Student Life

When you ask current students about their favorite time of the day on The Frederick Gunn School campus, they invariably talk about time spent with friends, whether they are hanging out in the dorm or creating their own fun outside. School days are busy. Students move from academic and co-curricular commitments to dinner and evening study hall. But there are opportunities for friends to gather throughout the day. It might be grabbing a table together for lunch in the dining hall, hosting a movie night in your dorm room, or meeting up for an impromptu baseball game on the Quad, spikeball on the turf, or sledding on the hill behind Teddy House in winter.

Weekend activities include Open Skate and Open Hockey times at Linen Rink, trips to the Danbury Fair Mall and other local shopping centers, movie theaters, and area restaurants as well as the ever-popular Arethusa Farm Dairy for ice cream. Sign-ups are available for excursions to try bowling or visit a trampoline park, and some weekends are just good for sleeping in and going to brunch in the dining hall, where chocolate chip waffles and a fruit and yogurt bar are usually on offer. Students can also take advantage of dances, the fitness center, open gym times, seasonal activities (carve your own pumpkin, anyone?), movie screenings and guest performances right on campus, and cheer their fellow Highlanders at home.

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Student Life News

Mean Girls poster art 4x6

Get in, Washington. This winter musical is gonna be so fetch! The Frederick Gunn School Theatre Program will proudly present the fiercely hilarious musical “Mean Girls High School Version” from book writer Tina Fey (“30 Rock”), lyricist Nell Benjamin (“Legally Blonde”), and composer Jeff Richmond (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”), February 20, 21, and 22 at 7 p.m. in the Tisch Family Auditorium of the Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center.

All shows are open to the public. Seating is by general admission. No reservations required. Free parking is available in the Upper Parking Lot off Kirby Road, with a limited number of accessible parking spaces outside TPACC. Please see the Campus Map for details.
 

painting by Anna Hesketh '28

Students enrolled in Visual Arts courses and the Technique and Artistry cocurricular program are participating in the Kent Art Association's 33rd Annual Student Art Show. The opening reception scheduled for February 9 was canceled due to inclement weather. The show will be open to the public Thursday through Sunday, February 13-16, and again February 20-22 from 1-5 p.m. The gallery is located at 21 South Main Street in Kent.
 

Girls Varsity Hockey_Hockey Fights Cancer

Student-athletes from Gunn's Boys and Girls Varsity Ice Hockey teams have organized two games to raise funds and awareness for, respectively, mental health and those affected by cancer. Girls Varsity Ice Hockey hosted a Hockey Fights Cancer game vs. The Hill School on January 26 in Linen Rink to benefit the American Cancer Society. On February 7, Boys Varsity Ice Hockey will take on Taft School at 4:15 p.m. in Linen Rink in a game to benefit The HT40 Foundation’s Shoulder Check initiative.
 

Gunn Model UN students at YMUN LI

Three Highlanders were honored with awards at the 51st Yale Model United Nations (YMUN LI) conference, held January 23-26, 2025 on the historic campus of Yale University. They were among 20 student-delegates who participated in the conference from the Gunn Model United Nations program. 
 

Amplifying Voices card

"Amplifying Voices: Global Feminism,” a new student art exhibit co-curated by Stella Zhu '25, opened January 10 in the Perakos Family Cares Gallery in the Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center. The exhibit, which features 43 works of art by 24 artists from 14 schools, including 11 schools in the United States, two in China, and one in Switzerland, will remain on view through February 4, 2025. An artists reception will be held on Saturday, January 25, from 5 to 7 p.m. The gallery is open to the public free of charge. Parking is available in the Upper Parking Lot off Kirby Road, with a limited number of accessible parking spaces outside TPACC. Please see the Campus Map for details.
 

MLK Day 2025 guest speakers Dr. Robert Thompson and Robert Edwards

On January 20, students participated in an interactive program in celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Guest speaker Gregory Thompson, Ph.D., a Martin Luther King, Jr. scholar, author, and the co-founder and creative director of Voices Underground, led a discussion about how students can become active citizens by following the example of Dr. King and school founder Frederick Gunn.
 

Students at the 2025 CMEA Northern Region Music Festival

Nine students from the Gunn Music Program will perform in the Connecticut Music Educators Association's Northern Region Music Festival on Saturday, January 18, at New Britain High School, located at 110 Mill Street in New Britain, Connecticut. The festival concert will feature performances by the Northern Region Jazz Band, Treble Choir, and Mixed Choir at 2 p.m., and the Northern Region Concert Band and Orchestra at 4 p.m. Tickets are $15 per person.

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Rebecca Tu, Michal Schroeder and Heri Kim in the Visual Arts studio

Student-artists Heri Kim '26, Michal Schroeder '26, and Rebecca Tu '25 have been selected to participate in the 2025 Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art Awards Exhibition and earned awards for their work, which is being featured in the largest juried student art exhibition in the state. The exhibit opened Monday, January 13, and will remain on view through Friday, January 31, in the Donald and Linda Silpe Gallery at the University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford. Gallery hours are Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 12–5 p.m. 
 

Girls Varsity Hockey at home vs Taft 12-9-24

The Girls Varsity Ice Hockey Team went 3-0 for the second consecutive year in the annual Portsmouth Abbey Holiday Tournament. The Highlanders beat Portsmouth Abbey 4-2 in the tournament opener on December 20, and recorded back-to-back wins December 21 against Pomfret School (4-2) and Tilton School (1-0).
 

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