Greetings from Brooks!
As hard as it is to believe, the first semester is over. As I write, our students are on Winter Break, enjoying time with family and friends, relaxing first, then recharging, for what is sure to be an exciting return to Brooks in January 2012.
Part of what will make the New Year and return to school so exciting for our students and our teachers, is what awaits them: Winter Term. On January 6th, all 370 students will embark on the school’s first Winter Term, an intense, three-week, one-topic course of study, with offerings from wooden boat restoration to the cultural history of Ireland. As I have introduced Winter Term to prospective students this fall, the response has been incredible – students and parents alike get wide-eyed as they scour the list of course offerings, often admitting that there seem to be too many good choices. They wish they could try them all! What an enviable position we find ourselves in. Winter Term is inspiring and energizing all of us!
Guiding our decision to create and implement innovative programming, such as Winter Term, is our mission, which seeks to “provide the most meaningful educational experience our students will have in their lives.” Additionally, Winter Term enables us to put into practice the concept of “depth over breadth,” allowing students to derive real meaning — the operative word in our mission statement — from the courses they choose.
Finally, Winter Term will create opportunities for some tremendous cross pollination within our community. Older and younger students will collaborate in classes together and, students and teachers who share interests and passions will be spending time together exploring those topics. For these reasons and countless others, we believe Winter Term is going to be great.
As a prospective student, I hope that you find this sort of endeavor inspiring as well. If you do, I encourage you to consider Brooks. We would love to meet you.
Good luck, and best wishes,
Andrew C. Hirt
Director of Admission & Financial Aid
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