications, breaking news, and a dopamine war for our attention, sometimes we forget what it is like to have to wait for something. The anticipation is finally over for our accepted students, as they receive admissions decisions this afternoon. We are thrilled with this new crew of Hornets who will hopefully call Proctor their home for the remainder of their high school years.
Register for Accepted Students Days Here
As our Admissions team works to craft the student body each year, they do so with a keen eye on finding young people who are ready to learn, excited to live life to its fullest, eager to suck the marrow out of their Proctor experience, and understand that living in community with others is perhaps the most important piece of life at a boarding school. We believe a student’s active buy-in to community serves as the single most important indicator of well-being and success in high school. Accepted students and their families will have the opportunity to see our community in action on our Accepted Student Days (April 3 and 7), and we hope they take time to deeply observe and understand the complexities of a healthy school community.
We talk often about the impact of the Proctor community on each student’s educational journey. In an interview about his book Flourish: The Art of Building Meaning, Joy, and Fulfillment, Dan Coyle shares the following, “Community is a word we use a lot. It actually means shared gifts. It is not something you passively receive, it is something you participate in. We always use the phrase building community, but actually what they are doing is awakening community. It was there all along, waiting for someone to create group flow, to design a mess…the messiness is the aliveness, that messiness is the vitality. It is vulnerable. The mess is not the problem, it is the doorway.”
The awakening of shared gifts; we cannot think of more apt words to describe life at Proctor. Each student (and family) finds us for a reason -- maybe it is Learning Skills, or ski racing, or our off-campus programs, or the performing arts, or the opportunity to build a boat, or immediate access to 2,500 acres of woodlands -- and yet we know that the magic of Proctor is not in who are students are when they arrive, but who they are awakened to become during their time here.
When we view Proctor as a flourishing community, as described by Coyle, we see a group of adults and young people who are full of energy, passion, vulnerability, and downright messiness at times. Flourishing communities are not perfect, they are real, and it is in that realness that students (and parents) have the opportunity to see themselves. We hope each Accepted Student begins to see themselves in the 80% of students who will study abroad on one of Proctor’s term-long off-campus programs. We hope they see themselves in the 100% of students who will take an art class and discover a passion they never knew they had. We hope they see themselves partnering with teachers, advisors, coaches, and dorm parents who see them and value them for who they are, flaws and all.
In the interview linked above, Dan Coyle cited a quote by psychologist Barry Schwartz that changed his view of life: “People mistakenly think life is a treasure hunt. It is not a treasure hunt, but treasure creation.” Proctor is a school that cherishes the treasure creation in each and every experience we share together. We hope to see all of our accepted students and their families at one of our two Accepted Student Days!
Register for Accepted Students Days Here
- Admissions
- Community and Relationships