GUIDEBOOK FOR
Faculty
FACULTY GUIDEBOOK
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What makes teaching and living at Woodberry Forest special? E A
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Three things: our
Our student body is all-boarding, and
people, our place, more than 95 percent of faculty live on campus, creating an intimate, tightand our culture.
knit community. We’re an all-boys school, focused on developing young men who are lifelong learners with strong moral character. One of the school’s defining characteristics is our student-run honor system.
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WOODBERRY FOREST SCHOOL
Our campus is set on 1,200 acres in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. This is a place where we can focus on teaching and learning without distractions. Students, faculty, and faculty families take full advantage of our safe and beautiful campus, enjoying hiking and biking trails in the woods or the natural beauty of the Rapidan River, which borders our land. Our culture is based on intellectual thoroughness, moral integrity, good sportsmanship, and a reverence for things sacred. Living and learning at Woodberry don’t just take place inside our classrooms. We seek faculty who are passionate about and trained in their discipline — but who are equally committed to working with boys on stage, on the athletic fields, and on dorm.
FACULTY GUIDEBOOK
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Classroom Life At the heart of Woodberry’s academic culture is the idea that everyone
“What’s special about a boarding school is
on campus, from new students to the most experienced faculty, should
the level of relationship that you develop
be a lifelong learner. Woodberry teachers set high standards for their students, and our approach to academics is rooted in a belief that
with the boys in so many venues, whether
questions are more important than answers. We don’t tell boys what to
you’re working with them on the baseball
think; we teach them how to think.
field or you have them at the dining room
Courses in each department begin by helping students master the basics of a subject before moving on to a more critical, in-depth examination of each field. All classes meet four times per week: on
table or you work with them on dorm. That allows the boys to feel more comfortable
Mondays for forty-five minutes, and then three times between Tuesday
in your classroom. You’re learning to work
and Saturday for fifty-five minutes. Classes for all students are held on
with each other and let your guard down,
Saturday mornings to allow for shorter days on Tuesdays and Fridays,
and I think that allows the boys to be more
when most athletic contests are scheduled.
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boys are very willing to try new things.”
Matthew Keating MATHEMATICS TEACHER
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in the classroom as they might be. These
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vulnerable and open and not as intimidated
R ATIO
FACULTY GUIDEBOOK
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Community Life Coaching & Extracurriculars Responsibilities
for
boarding
school faculty don’t stop when the school day ends. Faculty serve as coaches, drama directors, or program advisors during two of our three trimesters. If you’ve never coached before, we’ll pair you with an experienced mentor who will help you develop new skills. Duty
Terry Dining Hall & Seated Meals
All faculty are on duty slightly less than once a week. During duty days
The Terry Dining Hall is the center of campus life for Woodberry boys,
you will spend time on dorm, particularly to ensure study hall is used
faculty members, and families. It serves three meals a day — all of
well. This time on dorm is a great way to get to know students outside of
which are open to faculty and their families — during the school year.
the classroom, whether you’re stopping to chat before lights out, helping
Two of the dinners and one lunch each week are called “seated meals”
with homework, or watching TV with boys in the common room.
and served family style. The rest are buffet. Stop by the dining hall and you’ll find families lingering together over a Tuesday night dinner or
The Honor System
Sunday brunch. At lunch, faculty catch up on news or discuss the boys
A pillar of Woodberry’s community is the honor system. Each spring the
they’re teaching.
headmaster, after a student vote and faculty discussion, selects a group of seniors to serve as prefects. The prefects collectively administer the
Community & Belonging
honor system. They take this responsibility extraordinarily seriously.
Woodberry Forest’s commitment to community and belonging strives to
Students promise not to lie, cheat, or steal. If found guilty of doing
center diversity and affirmations of difference in every part of school life.
so, they can be dismissed from Woodberry by the headmaster at the
This work is deeply rooted in our school’s mission, as it seeks to shape
recommendation of the prefects. The honor system creates an unusual
our boys into young men who respect, embrace, and empathize with
and priceless sense of trust and respect between the students and
the differences of everyone in our community and is part of the school’s
faculty. As a teacher, you won’t need to worry about watching over
larger focus on wholeness for boys.
their shoulders during exam periods or worrying that answers are passed around before homework is due. 6
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Advising All Woodberry faculty serve as advisors to a small group of students and serve as the first point of contact for parents and students when a boy is facing a personal or academic challenge. Advisors eat a family-style, coat-and-tie dinner with these students once a week before chapel. You’ll get to know these students very well and will find these relationships to be some of the most important you form at Woodberry.
