Hopkins School
Encyclopedia
The Hopkins School is a private
, college-preparatory, coeducational day school
, located in New Haven
, Connecticut
.
Founded in 1660, Hopkins School is the third-oldest independent secondary school in the United States
, younger than the Collegiate School
and Roxbury Latin School
. Hopkins was founded "for the breeding up of hopeful youths" with funds from Edward Hopkins
' estate to fulfill John Davenport
's wishes to bring a grammar school
to New Haven. First established on the town's green, the school moved to its current campus on a hill overlooking New Haven in 1926. Hopkins has been coeducational since merging with Day Prospect Hill in 1972.
Hopkins is divided into three separate schools. The Junior school
consists of the 7th
and 8th
grades. The high school
is divided into the Middle (9th
and 10th
grade) and Upper (11th
and 12th
grade) schools. Most new students enter Hopkins in either the 7th or 9th grade. Despite a $
60,000,000 endowment
, Hopkins' tuition has increased substantially over recent years to fund new programs. Tuition is set at $32,500 for the 2010–11 school year. Approximately 18% of the students receive some degree of financial aid.
In April 2010, Forbes Magazine
named Hopkins the nineteenth best college preparatory school in the United States of America.
, a founder of the New Haven Colony
, was an early proponent of education in the colony. Grammar school
s of the time generally prepared young men for college, but the Puritan
colony was too far from England for its citizens to attend the existing English schools. Parents of the time were generally more concerned with spending their money on essentials such as food and viewed formal education as an extravagance most could not afford. Davenport enlisted the help of a friend, Edward Hopkins
, governor of the Connecticut Colony
, to found a traditional grammar school that would teach Latin
, Greek
, and Hebrew
grammar.
Hopkins died in 1657 and bequeathed money to found a school dedicated to "the breeding up of hopeful youths for the public service of the country in future times." Colonial officials wanted Hopkins's bequest to remain in Connecticut and appointed three men, Davenport and two others, executor
s of Hopkins's will. They created the "Hopkins Fund" from which Hopkins Grammar School was established in 1660. The school's first home was a small building on the New Haven Green
.
The exact date of Hopkins School's founding is a matter of definition. The historical record of the executors' report implies the trust was created on May 4, 1660, but since the Julian calendar
was in use then, the date corresponds to May 14 on modern calendars. The papers which created the fund were presented and accepted on May 30, and many use this date as the official date of the school's founding. Finally, on June 4 (June 14 on modern calendars) Davenport transferred control of the bequest to the Colony, on the condition that the colony accept responsibility for the support of the school.
s, and the Fund often fell short in paying them. This forced the school to take up collections to meet its payroll. Consequently, there was great turnover in Hopkins schoolmasters, some staying for no more than a year. Also contributing to the problem was the establishment of the Collegiate School in New Haven in 1701, which later became Yale University
. The Collegiate School drew many local academics away from Hopkins.
Public opinion of Hopkins and academia
in general weakened the school. During this time parents wanted children who could read and write
English
and understand basic arithmetic
s, but Hopkins continued to focus on subjects that parents deemed irrelevant, such as Latin. Parents were also displeased with schoolmasters who paid little attention to struggling students instead focusing only on the scholars. On January 12, 1713, the committee which managed the Hopkins Fund began releasing £
12–£15 annually to run elementary
English schools in East Haven
and West Haven
. The town of New Haven stopped donating money to the Fund in 1719, which made hiring schoolmasters nearly impossible. Though the trustees of the Hopkins Fund constituted an independent body, the town was known to control them with financial pressures. Richard Mansfield served as schoolmaster from 1742 to 1747, and was the last headmaster until 1839 to serve for more than three years.
Although Hopkins School was still somewhat unpopular with the locals, the school moved to a new larger brick building on the Green, due to the growth of New Haven. Hopkins School was somewhat rare among American schools in that it remained open during the American Revolutionary War
. Former schoolmaster John Hotchkiss was killed by the British in July 1779 during their invasion of New Haven, and former schoolmaster Noah Williston was captured. Although the school remained open, records seem to indicate that it was frequently closed between September 1780 – October 1781 "for vacation". Shortly after the Revolution, Hopkins hired Jared Mansfield for two terms (first from 1786 to 1790, then 1790 to 1795) to the unique position "Master of the Grammar School" to try to stabilize the school for the future. In between Mansfield's two terms, Abraham Bishop held a six-month term as headmaster during which he proposed radical reform, including making Hopkins coeducational, most of which never came to fruition. After the end of Mansfield's second term, the school returned to the pattern of short tenures for schoolmasters.
