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2017 Pro Vita Edition - March 4, 2017
A Decade of Directing Pro Vita
In the days before the 10th Anniversary of Pro Vita got underway, The Green and Gray had the opportunity to sit down with four Pro Vita Directors, past, present and future. In a roundtable discussion, we spoke about their experiences with Pro Vita, their favorite parts and how they’ve seen Pro Vita change over the course of ten years.
Art inspired by the School’s core values in Lisa Warren-Kruger’s P’20 P’15 “Conceptualism Art”
110 Years of Teaching and Learning For Life
Ms. Maher talks about Pro Vita with characteristic enthusiasm, “I’m a big fan.” From its start, Pro Vita week was designed to bring genuine joy and excitement into the classroom. And those two characteristics are exactly what Ms. Maher demonstrates when she talks about the inception of Pro Vita in 2007. Pro Vita was born out of the celebration of the School’s centennial in the 2006-2007 school year. As Ms. Maher explains, the School wondered, “How do we tangibly celebrate the concept of our school’s motto? How can we bring that idea to life to help the community here and elsewhere to understand that for 100 years Berkshire has been educating students “Not just for School but for Life”? The first iteration of Pro
Vita though, was a bit different than it is today. Instead of a week of design thinking, experiential, product-based learning, Pro Vita’s beginnings were far more modest. “So the first iteration began with a day-long environmental symposium that Mr. Kinne coordinated. We had environmental experts on a range of topics from across the country come for a day and run workshops on their field of study. Each student could pick and choose exactly what they wanted to learn about.”
How can we help the community here and elsewhere to understand that for 100 years Berkshire has been educating students “Not just for School but for Life”?
Given the success of the symposium, the School committed to a full week of Pro Vita later in the year, falling exactly where it does today, at the conclusion of the third quarter. As Ms. Maher explains, a day was simply not enough, “One day!” She remarked. “There are so many things that I really like to do and I want to talk about with kids that don’t fit into my Spanish curriculum! Give me a week!” In 2017, 10 years after Pro Vita was born, the logistics look very different. But the program remains the same at its core: an intentional pursuit of experiential learning that students and faculty alike will take with them beyond their time under the Mountain. A reminder of 110 years of educating students not just for school but for life.
Seated at the table were Mr. Mackenzie (PM), who directed Pro Vita for its first two years, Mr. Turner (JT), who took over and ran the program for four years, Mrs. Bullock (BB), who has been in charge for the past two years and Mr. Anselmi (DA), who will pick up the reigns for the future.
G&G: It seems like the best way to kick this off would be to talk about how much we all love about Pro Vita! What are each of your favorite parts about the week and why? BB: Once the week gets started, I love hearing about kids finding out things that they didn’t know about themselves. The second year I taught, I had a friend come back and we taught a movie directing class together. There was a girl in the class who was a freshman, so it must have been her last pick. For the first two days, she just sat there. But on the third day, something clicked, she totally took charge of her classmates; organizing them. When she left Berkshire she went to the film school at NYU and remained in the
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film industry. She didn’t know she was going to like it and now it’s a career for her. DA: I love that it’s an opportunity for students to make a connection with a subject or a passion that they weren’t able to explore before. It’s also another chance for students to interact with students that they don’t get to interact with regularly and forge new relationships. Of course, being in a class and seeing it click is a wow moment. And, of course, I love the trips! PM: The opportunities that exist for students during Pro Vita are so unique.You might be placed in a class that wasn’t your first choice, but you would never get that chance somewhere else, whether it is spending time on a specific skill, or getting to interact with someone from outside of the community, an alum, a parent. And it’s not just a speaker; you get to spend a whole week thinking and learning about something completely new. JT: My favorite part about Pro Vita is that it truly allows us to embrace the school mission in a unique and deliberate way. Our portrait of a Berkshire School graduate has changed because of what we do in Pro Vita. And I love the fact that there are no grades! This is purely about curiosity and intellectual development. See A DECADE OF DIRECTING PRO VITA, Page 2