The Buzz

Paralympian Tyler McKenzie '10 returned to Proctor for Community Day and asked students to change their lens on what they, and the people around them, are capable of.

What would surprise your grandparents most about your life at Proctor? On Grandparents and Friends Day, seniors shared stories about how much they've changed since they arrived, and their guests got to see it for themselves.

Becky Field's portraits of New Hampshire's immigrants and refugees join woodblock prints by Kait Armstrong P'23 and Marliese Baer on campus through December 18.

A year ago, Val '28 stepped off a minibus at the end of Wilderness Orientation and found Proctor's student leaders waiting in matching light-green shirts. "Getting off that bus … was pretty intimidating," he reflected. "But they were all super welcoming." In that moment, "all the worries about not fitting in just kind of vanished."

A school's impact rarely comes into complete focus during the years a student is enrolled. It shows up years later, in the career choices a graduate makes and the communities they choose to serve.

Five days in the woods reminded me that the lesson of Orientation isn't simply that we can persevere through something challenging. It is that we can do more than we imagined when we do those hard things together.

22 juniors and seniors gathered with their families on Wednesday in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to launch Proctor’s 34th Ocean Classroom program.

After 56 years of Wilderness Orientation, we have learned that adolescents are capable of so much more than we think they are.