Northfield Mount Hermon School

There are plenty of schools that teach “subjects.” Not many teach students to love learning. At Northfield Mount Hermon, we do. We want students to think for fun. Indulge their curiosity. Collaborate and innovate. We want them to develop the kinds of creative minds they'll need to thrive in the 21st century. We're proud to offer a balanced, multidimensional learning and living experience — a purposeful education that prepares students for today's world. And tomorrow's.

A purposeful education has three main elements: knowledge, opportunities, and citizenship. Through our distinctive College-Model Academic Program (CMAP), we help students develop not only knowledge about the world, but also a love of learning that will serve them throughout their lifetimes. Our small classes (with a student-to-teacher ratio of six to one) allow the space and time for extended learning and in-depth exploration of subject matter. Students take three major courses each semester, which adds up to six challenging college-preparatory courses per year.

Learning continues outside the classroom, through an extensive array of athletic, artistic, and extracurricular opportunities. Students develop skills, confidence, and a sense of collaboration. Along the way, each and every student is supported by what we call the Partnership of 12 — a network of adults always ready to help.

A few nuts and bolts: We're a coed boarding school serving 650 students in grades nine through 12. We also offer a postgraduate year. Our wooded campus borders the Connecticut River in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, and in this beautiful setting, we challenge young people to think hard, work hard, discover new talents, and hone the ones they already possess. We're a secular school that affirms religious diversity.

Our 60-plus sports teams and more than a dozen performing-arts groups keep students busy after classes, as do a multitude of student-led clubs and organizations and volunteer-service projects. All students participate in the school’s work program, which could mean they do chores on the farm, lead tours of the campus for visitors, clean up in the dining hall, or help out in campus offices. This aspect of life at NMH keeps students invested in the community and deepens their educational experience. After NMH, students move on to college — including some of the finest in the nation — and into the world with confidence. They are curious, inspired, motivated. They are ready.

Education for the Head, Heart, and Hand. Northfield Mount Hermon engages the intellect, compassion, and talents of our students, empowering them to act with humanity and purpose. The NMH Board of Trustees developed and approved this mission statement in 2009. Board members, along with students, faculty, and staff, also look to a set of core values for guidance and inspiration: excellence, respect, integrity, persistence, creativity, and teamwork. These fundamental values are manifested in our community through:

• A teaching and learning culture that helps students become versatile problem-solvers, compassionate thinkers, and effective communicators.
• An innovative academic curriculum that offers choice and challenge.
• Vibrant, engaging, and expansive co-curricular programming.
• Transformative responsibilities and experiences, including the work program, social-justice programs, global study, and sustainability initiatives.
• An opportunity for and encouragement of spiritual development through religious traditions, exploration of the human experience, and appreciation of the natural world.
• The expectation and practice of egalitarian ideals, especially honesty, civility, hopefulness, curiosity, and tenacity.
• A commitment to cultivate a community of individuals who are willing and able to be meaningful contributors rather than mere consumers.
• Embracing diversity in all its forms and challenging attitudes in conflict with genuine multiculturalism, equity, and social justice.

Our faculty respect and promote hard work and collaboration. We educate the head, heart, and hand of each student, and we lead by example, playing many roles at NMH in addition to teaching, as coaches, advisors, and mentors. We are a diverse group of educators who love what we do and are committed to our own continued learning.

Our goal is simple: to deliver excellence as we support the school’s mission to empower students to act with humanity and purpose. We help students achieve mastery of subject-specific skills and content, think critically and creatively, and become effective communicators. We expect them to set lofty goals, to take risks, and to engage with both the academic material and one another. We guide them toward cultural understanding, helping them develop integrity, empathy, and a concern for social justice.

We offer a rigorous and exciting curriculum with advanced courses in all disciplines. Our College-Model Academic Program (CMAP) is based on a semester schedule, with 80-minute classes that allow students to develop deeper knowledge and stronger skills. They take six full-credit classes a year, plus co-curricular classes. They also have many opportunities to develop their athletic and artistic potential and to explore areas that are new to them.

NMH supports the whole student through our Partnership of 12, which refers to the constellation of adults that work with each student each semester, focusing on personal growth and the pursuit of excellence. The partnership ties into our residential-life and advising systems, where students learn life skills and become reliable members of their communities. Because our campus is home to students and teachers from around the U.S. and the world, our students become global citizens, embracing a multicultural approach and learning how to be part of an inclusive community.