Hopkins moved buildings again in 1803 to an even larger facility near the Green that took up nearly an entire block
. Teachers were offered two-year contracts to teach at Hopkins, but rarely kept them. Hopkins boys grew "unruly and malicious", some roaming New Haven streets at night. In 1838 the school moved once again, as the trustees believed that moving the school away from the town center would allow its students to focus more on their studies. Throughout August and September that year, they rushed through the necessary transactions to buy the new plot of land, currently the site of the Yale Law School
. Following this move the trustees released an announcement to New Haven's three newspaper
s summarizing their hope that this new location would provide sufficient space for the boys to learn and be separate enough that they could do so in peace.
Hawley Olmstead became headmaster in 1839 and ended the line of short-termed schoolmasters as he held the position for ten years. Although Olmstead thought much like Hopkins' early masters, namely that the school existed to prepare boys for college, he also modernized the curriculum in several ways. Most notably, English was finally added to the curriculum, and he began keeping accurate school rolls which solidified his final legacy, increasing the size of Hopkins student body. By the time Olmstead resigned due to poor health on July 28, 1849, school attendance had risen to 63 students.
As soon as Hawley Olmstead left, the school began to deteriorate once again, with attendance dropping to 45 students in 1850 and farther down to 20 by 1853. In addition, the recently founded debate society
disbanded, with seven young members forming the secret society
known as "The Club". Though this club grew no larger and tried to remain quiet, parents grew so annoyed with this supposedly "rough-housing" club that it was forced to disband in 1851. After the debate society and "The Club" were gone, many students sought out new ways to express their literary interests, including founding the school newspaper "The Critic." Hawley's successor, Edward Olmstead, was seen by the trustees as a major failure and a cause of the school's rapid decline and was quickly replaced by James Whiton, who had just recently graduated from Yale. He further revised the curriculum by adding more English to it, and school attendance saw a rapid increase once again. Whiton taught for ten years and is regarded as the last of the "Fallow Years" headmasters.
to this day. Two local women's schools — the Day School (founded in 1907) and the Prospect Hill School (founded in 1930) — merged in 1960. The combined institution became the Day Prospect Hill School (DPH), a united women's education school, which in turn merged with Hopkins School in 1972. Trustee president Vince Calarco and headmaster Tim Rodd led Hopkins to buy a further 50 acres (20.2 ha) of land at its current location to establish playing field
s in 1992. In recent years alumnus John C. Malone
, a wealthy telecommunications entrepreneur
, has donated more than $25 million for new construction, the financial aid program, and forming the endowment.
Baldwin Hall is the original building of the present campus. Baldwin has four floors including the basement
. Baldwin houses a computer lab, the language lab, the school store, and the recently renovated Library. Baldwin was renovated in 2000 and had additional work done on the exterior in the summer of 2005. The library is a two floor, 14000 square feet (1,300.6 m²), library with group study rooms, an art gallery, and a faculty reading room. Hopkins House houses the administrative offices, teachers' offices, the teachers' lounge, and classrooms in the basement. This building was named for Edward Hopkins, one of the founders of Hopkins School. Day Prospect Hill (DPH) is the former home of the Day Prospect girls' school. DPH had housed a computer lab and classrooms mostly used by the Junior School. It was connected to the Arts Center, which houses Hopkins' art classrooms, and the "Old Gym," which once held climbing equipment and a sound module, and in which squash courts were installed in 2010. In the winter of 09-10, DPH and the Arts Center were torn down and have been turned into a parking lot.
Lovell Hall is a recently remodeled building next to Heath and between Hopkins House and the Old Gym. Lovell houses the main school auditorium, art and music classrooms, and teachers' offices. This building is named after longtime headmaster George Lovell, who led the school in the first half of the 20th century. Malone Science Center is at the center of the Hopkins' campus and houses the science classrooms and labs
. Donated by John C. Malone
, it is named for Malone's father. It was opened for students in 1999 and has three floors of classrooms.
