Zoe von Zweck, a senior from Marion, MA,
is a member of the Journalism class.

“ It was cool, and I don’t regret it. But I don’t know if I would do it again.”  Kayli, a new sophomore, shared her thoughts about her very first, and probably last orientation.  

   Molly, a 4 year senior, enthusiastically responded, “I loved it. It’s a perfect way to integrate new students into the Proctor Academy lifestyle. And I would do it over and over again.”  

      This fall, Proctor sent out almost 200 students and faculty for a five day hiking and camping trip up into the White Mountains. For five days Proctor asks new students, faculty, and student leaders to  escape from the everyday lifestyle  and find inner strength to make the climb to the top of a mountain. Ipods, laptops, and cell phones  are all replaced with a heavy backpacks filled with food, clothes and a sleeping bag. For those five days, students learn what it means to become a Proctor student: to work hard to achieve something and to challenge yourself in order to learn a little bit more about who you are.  This orientation is unique because not many schools have their students go out into the wilderness to get to know the school's core values of respect, compassion, honesty and responsibility.  

         Proctor’s orientation was founded in 1971 when Head of School David Fowler and Asst. Head Chris Norris came up with the idea. Both had been exposed to the wilderness in some way, David was a U.S. Marine and Chris was involved in the coast guard. Both had a vision for the school where you learned by doing - experiential education. The idea was also for students and faculty to share in an experience together where they would have to rely on each other.  

       This year students from many different backgrounds participated in the 39th year of orientation. As Brooks Bicknell, Orientation Coordinator noted, “ There are a huge range of students coming in.  Some of the new students have experienced Outward Bound, and some inner city kids have never been in the woods. But the orientation is geared for everyone to pull off.”  

     Rob, a four year senior enthusiastically added, “My orientation group was amazing.” 

     Another four year senior , Oliver, has participated in orientation 3 out of the 4 years he’s been here, first as a new student then as a student leader. When I asked why, he responded, “I like being in the woods because there's always something new and different. You are always taking a different route.” 

     This tradition has been going strong for 39 years and Brooks noted,” I still cannot think of a better way of starting the school year with this shared experience in the unpredictable and exhilarating mountain environment.”