Distinctively Blair

DISTINCTIVELY B L A I R

TABLE OF CONTENTS DUAL-ADVISOR SYSTEM SOCIETY OF SKEPTICS EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION LEADERSHIP STORIES PROJECT SCHOOL TRADITIONS COMMUNITY LIFE LEADERSHIP & SERVICE COLLABORATIVE LEARNING GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT FRESHMAN SEMINAR FACULTY SUMMER INSTITUTE

Dear prospective families: By now, I hope you have gotten a sense of our warm and welcoming community from our website or visiting campus in person. Perhaps you already know a bit about some of our signature programs that offer students a competitive advantage. In the pages that follow, I invite you to take a closer look at our most distinctive and compelling offerings.

Blair is a midsize school of 460 students, giving us a small-school feel while, at the same time, offering big-school academic, athletic and arts programs. Our outstanding faculty is committed to relationship-based teaching and learning and our studentcentered philosophy sets us apart from other schools. Please read on to learn about the truly one-of-a-kind experience Blair offers and how our distinctive programs and global community will broaden your horizons and help you achieve success.

Most cordially,

Peter G. Curran Assistant Head of School for Enrollment & Communications

DUAL-ADVISOR SYSTEM Relationship-based learning is at the heart of the Blair experience. Our students develop perhaps their deepest and most meaningful relationships with their advisors and academic monitors, who support them and give them the confidence to step outside their comfort zones and embrace new experiences.

STUDENTS ARE SUPPORTED

BY TWO FACULTY ADVISORS Assigned academic monitors design students’ curricular path and another faculty member of their own choosing offers guidance and support.

STUDENTS CHOOSE THEIR ADVISORS Students select a faculty member to whom they feel closely connected to support and advocate for them throughout their Blair careers.

WE KNOW OUR STUDENTS EXCEPTIONALLY WELL Advisors and monitors discuss each student’s progress with the full faculty multiple times per year.

SOCIETY OF SKEPTICS Students and faculty debate important global issues in this unique forum that has grown to become one of the premier high-school lecture series in the U.S. Students learn to listen critically to different perspectives and engage in question-and-answer sessions with lecturers representing a wide range of industries and points of view.

Mohamed El-Erian, former PIMCO CEO

EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT WITHOUT EXCEPTION Skeptics doesn’t need to fight for room on the calendar: Lectures take place every Tuesday evening.

John C. Bogle ‘47, founder of The Vanguard Group, Inc.

CONTINUING THE DEBATE INTO WEDNESDAY Skeptics presenters often attend family-style dinner, stay the night on campus and spend the next day meeting with students.

Young alumni panelist

Ishmael Beah, author of “A Long Way Gone”

ENGAGING WITH THE WORLD BEYOND BLAIR Skeptics hosts diverse speakers from all over the world, encouraging students to place classroom work into a larger global context.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION The ability to concisely and compellingly convey one’s message when writing or speaking is an essential leadership skill; at Blair, teaching the art of effective communication is among our highest priorities. Our cross-curricular communication initiative and myriad public speaking opportunities prepare students to express ideas, advocate for themselves and engage with others in ways that build vital relationships.

PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITIONS Annual competitions give sophomores and seniors the opportunity to speak their minds and hone their rhetorical skills..

ENGLISH LIT EXHIBITIONS Junior Advanced Placement (AP) literature students express their ideas and insights about a great literary work through discussion and defense of their culminating essays.

DEBATE & MODEL UN Blair’s accomplished debate team and Model UN participants polish their speaking skills for regional competitions; trips to Intelligence Squared debates in New York City and the Washington Ideas Forum in D.C., fuel their passion.

LEADERSHIP STORIES PROJECT Great leaders are authentic storytellers. Through The Blair Leadership Stories Project, students develop their storytelling ability by crafting and sharing, on film, a compelling personal narrative. The project was developed

by Blair faculty in partnership with communications expert and Harvard Kennedy School professor Timothy Patrick McCarthy, PhD, who has served as Blair’s scholar-in-residence.

WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR? Students explore their personal values before recording narratives in which they reflect on a challenge they have faced or resolved while staying true to their beliefs. The Project’s ultimate aim is to help students become people of exceptional character and achievement. Storytellers film as freshmen and seniors; our graduates leave Blair with video evidence of how far they’ve come as public speakers.

SCHOOL TRADITIONS Our community gathers three times a week to celebrate achievements, announce campus happenings, and share personal reflections. Class councils plan and run Friday meetings, which are valuable opportunities to practice leadership skills.

SCHOOL MEETING

CHAPEL

The entire community of 460 students and 90 faculty comes together to share news and celebrate individual and collective achievements.

Every Thursday, student and faculty speakers share personal reflections and stories that unify the community.

FAMILY-STYLE DINNER

ART OPENINGS

Before Skeptics, art openings, musicals and plays, students and faculty converse and connect around the dinner table.

Professional artists from all over the U.S. come to The Romano Gallery to speak about their work and interact with students.

