Students Return to Campus, Classes and Activities With Enthusiasm and Care in Equal Measure

Still, there is an energy and excitement to the start of this new school year. Students are excited to be back and are spending more time outside than ever, whether they are participating in classes outdoors, perched in one of the dozens of new Adirondack chairs scattered across campus, or playing Spikeball®, basketball, or trying out the new swing on the Glade. School Meetings, conducted online, have been filled with announcements about activities, clubs and organizations, and upcoming events, which are being planned safely, virtually, and serve as a way to connect those on campus with those studying remotely. 

The school opened for its 171st academic year with a total enrollment of 300 students. They have come from across the country and around the world. For the 83 percent of students who are taking classes in person, their return was made possible by the thoughtful and well-planned health and safety measures that were put in place this summer. Some are highly visible, like the Plexiglas dividers at each dining hall table and in the rehearsal rooms in the Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center. Others are less so, like the new cleaning procedures and ventilation enhancements made in every classroom and community space.

Not only is the campus opening up, it has expanded with new classes and programs. Beginning this fall, students will be exploring and practicing active citizenship, animated by the ideas and example of Frederick Gunn, through the newly launched Center for Citizenship and Just Democracy. Students and faculty are actively engaging in a renewed campus-wide commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, led by faculty member LaDarius Drew, the school’s new Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

The school has established an innovation track for students called the IDEAS program, which allows them to explore robotics, engineering and technology as a first step toward pursuing those passions in college and life. Investment in the Gunn Scholar program, in which students explore social and cultural change emanating from the school’s unique history, is continuing with four new Gunn Scholars named this year, and a new Center for Entrepreneurship is being developed to help students connect to the innovation economy and start learning about changing the business and civic world through creative and pragmatic entrepreneurship.

This is also the first full year students will have access to the Arts and Community Center, with its music rehearsal spaces, art studios, community spaces (converted for use as one of three Day Student Villages on campus) and a 415-seat theater large enough to allow for small, safely distanced, in-person gatherings. Afternoons have brought a renewed focus on fitness, wellness and the arts through a revised co-curricular program.

Students were greeted by new faculty faces, too, including Ashley LeBlanc, Dean of Students, Kristin Hoins, Director of the new Center for Academic Excellence, James LeBlanc, Associate Director of Major Gifts in the Alumni & Development Office, and Kelsey Brush, who has joined the Math Department faculty.

“This is going to be a remarkable year,” Head of School Peter Becker said, noting that the new people, places and programs are all exciting manifestations of the school’s strategic plan goals and renewed commitment to its founder, epitomized by the school’s announcement on July 25 that it was changing its name after 170 years from The Gunnery to the Frederick Gunn School.

“When Mr. Gunn described his ideal school to a group of teachers in 1877, he said that he had not yet found a school that met his standard – and by then he had been running this school for 27 years. Now it is our turn to set ourselves, individually and as a community stretching across the globe, to the task of seeing if we can do it. It will take great courage, but it is also a great opportunity for all of us to learn what it means to be a citizen in the spirit of Mr. Gunn,” Becker said at the school’s opening Convocation ceremony, conducted as a hybrid in-person and remote event.

The majority of current students, 75 percent, are boarding students, and 25 percent are day students who commute to campus each day from Washington and other Litchfield County towns, and from as far away as Naugatuck and Newtown, Connecticut, and Rye, New York. Among boarding and day students, about 17 percent are enrolled via the school’s distance learning platform, Gunn Global Online, which was launched in March when the school adapted to a fully remote learning environment in response to the global pandemic. Bolstered by investments in technology, equipment, and professional development of the faculty this summer, the school is prepared to return to a fully remote environment again if necessary.

According to Alexandra Ince P’20 ’23, Director of Enrollment, the school was able to successfully pivot in response to COVID last spring and recreated the Revisit Day experience for families by providing virtual campus tours and arranging virtual meetings with faculty, coaches, and parent ambassadors. “One of our strengths as a school is our community, and to the extent that we could provide that community feeling in a virtual platform, that’s what we did. It ended up feeling very genuine and warm and authentic,” Ince said, adding, “We heard from several parents, specifically those whose children had been accepted, that we were offering the most engaging experience and we were the most nimble in providing context, communication and information in this new reality.”