Academic Brochure

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an exciting curriculum G E A R E D C O M P L E T E LY T O T H E COLLEGE�BOUND. At Mercersburg, you can stretch academically as wide and as deep as you like. That’s the point—to define yourself so that you graduate fully prepared in exactly the ways you want relative to the goals that you, your adviser, and your college counselor devise.

With more than 150 courses, including over 40 Honors, Advanced Placement, and post–Advanced Placement classes, Mercersburg covers everything from The Nature and Meaning of the Universe to Linear Algebra. We offer five levels of Chinese and three of robotics, for example.

There’s plenty more. You can even design your own course through our Independent Study program: with your adviser, you determine the topic, the goals, and the outcome of your study.

Engrossing courses you won’t find just anywhere …

• Chinese • Shakespeare’s Comedies • History of the Modern Middle East • Classical Greek • Linear Algebra • Multivariable Calculus • Robotics • Astronomy • Physics of Theatre • Writing Music for Today’s World • Film Studies • Buddhism

small classes WITH THE MAGIC OF T H E H A R K N E S S TA B L E .

A typical class numbers only 12. And everyone moves to the head of the class around one of our grand, oval Harkness tables. Around a Harkness table, faculty and students meet eye-to-eye and mind-to-mind. Everyone is equally well positioned for discussion, questions, involvement, and learning ‌ and with a Harkness table, our small classes are even more intimate.

our faculty A R E S I M P LY S T E L L A R .

From Fulbright scholars to National Endowment for the Humanities fellows, our faculty are all winners, hands down.

70 percent hold advanced degrees, if not multiple advanced degrees. Most have presented or published in their fields, and many return to school themselves over the summer to reinvigorate their minds and their teaching. But the quality of our faculty goes well beyond their credentials. Our students routinely rave about their teachers and the devotion of their coaches. And they are anything but distant: faculty members serve as advisers and supervise weekend activities.

Almost 90 percent live in the dorms or right on campus.

every classroom building I S N E W O R T H O R O U G H LY R E N O VAT E D .

Each academic discipline has its own architectural “footprint,” giving both students and faculty an environment that’s appropriate for the curriculum. The three floors of handsome Irvine Hall are dedicated to the sciences, mathematics, and world languages, while Rutledge Hall is the heart and soul of our English department. Strikingly angular and extremely light-filled, Lenfest Hall holds our history and religion classrooms, the school’s remarkable library, and College Counseling offices. You can find all of our visual and performing arts classes, performances, and exhibits in the 65,000-square-foot Burgin Center. Nolde Gymnasium (renovation completed in fall 2010) is home to Mercersburg athletics and has an excellent fitness center. The iconic Irvine Memorial Chapel with its ornate gothic architecture remains the spiritual center of campus, as the home of weekly worship services (optional), community gatherings, special lectures, Convocation and Baccalaureate, and live musical performances, in addition to select religion classes.

our labs and lenfest library TURN HOMEWORK INTO H O M E W O R K H AV E N S .

A great school deserves a great library, and we have one (Lenfest Library) that will likely be the most attractive, quiet, and comfortable place you will ever have the privilege to visit for study or research: 45,000 volumes, 120 subscriptions to periodicals and research journals, as well as numerous digital tools and 16 special online databases not available to the general Internet user.

Our specialty labs include an animal room, a greenhouse, an astronomical observatory, chemistry labs, and a language listening lab. The Burgin Center has phenomenal creative facilities, including computer labs for creating digital art and music and a full theatrical stage with a scenery shop.

Wi-Fi is available throughout campus.

study skills G I V E Y O U A N I M P O R TA N T E D G E .

We want everyone to succeed at Mercersburg to the fullest.

To accomplish this from the outset, we make sure that everyone gains the proper study skills in their first weeks here. All ninth-graders have mandatory, faculty-supervised study hall for two hours Sunday through Thursday in Irvine Hall for the first term. If your grades are strong enough, you will be allowed to transfer your study to your dorm instead of Irvine in the winter and spring terms, but a study hall will always be available to you during the week.

when the going gets tough, THE TOUGH GO TO THE M AT H , L A N G U A G E , A N D WRITING CENTERS. Everyone needs a little “roadside assistance” from time to time. That is why on any weeknight one or more of our “academic mechanics” (aka faculty) can be found on duty in either the Writing Center, Language Media Center, or Math Center to help you with your problem of the moment—a sticky math formula, German vocabulary, or jump-starting your creativity for that English or history paper that’s due at the end of the week. They will get you out of your funk and onto a happy learning curve in no time.

learn while you travel, T R AV E L W H I L E Y O U L E A R N .

Introducing the School Year Abroad in France or Spain, China or Italy. With this program, you’ll stay on track academically, as total immersion in local language and culture is matched with some subjects, like math, that are taught in English. Mercersburg also offers shorter trips abroad. See the Royal Shakespeare Company in England.

Explore the cultural legacy of South Africa through art and dance. Speak Spanish in Chile or scuba dive in Honduras.

You can discover community service by maintaining trails in a Costa Rican rain forest or become part of Mercersburg’s long-standing exchange with the Gauss Gymnasium in Worms, Germany. Local trips, also, combine fun and learning. And Mercersburg’s location makes urban attractions like the Smithsonian or the Kennedy Center as accessible as historic sites like the Gettysburg or Antietam battlefields.

you’re smart …

A N D Y O U ’ R E M O T I VAT E D .

So it’s only natural that you want classes that are going to stimulate your mind and your desire to learn. You want engaging, thought-provoking courses that will push you to new levels of achievement. And you want the experienced teachers who can deliver that with ease, topped off with a student body that is just as interested and interesting as you are.

WELCOME TO MERCERSBURG. We have all of that and so much more.

Our students graduate into the best colleges in the country. They can do this because they made the most of the rigorous curriculum, exceptional faculty, outstanding facilities, and strong culture of academic growth and achievement that we at Mercersburg continue to refine and strengthen. As a college preparatory school, our academics and attention to the growth of the whole person, in the classroom and the community generally, are truly second to none.

Dr. Julia Maurer Academic Dean

300 E. Seminary Street, Mercersburg, PA 17236

C To minimize the impact on the environment,

this publication is printed on paper made with 30% process chlorine-free post-consumer recycled fiber. The paper is also FSC and SFI chain of custody certified and 100% of the electricity used to manufacture the paper is Green-e certified renewable energy. The inks contain a high proportion of renewable vegetable-based ingredients.

Mercersburg Academy abides by both the spirit and the letter of the law in all its employment and admission policies. The school does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or national or ethnic origin.

Design: CEH Design, Inc., Bethel CT • www.cehdesign.com Define Yourself and Define Yourself. Here. are registered service marks of Mercersburg Academy.

717-328-6173 www.mercersburg.edu