“My job as an advisor is to partner with parents to help my advisees in any way I can. Whether it’s an academic concern, trouble on dorm, or a challenge at home, my hope is that boys and parents see me as the first advocate and source of support on campus. I know that my advisees will develop strong relationships with multiple adults on campus, but I also expect that their relationship with me will be one of the most important and formative they’ll develop in their time here. Probably the greatest joy of advising at Woodberry is getting a front-row seat to a boy’s growth throughout this exciting, wonderful (and occasionally turbulent) time of their lives. Boys don’t always mature as fast as we’d like! But helping them take advantage of opportunities, grow through setbacks, and take steps toward adulthood has been one of the most fulfilling aspects of my work here.”
Ryan Alexander
DEAN OF THE FIFTH AND SIXTH FORMS
W F SPN
EXP EDIT IO N W E E K
WFSPN, Woodberry’s student-run production
For more than twenty years, Woodberry fourth formers
network, allows students to pursue their
(sophomores) have gone on a four-day expedition in
interests in sports broadcasting and journalism.
the Virginia mountains. This experience has long been
Broadcasts give parents an opportunity to watch
a transformative one for the boys, both individually
their boys compete or perform from miles away
and collectively, so in 2019 we decided to expand it to
and allow alumni and friends to be a part of our
encompass the entire school. Each grade pursues a
community, even when they aren’t on campus.
unique experience, working side-by-side with faculty.
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FACULTY GUIDEBOOK
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What is it like to live here? Whether you live on dorm or elsewhere on campus, working at Woodberry is a demanding job. Between teaching, coaching, and regular dorm duty, long days are the norm. But this is also a place where you’ll develop deep friendships with colleagues and students. Housing and meals for you and your family are part of your compensation. The campus is truly idyllic. Faculty and their families enjoy access to a pool, two gymnasiums, squash and tennis courts, and a nine-hole golf course. Faculty children roam free with
Washington, DC Woodberry Forest School
Charlottesville Richmond
their friends, wandering from the athletic fields to the river and back to the dining hall without their parents worrying about their safety. If you have children, they’re sure to find close friends among the other forty-five school-age children on campus. Woodberry is in a rural location. The town of Orange, about ten minutes away, has a pharmacy, grocery store, and a few restaurants. Culpeper, a larger town, is twenty minutes away and has a small hospital and more extensive shopping and dining options. Charlottesville, home to the University of Virginia, is forty-five minutes from campus. Washington, DC, is between ninety minutes and two hours away, depending on traffic and where in the DC area you’re headed. 10 WOODBERRY FOREST SCHOOL
“We moved to Woodberry in the midst of the pandemic in 2020. We had been living in Minneapolis, where I was teaching at the University of Minnesota and my husband, Trevor, was an English teacher at the Breck School. Trevor graduated from Woodberry in 2004, and for many years I was adamant that I didn’t want to live here. I had misgivings about being at a place that was so clearly “his school,” and I was uncertain about what an all-boarding environment would be like. But as the years went on and we were just starting to grow our family, my opinion changed and the thought of raising our kids on a boarding school campus seemed wonderful. So we took the plunge and arrived in Virginia during peak Covid. The community could not have been more welcoming, and people went out of their way to say hello. We felt very lucky to be here during such a stressful time. After our first year at Woodberry, I started teaching English on a part-time basis. Because we were living off-dorm, being in the classroom gave me an opportunity to really get to know a group of boys. It’s been fun to see them in the dining hall, at their sporting events, or just around campus. There is such a big difference between teaching college students and teenagers in high school. At Woodberry, I feel like we are focused on the long game and building relationships with the boys, which is something I didn’t experience at the university level. Beyond the classroom, one of my favorite aspects is the campus itself. It’s hard to imagine a more beautiful place to live. We look out over the Blue Ridge Mountains, with the Rapidan River and all the trails to explore, but we also have Charlottesville and Washington, DC, not very far away, so we get the best of rural life with access to some really fun, urban opportunities. I am grateful to live in a community where I can know everyone’s name and where people support each other in many different ways, big and small. For our kids, it’s such an incredible place for them to grow up. There are lots of faculty kids on campus, and you’ll see them out playing together. I’m confident that if I ever need anything, people will be there to help, which feels really special. We are very happy here, and we plan on staying for a long time.”