Heath Commons is a two-story building that houses the school cafeteria and a student lounge. This building was also donated by John Malone and named for his favorite teacher while at Hopkins, John Heath. Heath Commons was designed by the S/L/A/M collaborative. It was completed in 2003 and won a Connecticut Design Award in 2005. Heath also houses the kitchens and dining hall, multipurpose rooms, and advisors' offices.
The Walter Camp Athletic Center is named after alumnus Walter Camp
, who is credited with inventing American football and later was Yale's football coach. The Athletic Center has two floors of gyms, a pool, a trainer
, and coaches office. The first floor is largely made up of three standard-sized basketball court
s. Dividers between these courts are removed and the united room is used for all-school assemblies. The second floor includes smaller weight rooms and training areas including the wrestling room. The old Reigeluth Gym has been converted and renamed the Kneisel Squash Center in 2010. Before the Camp Athletic Center, this was the main athletic facility at Hopkins
Formerly the site of the upper playing fields, a new quad and Junior School building, named Thompson Hall, was opened on 30 November 2009. The former Junior School and Arts building (formerly the locker rooms and other athletic support facilities) was torn down in January 2010 and made into a parking lot. New fields opened in 2007 which replaced those that Thompson Hall now stands on.
Applicants to Hopkins undergo a series of standardized tests, and upon matriculation
, testing is done to place students at the appropriate level of instruction in mathematics
and language
s. Hopkins' academics are broken into departments
including English
, mathematics, science
, history
, arts
, modern language, classics
, and computer science
. Each of the three class levels — Lower, Middle, and Upper — has a different level of choice in classes.
The Arts Department is made up of student organizations and academic classes in studio and performance art. A number of student groups feature performing arts; a cappella
groups such as the Harmonaires, Triple Trio, and Spirens; theater groups such as the Hopkins Drama Association; and a variety of choral
and instrumental performance groups. A gallery room in Baldwin holds shows of student and teacher art.
The English department is the only department in which Hopkins requires a student have at least one class in every semester. Upper-class students have two required semester classes: a college-prep writing course and a Shakespeare
-centered course. The history department core is the Atlantic Communities series that focus on Europe, the Americas, and West Africa between 1450 and modern times. In addition, elective courses go into detail on subjects such as political science, regional studies, philosophy and ethics. Advanced Placement courses are offered in United States History, European History, and Human Geography. The language department is divided into two subdepartments: the Classics, which teaches Ancient Greek
and Latin; and Modern Languages, which teaches all other languages (French
, Spanish
, Chinese
, and Italian
are currently offered).
The mathematics department offers study from pre-algebra to Linear Algebra
, Multivariable Calculus
, Differential Equations and Chaos Theory
. The science department has three main tracks — Biology, Chemistry, and Physics — along which students can take entry-level courses and then more advanced AP
and Honors courses. There are numerous one-off courses in subjects such as Introduction to Psychology, Human Reproduction, or Environmental Studies
. The computer science department offers basic computing courses in HTML and Java.
School ends every Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on other days. This extra time is generally used to schedule "away" sports meets, to allow for travel time. Hopkins adopted a modified block scheduling
system in 2005, giving each class 55 minutes rather than 40 minutes. Each student has two weekly class schedules ("maroon week" and "grey week", named for the school's colors) which alternate throughout the school year.
history is still reflected in graduation requirements. Every student is required to take an English course every semester, and Junior Schoolers are required to take Latin along with whichever other language they may take, if any. In addition to classical education, Hopkins requires three years of math courses and three years of a language, the completion of Atlantic Communities II and Atlantic Communities III (history courses which total a year and a half), and two years of science coursework. However, this only makes up a fraction of a student's total graduation credit requirement, while the rest is fulfilled by elective and advanced courses in any of the various departments.
Middle classmen are the two younger grades of standard American
high school, 9th and 10th grade. In addition to lower-class privileges, Middle classmen can begin designing their own schedules, choosing a few elective courses as opposed to the nearly completely pre-designed schedules of the Junior School. Middle classmen may also participate in general school teams and organizations.
Upperclassmen are the older two grades of American high school, 11th and 12th grade. Upperclassmen have nearly complete control over their own schedules as they begin to fulfill their graduation requirements in departments and move on to study topics of their own interest. Upperclassmen can also apply for a parking space and the ability to leave campus periodically. Juniors
can run for Student Council president at the end of their Junior year; and Seniors
can create a "Senior Project", a self-designed path of study replacing several courses he would otherwise be taking in the second semester. Starting with the 2006–07 school year, Seniors are excused from all second term spring exams, replacing them with a required four-day long community service project. For the 2006–07 school year, that project is building houses for Habitat for Humanity.
