The steady stream of prospective families through our Admissions Office each year has resulted in a completely full student body over the last ten years. In an independent school market that continues to warn of demographic cliffs and enrollment trends that keep most Boards of Trustees and Heads of School up at night, Proctor is seeing the opposite occur. Enrollment numbers break records each year, our acceptance rate has become more and more competitive, as is the hiring process for open faculty and staff positions. There is something intriguing about our little quirky school plopped on 2,500 acres in the Blackwater River Valley between Ragged Mountain and Mount Kearsarge that is bucking every enrollment and employment trend facing schools across the country. So what is it?
Almost fifteen years ago, Simon Sinek wrote Start With Why in which he explores how leaders guide organizations to evolve. He wrote, “Every single person, every single organization on the planet knows what they do, 100%...But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do...Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care?”
It is a great question. Why should anyone care about Proctor? Why should families invest significant money in their child’s high school education? Why Proctor and not one of our peer schools or a public school?
Each of us found Proctor for a reason - our individual “why”. For roughly a third of our families, Proctor’s integrated academic support program, Learning Skills, serves as a key component of the independent school search. For others, it might be our term-long off-campus programs, hands-on approach to academics, athletics, the arts, or maybe the sense of togetherness that exists at a place like Proctor because of the faculty and staff who have dedicated their lives to stewarding this community. We each find Proctor for a specific reason, however, it is the constellation of programs, sense of place, and people at Proctor that allow our students to blossom. It is in the messy, beautiful arc of adolescent growth that we find our institutional why.
We believe growth happens best at the intersection of individualized academics and experiential opportunities within a strong, supportive community. We believe this environment is where our students begin to understand themselves as learners, where a foundation of confidence, trust, and relationships is built. And we know it is on this foundation our students build the rest of their lives, lives that will require each to navigate the inevitable peaks and valleys of the human experience.
It may seem like a small thing, but our belief that adolescents have the capacity to simultaneously embrace informality and structure, rigorous academic study and deep support, is part of that constellation. We can have fun and call each other by our first name, and are still able (some might argue better able) to have serious conversations with our students. We are unwilling to conform to the traditional notion of prep school, and instead want to live alongside our students in the real moments of their life. It is in this space where lives are changed, where we chase our why.
Yes, academic pursuits that bring us together in this place matter. Yes, the arts matter. Learning Skills matters. Athletic competition and afternoon programs matter. Off-Campus Programs matter. Our faculty matter. But these pieces of Proctor are not our why, they are merely stars in the constellation of Proctor that guide us toward our why. Our why is not the product we deliver, it is the humans we help shape.
Learn more about Proctor's educational model here!
- Admissions
- Community and Relationships