Aleisha Smith-Thornton FACULTY GUIDEBOOK 11
How will Woodberry support you? Woodberry seeks lifelong learners. Faculty can apply for financial support from the school if they wish to pursue graduate degrees or professional development. Woodberry also pairs new teachers with experienced mentors, with additional support provided by the department chair and the assistant headmaster for academic affairs.
What New Faculty Think You Should Know “I discovered early on that working at Woodberry demands an all-hands-ondeck mentality. It wasn’t until the wildly challenging third-form expedition in the fall of my first year that I truly grasped this culture of faculty and staff going above and beyond expectations to ensure the best possible experience for our boys.” “One of the reasons I wholeheartedly wanted to accept this job is because I felt very supported even from the beginning. What I love even more is
The Walter William Craigie
Chad Bullock, History: MA in
that the support hasn’t stopped since being hired. The faculty, both in and
Teaching Endowment
history at Gettysburg College
not in your department, are always willing to help you, and the Woodberry
Established in 1983 by Helen and
SaraGrace Kimball, Math: MEd
community shows a lot of care and love for each other.”
Walter W. Craigie, Sr. ’22, and
in curriculum and instruction at
“Seek balance. Professional responsibilities of a boarding school can often
supported by their son, the late
the University of Virginia
overtake personal lives. Honor your work-related commitments, but be
trustee Walter W. Craigie, Jr. ’48,
Chase Spong, Admission: MEd
sure to make time for personal plans as well.”
this program supports the pursuit
in independent school leadership
“Teaching at Woodberry is an experience of intellectual freedom. I’m
of graduate degrees by members
at Vanderbilt University
consistently impressed with the trust each department bestows upon its
of the faculty. Current and recent
Taylor Tucker, Computer
faculty members. If you’re passionate about a certain topic related to your
Craigie Scholars include:
Science: MS in data science at the
field, Woodberry is willing to let you pursue your interests.”
University of Virginia 12 WOODBERRY FOREST SCHOOL
FACULTY GUIDEBOOK 13
Contact Information Matthew C. Boesen
Byron C. Hulsey
Matt Boesen is a member of the history department, director of faculty recruitment, and faculty advisor to the headmaster. He served as Woodberry’s dean of faculty for eight years from 2015 to 2023. Matt designed and currently teaches an upperclass honors course, Democracy and Dictatorship between the World Wars, as well as Woodberry’s thirdform history course, Stories and Histories. Matt earned an AB from Yale University and an MA and PhD from the University of Virginia.
Byron Hulsey became the school’s ninth headmaster in 2014. He also teaches in the history department. He graduated from Woodberry in 1986 and was senior prefect. He was a Jefferson Scholar at the University of Virginia, where he studied history. He taught for two years at Bryanston School, a boarding school in Blandford, England, before returning to his native Texas to earn MA and PhD degrees from the University of Texas at Austin as a Patterson-Banister Fellow in American History. Byron served on the Woodberry faculty from 1998 to 2000 as assistant director of college counseling and in the history department. He was assistant headmaster at Norfolk Academy and was head of school at Randolph School in Huntsville, Alabama, for eight years before returning to Woodberry.
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matt_boesen@woodberry.org
P
540-672-6021
Abigail C. Mills Abbie Mills is the assistant headmaster for academic affairs. She previously taught engineering and ECLIPSE at Woodberry and coached JV football and developmental track. She came to Woodberry in 2016 after a career at NASA’s Johnson Space Center where she was a senior project engineer and project manager specializing in fuel cell systems. Abbie holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Rice University.
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