Brewster Academy
Encyclopedia
Brewster Academy is a co-educational independent boarding school
located on 80 acres (32.4 ha) in Wolfeboro
, New Hampshire
USA, two hours north of Boston. It occupies 1/2 mile (800 m) of shoreline along Lake Winnipesaukee
. With around 360 students, it serves grades nine through twelve, in addition to post-graduates.
who played in the NFL, had successful college and pro sports careers. The local students were then shifted to Kingswood Regional High School
in town, and Brewster became a private boarding school.
In 1985, Digital Equipment Corporation
co-founder Ken Olsen
donated a number of Digital personal computers to Brewster. The computers were part of a new lab dedicated to Grace Murray Hopper, whose family had a summer house in Wolfeboro. The lab is called the Grace Murray Hopper Center for Computer Learning.
Since 1995, Brewster hosts the Great Waters Music Festival
. This summer festival promotes live musical performances including choral, symphonic
, folk
, pops, jazz
, Broadway
, dance
, and renowned vocal and instrumental artists. Celebrity performers have included Wynton Marsalis
, Dave Brubeck
, Arlo Guthrie
, Chuck Mangione
, and the Glenn Miller Orchestra
.
, and to ensure constant communication among students, parents and administrators. Through online portfolios, students post their work to be reviewed and evaluated by faculty and shared with parents. Students and parents also have online access to grades and progress reports, which helps students evaluate their progress.
Brewster competes in the following interscholastic sports: baseball
, softball
, lacrosse
, tennis
, sailing
, crew
, field hockey
, soccer, cross country running
, ice hockey
, basketball
, cross country skiing, alpine skiing
, and snowboarding
. Intramural, recreational, and instructional offerings include: yoga
, fitness, advanced strength training
, tennis, ultimate Frisbee, equestrianism
, outdoor skills, golf
, dance
and snow sports.
The academy holds numerous New England and Lakes Region League Championship titles.
The boys' varsity basketball team won the 2010 National Prep School Championship. Also, the program had 35 alumni in NCAA Division I programs during the 2009-10 academic year.
Athletic facilities include a 50000 square feet (4,645.2 m²) athletics and wellness center featuring a convertible turf floor, a four-lane, 200-meter indoor track, and a fitness center; six playing field
s; nine new tennis court
s; a boathouse
for dry land training for the sailing
and crew teams; an indoor rowing tank; and a climbing wall
.
; a drama group that produces musical
s, opera
s, and play
s throughout the year; a chamber orchestra, a chorale
, a wind ensemble, a jazz band
, and dance instruction. An art center is home to ceramic
s, printmaking
, drawing
, and painting
classes. Multimedia
and desktop publishing
centers feature the latest computers, industry standard software, and video and digital equipment. Newly renovated Anderson Hall features a proscenium
theater with first-rate lighting
and acoustics
.
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
located on 80 acres (32.4 ha) in Wolfeboro
Wolfeboro, New Hampshire
Wolfeboro is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,269 at the 2010 census. A venerable resort area situated beside Lake Winnipesaukee, Wolfeboro includes the village of Wolfeboro Falls...
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
USA, two hours north of Boston. It occupies 1/2 mile (800 m) of shoreline along Lake Winnipesaukee
Lake Winnipesaukee
Lake Winnipesaukee is the largest lake in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. It is approximately long and from wide , covering — when Paugus Bay is included—with a maximum depth of ....
. With around 360 students, it serves grades nine through twelve, in addition to post-graduates.
History
The school was founded in 1820 by local citizens as a "building for higher education." Once called Wolfeboro & Tuftonboro Academy, in 1887 it was renamed Brewster Free Academy in honor of John Brewster, a benefactor. For sixty years it charged no tuition fee to area residents, and from its inception through 1964, the school served as the only high school in Wolfeboro. (The town began to pay local students' tuition starting in 1947.) During the immediate postwar years it was a popular school with military veterans seeking to improve their credentials for a university education under the GI Bill. In 1963 the graduating class consisted of 60 local students, with 30 additional post-graduate students, who boarded on campus. Many of these were there to increase their athletic prowess, and some, including Milt MorinMilt Morin
Milton Denis Morin was a professional American football tight end in the National Football League. After college at the University of Massachusetts, he played for the Cleveland Browns for ten seasons...
who played in the NFL, had successful college and pro sports careers. The local students were then shifted to Kingswood Regional High School
Kingswood Regional High School
Kingswood Regional High School is a public secondary school located in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. It serves the communities of Brookfield, Effingham, Ossipee, New Durham, Tuftonboro, and Wolfeboro...
in town, and Brewster became a private boarding school.
