The Advisory Program at White Mountain is a hallmark of the strong connections our teachers make with every student. Faculty members typically have five students as advisees each year. Advisors become an integral part of their advisees’ lives and success here on campus and cultivate an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect in which students can openly discuss their successes and their concerns. Advisors are often seen having coffee in town with their advisees, playing ultimate frisbee on Hood’s Hill, or baking cookies together during exam time.
Developing connections with each advisee and maintaining a real awareness of what is happening in each of their lives on a day-to-day basis is the essence of what it means to be an advisor at White Mountain. Advisors make every effort to know the academic and athletic lives of their advisees. Daily check-ins before Morning Meeting, regular advisor breakfasts and dinners, informal gatherings, trips, and frequent conversations help build this critical relationship.
Advisors are the adults most responsible for a student at the School. They are often the first point of contact for families for any questions or concerns regarding their child. Advisors communicate regularly and consistently with parents throughout the year, and they serve as a primary liaison between student, family, and teacher.
Community Building
Mealtimes serve as an essential gathering time and place for building community at White Mountain. For most meals throughout the week, students are free to sit where and with whom they wish. However, White Mountain offers a few structured meals to build community and forge new, positive relationships between students, their peers, and adults.
Every week, the School holds Family-Style Dinner (FSD) and Family-Style Breakfast (FSB). During FSD, a rotating group of students serves the meal to each table, and tables are made up of a different, random group of students and adults that changes every few weeks. During FSB, advisees sit with their advisor and advisory groups, and the meal transitions into Morning Meeting in the Dining Hall instead of Lovejoy Chapel.
On a monthly or semi-monthly basis, there is an Advisory Dinner and a Community Dinner. Advisory Dinners occur either in an advisor’s home or a local restaurant and have a similar scope to FSB. Community Dinner requires semi-formal dress and is open to local families and—because it usually takes place before a holiday, cultural, or awards event—typically has a themed menu.
White Mountain is privileged to welcome students from over ten countries who enrich our community by sharing their culture and unique lived experiences and points of view in and outside the classroom. International Night celebrates the cultures and cuisines of our international student population. It is accompanied by a school performance that includes music and dancing by students for the community.
White Mountain’s Cultural Event Series aims to connect White Mountain students and the surrounding community with rich cultural and performing arts productions in support of White Mountain’s broader commitment to equity and inclusion. Visiting artists will often lead a workshop for students during the afternoon and then later perform not for the community but with it. Community members often feel compelled and are invited to the front of Lovejoy Chapel dance, sing along, showcase skills learned in the workshop, or participate in some other way.