The highest position in the Student Council is the Student Council President, a student elected at the end of their junior year to run the Council during their senior year. The president organizes school-wide fundraisers, delivers a speech at most assemblies, and holds some ceremonial graduation
duties. Each class functions like a state with a legislature
of advisor group representatives with the class president as a Governor. Class representatives act as a Congress
that deals with school-wide issues with the STUCO President fulfilling the Presidential
role.
Junior school students select from their own separate lists of activities during advisor meetings, and their activities sessions are separate from the general school. The main school activities program begins with the Activities Fair, usually held in early September, where every activity puts on a display and signs up members for that school year. These various clubs and organizations then meet each Wednesday during the last period of the day, which is set aside as an activities period as opposed to an academic one.
In addition to traditional school organizations such as the student newspaper and yearbook
, Hopkins focuses strongly on community service especially within the New Haven community itself. The Student government runs school-wide events such as a fundraiser for the Connecticut Food Bank
, but the bulk of Hopkins community service happens through clubs. Hopkins' umbrella community service organization is called Maroon Key. Both the diversity clubs (including a racial equality
club, a Gay-Straight Alliance
, and a gender equality group) and specific service clubs such as Habitat for Humanity organize a variety of fundraisers and events throughout the year. While not a graduation requirement, community service is an essential aspect of Hopkins life.
Hopkins hosts Breakthrough New Haven (an affiliate of the Breakthrough Collaborative
), a program that includes both academic enrichment for middle school students and teacher training for high school and college students. Breakthrough operates an after-school program during the school year and an intensive six-week academic Summer Program during the summer. Hopkins School opens all of the campus not being used by regular summer school
programs to Breakthrough. Breakthrough students are seventh and eighth graders from New Haven public and parochial schools.
Hopkins' athletics function under a trimester system, with students taking an athletic for each of the fall, winter, and spring seasons. Students may choose to participate in a team sport
if they make the team, an intramural sport, or an independent sport where the student participates in a school-approved athletic activity such as martial arts
lessons. Seniors may also take one season off and not take any athletic for that season. Sports offered at Hopkins vary depending on the season and include cross country
, soccer
, water polo
, crew
, football
, field hockey
, volleyball
, basketball
, fencing
, track
(both outdoor and indoor), swimming
/diving
, wrestling
, squash
, golf
, lacrosse
, tennis
, baseball
, and softball
. Hopkins is a member of the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council
. and the Fairchester Athletic Association. Hopkins competes with many other private and boarding schools throughout New England and the north east
.
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
, college-preparatory, coeducational day school
Day school
A day school—as opposed to a boarding school—is an institution where children are given educational instruction during the day and after which children/teens return to their homes...
, located in New Haven
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
.
Founded in 1660, Hopkins School is the third-oldest independent secondary school in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, younger than the Collegiate School
Collegiate School
Collegiate School may refer to:*Bournemouth Collegiate School, Bournemouth, United Kingdom*Collegiate School *Collegiate School *Collegiate School...
and Roxbury Latin School
Roxbury Latin School
The Roxbury Latin School is the oldest school in continuous operation in North America. The school was founded in Roxbury, Massachusetts by the Rev. John Eliot under a charter received from King Charles I of England. Since its founding in 1645, it has educated boys on a continuous basis.Located...
. Hopkins was founded "for the breeding up of hopeful youths" with funds from Edward Hopkins
Edward Hopkins
Edward Hopkins was an English colonist and politician and Governor of the Connecticut Colony. Active on both sides of the Atlantic, he was a founder of the New Haven and Connecticut colonies, serving seven one-year terms as governor of Connecticut. He returned to England in the 1650s, where he...
' estate to fulfill John Davenport
John Davenport (clergyman)
John Davenport was an English puritan clergyman and co-founder of the American colony of New Haven.-Early life:Born in Manchester, Warwickshire, England to a wealthy family, Davenport was educated at Oxford University...
's wishes to bring a grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
to New Haven. First established on the town's green, the school moved to its current campus on a hill overlooking New Haven in 1926. Hopkins has been coeducational since merging with Day Prospect Hill in 1972.
Hopkins is divided into three separate schools. The Junior school
Junior school
A junior school is a type of school which caters for children, often between the ages of 7 and 11.-Australia:In Australia, a junior school is usually a part of a private school that educates children between the ages of 5 and 12....
consists of the 7th
Seventh grade
Seventh grade is a year of education in the United States and many other nations. The seventh grade is the seventh school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 12–13 years old. Traditionally, seventh grade was the next-to-last year of elementary school...
and 8th
Eighth grade
Eighth grade is a year of education in the United States, Canada, Australia and other nations. Students are usually 13 - 14 years old. The eighth grade is typically the final grade before high school, and the ninth grade of public and private education, following kindergarten and subsequent grades...
grades. The high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
is divided into the Middle (9th
Ninth grade
Ninth grade is the ninth post-kindergarten year of school education in some school systems. The students are 13 to 15 years of age, depending on when their birthday occurs. Depending on the school district, ninth grade is usually the first year of high school....
and 10th
Tenth grade
In majority of the world,Tenth grade is the tenth year of school post-kindergarten. The variants of "10th grade" in various nations is described below.-Australia:...
grade) and Upper (11th
Eleventh grade
Eleventh Grade is the eleventh, and for some countries final, grade of secondary schools. Students are typically 16 or 17 years of age, depending on the country and the students' birthdays.-Brazil:...
and 12th
Twelfth grade
Twelfth grade or Senior year, or Grade Twelve, are the North American names for the final year of secondary school. In most countries students then graduate at age 17 or 18. In some countries, there is a thirteenth grade, while other countries do not have a 12th grade/year at all...
grade) schools. Most new students enter Hopkins in either the 7th or 9th grade. Despite a $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
60,000,000 endowment
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
, Hopkins' tuition has increased substantially over recent years to fund new programs. Tuition is set at $32,500 for the 2010–11 school year. Approximately 18% of the students receive some degree of financial aid.
In April 2010, Forbes Magazine
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
named Hopkins the nineteenth best college preparatory school in the United States of America.
Founding
John DavenportJohn Davenport (clergyman)
John Davenport was an English puritan clergyman and co-founder of the American colony of New Haven.-Early life:Born in Manchester, Warwickshire, England to a wealthy family, Davenport was educated at Oxford University...
, a founder of the New Haven Colony
New Haven Colony
The New Haven Colony was an English colonial venture in present-day Connecticut in North America from 1637 to 1662.- Quinnipiac Colony :A Puritan minister named John Davenport led his flock from exile in the Netherlands back to England and finally to America in the spring of 1637...
, was an early proponent of education in the colony. Grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
s of the time generally prepared young men for college, but the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
colony was too far from England for its citizens to attend the existing English schools. Parents of the time were generally more concerned with spending their money on essentials such as food and viewed formal education as an extravagance most could not afford. Davenport enlisted the help of a friend, Edward Hopkins
Edward Hopkins
Edward Hopkins was an English colonist and politician and Governor of the Connecticut Colony. Active on both sides of the Atlantic, he was a founder of the New Haven and Connecticut colonies, serving seven one-year terms as governor of Connecticut. He returned to England in the 1650s, where he...
, governor of the Connecticut Colony
Connecticut Colony
The Connecticut Colony or Colony of Connecticut was an English colony located in British America that became the U.S. state of Connecticut. Originally known as the River Colony, it was organized on March 3, 1636 as a haven for Puritan noblemen. After early struggles with the Dutch, the English...
, to found a traditional grammar school that would teach Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, and Hebrew
Biblical Hebrew language
Biblical Hebrew , also called Classical Hebrew , is the archaic form of the Hebrew language, a Canaanite Semitic language spoken in the area known as Canaan between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Biblical Hebrew is attested from about the 10th century BCE, and persisted through...
grammar.
Executor
An executor, in the broadest sense, is one who carries something out .-Overview:...
s of Hopkins's will. They created the "Hopkins Fund" from which Hopkins Grammar School was established in 1660. The school's first home was a small building on the New Haven Green
New Haven Green
The New Haven Green is a privately owned park and recreation area located in the downtown district of the city of New Haven, Connecticut. It comprises the central square of the nine-square settlement plan of the original Puritan colonists in New Haven, and was designed and surveyed by colonist...
.
The exact date of Hopkins School's founding is a matter of definition. The historical record of the executors' report implies the trust was created on May 4, 1660, but since the Julian calendar
Julian calendar
The Julian calendar began in 45 BC as a reform of the Roman calendar by Julius Caesar. It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year .The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months...
was in use then, the date corresponds to May 14 on modern calendars. The papers which created the fund were presented and accepted on May 30, and many use this date as the official date of the school's founding. Finally, on June 4 (June 14 on modern calendars) Davenport transferred control of the bequest to the Colony, on the condition that the colony accept responsibility for the support of the school.
The Fallow Years
"The Fallow Years" is a term coined by Thomas B. Davis in his history Chronicles of Hopkins Grammar School to describe the period from 1696 to 1853. During this time the school had difficulty finding qualified schoolmasterSchoolmaster
A schoolmaster, or simply master, once referred to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British public schools, but is generally obsolete elsewhere.The teacher in charge of a school is the headmaster...
s, and the Fund often fell short in paying them. This forced the school to take up collections to meet its payroll. Consequently, there was great turnover in Hopkins schoolmasters, some staying for no more than a year. Also contributing to the problem was the establishment of the Collegiate School in New Haven in 1701, which later became Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. The Collegiate School drew many local academics away from Hopkins.
Public opinion of Hopkins and academia
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
in general weakened the school. During this time parents wanted children who could read and write
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and understand basic arithmetic
Arithmetic
Arithmetic or arithmetics is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics, used by almost everyone, for tasks ranging from simple day-to-day counting to advanced science and business calculations. It involves the study of quantity, especially as the result of combining numbers...
s, but Hopkins continued to focus on subjects that parents deemed irrelevant, such as Latin. Parents were also displeased with schoolmasters who paid little attention to struggling students instead focusing only on the scholars. On January 12, 1713, the committee which managed the Hopkins Fund began releasing £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
12–£15 annually to run elementary
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
English schools in East Haven
East Haven, Connecticut
East Haven is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 28,189. The town is just 3 minutes from downtown New Haven...
and West Haven
West Haven, Connecticut
West Haven is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 52,721.-History:...
. The town of New Haven stopped donating money to the Fund in 1719, which made hiring schoolmasters nearly impossible. Though the trustees of the Hopkins Fund constituted an independent body, the town was known to control them with financial pressures. Richard Mansfield served as schoolmaster from 1742 to 1747, and was the last headmaster until 1839 to serve for more than three years.
Although Hopkins School was still somewhat unpopular with the locals, the school moved to a new larger brick building on the Green, due to the growth of New Haven. Hopkins School was somewhat rare among American schools in that it remained open during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
. Former schoolmaster John Hotchkiss was killed by the British in July 1779 during their invasion of New Haven, and former schoolmaster Noah Williston was captured. Although the school remained open, records seem to indicate that it was frequently closed between September 1780 – October 1781 "for vacation". Shortly after the Revolution, Hopkins hired Jared Mansfield for two terms (first from 1786 to 1790, then 1790 to 1795) to the unique position "Master of the Grammar School" to try to stabilize the school for the future. In between Mansfield's two terms, Abraham Bishop held a six-month term as headmaster during which he proposed radical reform, including making Hopkins coeducational, most of which never came to fruition. After the end of Mansfield's second term, the school returned to the pattern of short tenures for schoolmasters.
Hopkins moved buildings again in 1803 to an even larger facility near the Green that took up nearly an entire block
City block
A city block, urban block or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest area that is surrounded by streets. City blocks are the space for buildings within the street pattern of a city, they form the basic unit of a city's urban fabric...
. Teachers were offered two-year contracts to teach at Hopkins, but rarely kept them. Hopkins boys grew "unruly and malicious", some roaming New Haven streets at night. In 1838 the school moved once again, as the trustees believed that moving the school away from the town center would allow its students to focus more on their studies. Throughout August and September that year, they rushed through the necessary transactions to buy the new plot of land, currently the site of the Yale Law School
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...
. Following this move the trustees released an announcement to New Haven's three newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s summarizing their hope that this new location would provide sufficient space for the boys to learn and be separate enough that they could do so in peace.