In 1985, Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
co-founder Ken Olsen
Ken Olsen
Kenneth Harry Olsen was an American engineer who co-founded Digital Equipment Corporation in 1957 with colleague Harlan Anderson.-Background:...
donated a number of Digital personal computers to Brewster. The computers were part of a new lab dedicated to Grace Murray Hopper, whose family had a summer house in Wolfeboro. The lab is called the Grace Murray Hopper Center for Computer Learning.
Since 1995, Brewster hosts the Great Waters Music Festival
Great Waters Music Festival
The Great Waters Music Festival is an annual summer music festival held on the campus of Brewster Academy located on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, USA, two hours north of Boston...
. This summer festival promotes live musical performances including choral, symphonic
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, pops, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
, and renowned vocal and instrumental artists. Celebrity performers have included Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
, Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck
David Warren "Dave" Brubeck is an American jazz pianist. He has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills...
, Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
, Chuck Mangione
Chuck Mangione
Charles Frank "Chuck" Mangione is an American flugelhorn player and composer who achieved international success in 1977 with his jazz-pop single, "Feels So Good." Mangione has released more than thirty albums since 1960.-Early life and career:...
, and the Glenn Miller Orchestra
Glenn Miller Orchestra
The Glenn Miller Orchestra was originally formed in 1938 by Glenn Miller. It was arranged around a clarinet and tenor saxophone playing melody, while three other saxophones played the harmony...
.
Technology
All students and faculty use laptops, and teachers use a suite of software tools to design and teach curriculumCurriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...
, and to ensure constant communication among students, parents and administrators. Through online portfolios, students post their work to be reviewed and evaluated by faculty and shared with parents. Students and parents also have online access to grades and progress reports, which helps students evaluate their progress.
Faculty
Faculty are prepared and trained at the Brewster Summer Institute, a four-week professional development program designed to assist teachers in accelerating student growth. Each instructor is placed on an eight-member team that teaches and advises students in a single grade. Teams meet three or four times weekly to discuss each student’s progress and performance. Class size averages 12, and the student-teacher ratio is 6:1. In addition to teaching, faculty serve as coaches and dorm parents.Athletics
Brewster has a diverse selection of interscholastic sports along with recreational, intramural, and instructional sports during the fall, winter and spring seasons. Among the interscholastic sports, Brewster fields varsity, junior varsity, and co-ed teams, as well as eight- and four-person shells on the crew teams. Games are typically played on Wednesdays and Saturdays, with a half day of classes on Wednesdays to accommodate game schedules. During games and during regular practices, an athletic trainer is available to help students. The teams are coached by faculty at all levels. Many faculty live on campus and some are also dorm parents, which allows students to connect more with every member of the community.Brewster competes in the following interscholastic sports: baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
, lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, sailing
Sailing
Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...
, crew
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
, field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
, soccer, cross country running
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
, ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
, basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, cross country skiing, alpine skiing
Alpine skiing
Alpine skiing is the sport of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings. Alpine skiing can be contrasted with skiing using free-heel bindings: Ski mountaineering and nordic skiing – such as cross-country; ski jumping; and Telemark. In competitive alpine skiing races four...
, and snowboarding
Snowboarding
Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a slope that is covered with snow on a snowboard attached to a rider's feet using a special boot set onto mounted binding. The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, sledding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the U.S.A...
. Intramural, recreational, and instructional offerings include: yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
, fitness, advanced strength training
Strength training
Strength training is the use of resistance to muscular contraction to build the strength, anaerobic endurance, and size of skeletal muscles. There are many different methods of strength training, the most common being the use of gravity or elastic/hydraulic forces to oppose muscle contraction...
, tennis, ultimate Frisbee, equestrianism
Equestrianism
Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
, outdoor skills, golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
and snow sports.
The academy holds numerous New England and Lakes Region League Championship titles.
The boys' varsity basketball team won the 2010 National Prep School Championship. Also, the program had 35 alumni in NCAA Division I programs during the 2009-10 academic year.
Athletic facilities include a 50000 square feet (4,645.2 m²) athletics and wellness center featuring a convertible turf floor, a four-lane, 200-meter indoor track, and a fitness center; six playing field
Playing field
A playing field is a field used for playing sports or games. They are generally outdoors, but many large structures exist to enclose playing fields from bad weather. Generally, playing fields are wide expanses of grass, dirt or sand without many obstructions...
s; nine new tennis court
Tennis court
A tennis court is where the game of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the center. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles.-Dimensions:...
s; a boathouse
Boathouse
A boathouse is a building especially designed for the storage of boats, normally smaller craft for sports or leisure use. These are typically located on open water, such as on a river. Often the boats stored are rowing boats...
for dry land training for the sailing
Sailing
Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...
and crew teams; an indoor rowing tank; and a climbing wall
Climbing wall
A climbing wall is an artificially constructed wall with grips for hands and feet, usually used for indoor climbing, but sometimes located outdoors as well. Some are brick or wooden constructions, but on most modern walls, the material most often used is a thick multiplex board with holes drilled...
.
Arts
In the performing arts, Brewster offers an award-winning chorus, HOWL, which has performed at Carnegie HallCarnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
; a drama group that produces musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
s, opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s, and play
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
s throughout the year; a chamber orchestra, a chorale
Chorale
A chorale was originally a hymn sung by a Christian congregation. In certain modern usage, this term may also include classical settings of such hymns and works of a similar character....
, a wind ensemble, a jazz band
Jazz band
A jazz band is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. Jazz bands usually consist of a rhythm section and a horn section, in the early days often trumpet, trombone, and clarinet with rhythm section of piano, banjo, bass or tuba, and drums.-Eras:SwingDuring the swing era in the mid-twentieth...
, and dance instruction. An art center is home to ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
s, printmaking
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
, drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
, and painting
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
classes. Multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
and desktop publishing
Desktop publishing
Desktop publishing is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal computer.The term has been used for publishing at all levels, from small-circulation documents such as local newsletters to books, magazines and newspapers...
centers feature the latest computers, industry standard software, and video and digital equipment. Newly renovated Anderson Hall features a proscenium
Proscenium
A proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...
theater with first-rate lighting
Lighting
Lighting or illumination is the deliberate application of light to achieve some practical or aesthetic effect. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources such as lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylight...
and acoustics
Acoustics
Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics...
.
Notable alumni
- Jeff AdrienJeff AdrienJeff Adrien is an American professional basketball player. He is a 6'7" forward. Adrien formerly served as captain for the University of Connecticut Huskies.-High school:...
- basketball player for the UConn Huskies and Golden State Warriors. - Craig BrackinsCraig BrackinsCraig Lee Brackins is an American basketball player with the Philadelphia 76ers.He played collegiately for the Iowa State Cyclones. A power forward, Brackins was the highest-touted recruit to choose Iowa State after spending time at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire...
- basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ersPhiladelphia 76ersThe Philadelphia 76ers are a professional basketball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association . Originally known as the Syracuse Nationals, they are one of the oldest franchises in the NBA... - Daniel FordDaniel FordDaniel Ford is an American journalist, novelist, and historian. The son of Patrick and Anne Ford, he attended public schools in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, graduating in 1950 from Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. He was educated at the University of New Hampshire Daniel Ford...
- novelist, journalist, historian - Topher GraceTopher GraceChristopher John "Topher" Grace is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Eric Forman on the Fox sitcom That '70s Show, Eddie Brock/Venom in the Sam Raimi film Spider-Man 3, and Edwin in the 2010 film Predators....
- actor - James Kirkwood, Jr.James Kirkwood, Jr.James Kirkwood, Jr. was an American playwright, author and actor. In 1976 he received the Tony Award, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the Broadway hit A Chorus Line.-Biography:Kirkwood was born in Los Angeles, California. His father...
- author; his novel Good Times Bad TimesGood Times Bad Times"Good Times Bad Times" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, featured as the opening track on their 1969 debut album Led Zeppelin....
is set at Brewster, although the school and its buildings are renamed.