COMMUNITY LIFE These beloved annual events unite the Blair community in celebration of the School’s history and spirit. As a result, our students develop a strong sense of camaraderie, lasting friendships and cherished Blair memories.

KELLEY-POTTER CUP Peddie Day celebrates Blair’s age-old rivalry with the Falcons. The schools go head-to-head in athletic competitions; whoever earns more victories takes home the Cup!

SOCCERFEST Led by Blair’s student “Blue Crew,” the entire school cheers the Buccaneers to victory in a soccer matchup against our crosstown rivals.

SUPER SUNDAY This community carnival includes festive lawn games, a grease slide, Kon-Tiki boat races and a dunk tank manned by our Head of School.

HEADMASTERS’ SOCIETIES GAMES Students and faculty are “sorted” into teams named after Blair headmasters. After a week of competitions, the team with the most points wins the Hardwick Trophy.

LEADERSHIP & SERVICE Through the combination of formal leadership opportunities and applied-learning experiences, Blair guides its students to become the leaders they are meant to be. Whether they are running campus organizations, supporting classmates in the dorms or serving our neighbors through the community service club, students gain a well-rounded view of servant leadership.

LEADERSHIP ON CAMPUS Real-world leadership opportunities include managing a club, serving as a prefect and spearheading an academic or extracurricular service project through Blair’s partnerships with area nonprofits.

BLAIR LEADS

DAY OF SERVICE

Blair’s cross-curricular leadership initiative endeavors to teach essential leadership skills for our rapidly changing world.

The entire community spends a day each spring volunteering at more than 20 area nonprofits.

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING Teachers emphasize the importance of teamwork at every grade level, with the understanding that collaborative problem-solving is an essential skill for success in our rapidly evolving world. The coursework and extracurricular activities that transpire daily in our Center for Innovation and Collaboration and Park Street maker space clearly illustrate our commitment to collaboration: Students from different academic disciplines engage in hands-on, design-and-build work as they apply intellectual concepts to real-world issues.

“Collaborative problem-solving is an essential skill for success.�

GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT Blair encourages students to interact with people around the world through meaningful travel opportunities. Trips range from student-organized missions (like our annual expedition to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital) to multi-country tours (such as those led by our Head of School each summer) to immersive experiences (including trips to “Blair in Kenya” elementary schools). As they experience new cultures and gain a sense for how others live, students become true global citizens.

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL OPPORTUNITIES Blair students gain perspective about our global society when they visit countries near and far. We’ve been everywhere from Cuba to Kenya, throughout Europe and beyond. Every year brings new destinations and exciting opportunities.

DOMESTIC TRAVEL OPPORTUNITIES We travel frequently to East Coast destinations, including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City, to attend lectures, concerts and museums. During school vacations, faculty lead cultural, service and athletic trips throughout the U.S.

FRESHMAN SEMINAR Every ninth-grader takes a yearlong seminar designed to build connections and skills that will help them succeed throughout their Blair careers. Freshmen learn how to be effective students, carefully consider their values and beliefs, and gain experience in design and prototyping. The freshman seminar has three modules: • health and wellness

• character and personal development • design-and-maker-space training

With the Center for Innovation and Collaboration serving as its home, the seminar encourages students to use their new skills across other coursework and classes.

The curriculum encourages students to engage in values exploration and character-focused exercises that leave them with a better understanding of their beliefs, convictions and morals.

Freshmen also engage in design-and-maker-space training, where they learn about the design process and prototyping—knowledge they can later apply across the curriculum.

“We are not just preparing students for college; we are giving them skills to navigate a changing and highly connected world.”

- CHRIS FORTUNATO, HEAD OF SCHOOL

FACULTY SUMMER INSTITUTE Blair strategically invests in its faculty. Over the summer, teachers participate in Faculty Summer Institute programs focused on project-based learning, collaborative work and innovation, developing projects to be incorporated into the curriculum across disciplines.

During the pedagogy-focused Institute, teachers design curricular projects that benefit students. Faculty from every academic department and at every juncture of their career attend, from a music instructor just a few years out of college to a veteran PhD scientist with decades of professional experience.

Resulting projects range from media content analyses and board game design to building rollercoasters and crossdisciplinary work with student performers and videographers.

The Blair Academy Players stage their spring production in our outdoor theatre.

More than 60 students participate in crew, making it Blair’s largest athletic program.

Faculty accompany hundreds of students to Little Italy’s Feast of San Gennaro festival in New York City.

DISTINCTIVELY

Skeptics has brought nearly 1,000 speakers to campus since the late 1970s.

Vanguard Group founder Jack Bogle, class of 1947, returns to campus regularly to address our community.

FUN FACTS The CIC offers classes in artificial intelligence, functional design and digital music/songwriting.

The first tee of our 9-hole golf course is 100 feet from the chemistry lab.

We have filmed more than 800 video narratives as part of our Leadership Stories Project.

ADMISSION OFFICE We look forward to sharing with you all that is distinctively Blair during your next campus visit.

CONTACT (800) 462-5247 admission@blair.edu

BLAIR ACADEMY P.O. Box 600

Blairstown, NJ 07825

WWW.BLAIR.EDU