The Hotchkiss School

[EduCativ]

The Hotchkiss School is an independent boarding school located in Lakeville, Connecticut. Founded in 1891, the School provides an education of academic distinction to 600 students in grades 9 through 12 and many postgraduates. Students at Hotchkiss come from across the United States and around the world. Graduates attend many of the most selective universities and colleges.

We are an intentionally diverse, inclusive learning community. We believe in the profound learning in a residential school whose members have been carefully selected for their gifts and potential.

The aim of The Hotchkiss School, since its foundation, has been to provide a dynamic environment for teaching and learning, as well as exceptional preparation for future study and fulfilling adult lives. Our residential community—the network of relationships created by the School’s people, place, and opportunities—is our most effective means of providing a transformative educational experience. Students may grow and gain a greater understanding of themselves and their responsibilities to others. We believe that a healthy and inclusive learning community nourishes students physically, emotionally, and intellectually fosters joy in learning and living with others, and ensures that all feel safe, seen, and supported.

All members of the Hotchkiss community have a role in sustaining this environment. Therefore, we expect all to:

• Commit to high standards of scholarship and personal conduct
• Open their minds and hearts to the views and experiences of others, creating space for all to belong and to thrive
• Practice the values that nurture healthy relationships: respect, honesty, and compassion in particular
• Risk and reflect in the pursuit of continual growth
• Exercise responsible citizenship through local and global engagement, service, and environmental stewardship.

As a leader in sustainability among independent secondary schools, Hotchkiss aims to incorporate environmental stewardship into every aspect of School life and model what we teach through our institutional practices — like serving our farm-grown food in the dining hall, choosing renewable energy sources, and making a commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2020. We try to relate complex environmental issues to students’ everyday lives, using the School’s natural landscape as a real-world laboratory. Students can study everything from limnology to the effects of climate change on native plant species. Students graduate from Hotchkiss with the tools they need to take responsibility for our collective ecological future.

Hotchkiss strives to instill in students a multi-faceted understanding of the environment — through the sciences, arts, and humanities — and the School’s natural surroundings shape how students learn. Environmental science classes can conduct field research and use their findings to support land conservation practices on campus. At Fairfield Farm, art classes can practice Plein air painting, poetry classes can find inspiration, environmental science classes can explore rare grassland bird habitats, and American history classes can reflect on the land’s connection to early colonial history. Through Fairfield Farm Ecosystems and Adventure Team (FFEAT), students can also gain hands-on experience at the farm — and learn about the complexities of sustainable agriculture.

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