John Knight recently attended a Volunteer Conference on campus and makes the following report...
Nothing more special than a beautiful Fall day in Old Deerfield MA. It was fun to see old friends still on the staff and a number of alumni class agents I worked with over the years. We missed Doug Schmidt as he recovers from his recent hip replacement. Thankfully it didn't even rain in western MA on Friday...
DA is thriving and becoming even more intentional about developing people centered learning opportunities. Students leave their phones in their rooms, dorms are organized under a "twins and quads" scheme where boy and girl dorms are paired together and intentional shared spaces are developed. For example, Johnson and Doubleday is the 9th grade village now and a new entrance on the south side (directly into Crow Commons) is being designed to allow more natural access to the lawn framed by John Louis and Louis Marx dorms to the south. A new dorm is being built next to Barton as another example of this scheme and the baseball field returned to the original orientation (Barton in left field) to allow for a "quad" area in front of the two dorms. The configuration also allows for an upper level grass field (left and center fields of the baseball diamond) in case of lower level flooding...The school continues to invest in the triple threat model (teach+coach+dorm parent) in the hopes of attracting great faculty from all over the world.
DA is phasing out day students and requiring all new applicants to board. (Another reason for the new dorm being constructed). But looks like 80 day students will become just 40 new boarding students so the local applicant will face tougher odds I think.
Deerfield's Endowment is now at just over $1B and they are also entering the public phase (4 years) of a campaign "Be Worthy" aiming to raise $500M. So far about $350M has been committed and the new Dining Hall is open. Ephraim Williams is on the docket to be renovated and become the Admission Office in order for the Main School Building to also be renovated and returned to mostly classrooms on the second and third floor, with the Caswell Library enhanced as a student focused space and the necessary lifts and ramps will be added as building codes require. No word yet on where the Advancement Team would move to...
Here are some photos from JK:
