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Reflections on Sage Hill's 2013-2014 School Year
Mr. McNeill reflects on the school year in his final blog post of the 2014-2015 school year.
Commencement means "beginning," but it also marks the end—the end of four transformational years for the members of the Class of 2014. At graduations, we tend to talk about students' bright futures, but the past also deserves its fair due. I love how our freshmen begin their Sage Hill journey with a retreat to the nearby mountains, and they finish with a rafting trip on the Kings River. If our seniors could look into that river and see the reflection of the freshmen they were four years ago, what would they say to those 14- or 15-year-olds about what lay ahead? With the wisdom they've gained from four years at Sage Hill, what advice would they give their former selves?
Back
One parent told me that when the seniors arrived back at Sage Hill after a long bus ride, three days without showers, and two nights without beds, time stood still for a moment. The students got off the buses, but they didn't want to leave. They knew they would never have that moment back, and it was as though they wanted to savor it and seal it in their memories. I hope our newest alumni graduated with many memories like that, and a fulfilling sense of a high school life well-lived.
The Class of 2014 moves on to 64 exciting and impressive colleges and universities, as well as some unique opportunities. We have a graduate attending the Culinary Institute of America and another studying ethnomusicology at UCLA. Our 105 new graduates join our growing alumni network—now nearly 1,200 strong—a fortunate crew who share the common experience of having attended the amazing place we call Sage Hill School. And an impressive group who are leveraging the skills learned through their Sage Hill experience to succeed in life and make their marks on the world.
Somehow the final weeks of the year always fly by and leave me somewhat breathless. After the frenzy of AP exams and finals, our students relished the opportunities they chose to pursue during Spring at Sage. The inaugural Spring at Sage took place when the Class of 2014 were freshmen, and the program has been fine tuned in the four years since. This year, students traveled abroad on Global Experiences to China, Guatemala, Argentina, and Puerto Rico. Professional guides coordinated the logistics of the trips, including community service activities, homestays, cultural immersion, and sightseeing. I had the great fortune of traveling with 32 students to Argentina. While everyone was excited at the outset to see the sights, such as the amazing Iguazu Falls, the trip was about much more than that. The reflections that we shared on the last day tended to focus on the life changing cultural exchanges which took place as a result of the home stays. Mission accomplished!
Our closer-to-home excursions took students on science-oriented trips to British Columbia and California's North Coast. Students also learned American history on our “Wicked Smaht” tour of New England.
Meanwhile, our campus was abuzz with a wide selection of seminars that exposed students to unique and fascinating subjects, like Adventures of a Culinary Novice, where students mastered the one-handed egg crack; Engineering the Future, where they built a quadocopter; the self-explanatory Build Your Own Electric Guitar; and “How to Do Stuff 101,” in which students learned to do things like change a tire, adjust a sprinkler head, and select the best plunger. (You didn’t think they were all the same, did you?) Spring at Sage fulfilled its promise of exposing our students to new cultures, ideas, and information, broadening their minds and whetting their appetites for learning.
I hope all of our students are catching their breath after the whirlwind end of the year, yet will continue to learn this summer: learn a new subject, a new culture, new skills at a job or internship, even learn to relax. It’s all good. We'll reconvene in a couple of months to start the cycle of the school year again—from the freshman retreat to the senior rafting trip—with a whole new crop of students beginning their four transformational years at Sage Hill.
Sage Hill School
Sage Hill School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. The School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship programs, and athletic and other School administered programs.