As soon as Hawley Olmstead left, the school began to deteriorate once again, with attendance dropping to 45 students in 1850 and farther down to 20 by 1853. In addition, the recently founded debate society
Debate
Debate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
disbanded, with seven young members forming the secret society
Secret society
A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...
known as "The Club". Though this club grew no larger and tried to remain quiet, parents grew so annoyed with this supposedly "rough-housing" club that it was forced to disband in 1851. After the debate society and "The Club" were gone, many students sought out new ways to express their literary interests, including founding the school newspaper "The Critic." Hawley's successor, Edward Olmstead, was seen by the trustees as a major failure and a cause of the school's rapid decline and was quickly replaced by James Whiton, who had just recently graduated from Yale. He further revised the curriculum by adding more English to it, and school attendance saw a rapid increase once again. Whiton taught for ten years and is regarded as the last of the "Fallow Years" headmasters.
Modern day
Headmaster George Lovell convinced the Board of Trustees to buy land north of New Haven for a new campus atop a hill in 1925. Graduate Henry Murphy had laid out plans for the new campus in 1922, and designed the original building Baldwin Hall in 1925. The school opened at the new premises, the present campus, in 1926. Baldwin Hall was the only building, but the campus expanded greatly over the next century. Hopkins had begun to refer to itself without "Grammar School" in the casual name by 1935, though it is still included on certain formal occasions and school stationeryStationery
Stationery has historically meant a wide gamut of materials: paper and office supplies, writing implements, greeting cards, glue, pencil case etc.-History of stationery:...
to this day. Two local women's schools — the Day School (founded in 1907) and the Prospect Hill School (founded in 1930) — merged in 1960. The combined institution became the Day Prospect Hill School (DPH), a united women's education school, which in turn merged with Hopkins School in 1972. Trustee president Vince Calarco and headmaster Tim Rodd led Hopkins to buy a further 50 acres (20.2 ha) of land at its current location to establish 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 in 1992. In recent years alumnus John C. Malone
John C. Malone
John C. Malone is an American businessman and philanthropist. He served as chief executive officer of cable and media giant, Tele-Communications Inc. , for twenty-four years from 1973–1996. Malone is now chairman of Liberty Media and CEO of Discovery Holding Company. He was the interim CEO...
, a wealthy telecommunications entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
, has donated more than $25 million for new construction, the financial aid program, and forming the endowment.
Facilities
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
. Baldwin houses a computer lab, the language lab, the school store, and the recently renovated Library. Baldwin was renovated in 2000 and had additional work done on the exterior in the summer of 2005. The library is a two floor, 14000 square feet (1,300.6 m²), library with group study rooms, an art gallery, and a faculty reading room. Hopkins House houses the administrative offices, teachers' offices, the teachers' lounge, and classrooms in the basement. This building was named for Edward Hopkins, one of the founders of Hopkins School. Day Prospect Hill (DPH) is the former home of the Day Prospect girls' school. DPH had housed a computer lab and classrooms mostly used by the Junior School. It was connected to the Arts Center, which houses Hopkins' art classrooms, and the "Old Gym," which once held climbing equipment and a sound module, and in which squash courts were installed in 2010. In the winter of 09-10, DPH and the Arts Center were torn down and have been turned into a parking lot.
Lovell Hall is a recently remodeled building next to Heath and between Hopkins House and the Old Gym. Lovell houses the main school auditorium, art and music classrooms, and teachers' offices. This building is named after longtime headmaster George Lovell, who led the school in the first half of the 20th century. Malone Science Center is at the center of the Hopkins' campus and houses the science classrooms and labs
Laboratory
A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. The title of laboratory is also used for certain other facilities where the processes or equipment used are similar to those in scientific laboratories...
. Donated by John C. Malone
John C. Malone
John C. Malone is an American businessman and philanthropist. He served as chief executive officer of cable and media giant, Tele-Communications Inc. , for twenty-four years from 1973–1996. Malone is now chairman of Liberty Media and CEO of Discovery Holding Company. He was the interim CEO...
, it is named for Malone's father. It was opened for students in 1999 and has three floors of classrooms.
Heath Commons is a two-story building that houses the school cafeteria and a student lounge. This building was also donated by John Malone and named for his favorite teacher while at Hopkins, John Heath. Heath Commons was designed by the S/L/A/M collaborative. It was completed in 2003 and won a Connecticut Design Award in 2005. Heath also houses the kitchens and dining hall, multipurpose rooms, and advisors' offices.
