Most boarding schools are filled with lofty rhetoric, mottos, and mission statements. At Cardigan, one only has to walk the paths or enter any building to observe that we, too, have our own set of values to which we aspire. The challenge for Cardigan, as with any school, is to align its rhetoric with daily practices—to ensure that its values and mission are not merely highsounding words, but rather building blocks of character for responsible and meaningful lives. This noble pursuit is essential to the Student Life program at Cardigan and also a decent answer to the question of “why boarding school?”
any given week there will be a common theme explored through several vehicles of the Student Life program. We utilize weekly Chapel services, school meetings, advisory, and dorm meetings to create short, tangible experiences for our boys in which they can listen, discuss, reflect, and act on a common theme that we feel is central to the Cardigan Way. Where natural intersections occur, we have also extended these themes into our Global Leadership and Global Community Initiative curricula. Our hope is that through a variety of formats and settings, we are providing students with opportunities to develop a personal set of educational experiences that are congruent with Cardigan’s mission and coherent with the School’s educational objectives for character development.
Below: The weekly AllSchool Meeting takes place in Humann Theatre and is con-ducted by the elected school leader—this year Cedric Elkouh ’15 (shown standing, and below).
Student Life Programming: A Week in the (Student) Life By Ethan Harris Assistant Director of Student Life
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mbracing and embodying the Cardigan Way— and encouraging learning “from all sides”—are two ways you could describe what we in the Student Life Office aim to address with our programming. Building on a strong framework that was laid out by others before us, Dave Irwin and I have used existing program venues, reenlisted others, and collaborated with colleagues in an attempt to develop a robust Student Life program that will best serve our Cardigan students and the culture of our campus community. Cardigan Chronicle
As we dove in to our new roles last summer, we took into consideration long-standing traditions, weekly Chapel services, the roles of dorm parents and student leaders, and the potential of advisory meetings to reinforce a positive campus culture. We scheduled weekly dorm events and competitions, brought back to weekly prominence the All-School Meeting, and wove in Leadership class initiatives, dorm Olympic games, and other fun activities to add a good dose of spirit and laughter. Using the School’s core values as our driving force, we now had all the ingredients to implement a unique and fitting Student Life program created specifically for our boys. Article continues . . . Page / 19