The Walter Camp Athletic Center is named after alumnus Walter Camp
Walter Camp
Walter Chauncey Camp was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". With John Heisman, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Pop Warner, Fielding H. Yost, and George Halas, Camp was one of the most accomplished persons in the early history of American football...
, who is credited with inventing American football and later was Yale's football coach. The Athletic Center has two floors of gyms, a pool, a trainer
Athletic trainer
An athletic trainer is a certified, health care professional who practices in the field of sports medicine. Athletic training has been recognized by the American Medical Association as an allied health care profession since 1990....
, and coaches office. The first floor is largely made up of three standard-sized basketball court
Basketball court
In basketball, the basketball court is the playing surface, consisting of a rectangular floor with tiles at either end. In professional or organized basketball, especially when played indoors, it is usually made out of a wood, often maple, and highly polished...
s. Dividers between these courts are removed and the united room is used for all-school assemblies. The second floor includes smaller weight rooms and training areas including the wrestling room. The old Reigeluth Gym has been converted and renamed the Kneisel Squash Center in 2010. Before the Camp Athletic Center, this was the main athletic facility at Hopkins
Formerly the site of the upper playing fields, a new quad and Junior School building, named Thompson Hall, was opened on 30 November 2009. The former Junior School and Arts building (formerly the locker rooms and other athletic support facilities) was torn down in January 2010 and made into a parking lot. New fields opened in 2007 which replaced those that Thompson Hall now stands on.
Academics
Matriculation
Matriculation, in the broadest sense, means to be registered or added to a list, from the Latin matricula – little list. In Scottish heraldry, for instance, a matriculation is a registration of armorial bearings...
, testing is done to place students at the appropriate level of instruction in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
s. Hopkins' academics are broken into departments
Academic department
An academic department is a division of a university or school faculty devoted to a particular academic discipline. This article covers United States usage at the university level....
including English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
, mathematics, science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
, modern language, classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
, and computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
. Each of the three class levels — Lower, Middle, and Upper — has a different level of choice in classes.
The Arts Department is made up of student organizations and academic classes in studio and performance art. A number of student groups feature performing arts; a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
groups such as the Harmonaires, Triple Trio, and Spirens; theater groups such as the Hopkins Drama Association; and a variety of choral
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
and instrumental performance groups. A gallery room in Baldwin holds shows of student and teacher art.
The English department is the only department in which Hopkins requires a student have at least one class in every semester. Upper-class students have two required semester classes: a college-prep writing course and a Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
-centered course. The history department core is the Atlantic Communities series that focus on Europe, the Americas, and West Africa between 1450 and modern times. In addition, elective courses go into detail on subjects such as political science, regional studies, philosophy and ethics. Advanced Placement courses are offered in United States History, European History, and Human Geography. The language department is divided into two subdepartments: the Classics, which teaches Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
and Latin; and Modern Languages, which teaches all other languages (French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
are currently offered).
The mathematics department offers study from pre-algebra to Linear Algebra
Linear algebra
Linear algebra is a branch of mathematics that studies vector spaces, also called linear spaces, along with linear functions that input one vector and output another. Such functions are called linear maps and can be represented by matrices if a basis is given. Thus matrix theory is often...
, Multivariable Calculus
Multivariable calculus
Multivariable calculus is the extension of calculus in one variable to calculus in more than one variable: the differentiated and integrated functions involve multiple variables, rather than just one....
, Differential Equations and Chaos Theory
Chaos theory
Chaos theory is a field of study in mathematics, with applications in several disciplines including physics, economics, biology, and philosophy. Chaos theory studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, an effect which is popularly referred to as the...
. The science department has three main tracks — Biology, Chemistry, and Physics — along which students can take entry-level courses and then more advanced AP
Advanced Placement Program
The Advanced Placement program is a curriculum in the United States and Canada sponsored by the College Board which offers standardized courses to high school students that are generally recognized to be equivalent to undergraduate courses in college...
and Honors courses. There are numerous one-off courses in subjects such as Introduction to Psychology, Human Reproduction, or Environmental Studies
Environmental studies
Environmental studies is the academic field which systematically studies human interaction with the environment. It is a broad interdisciplinary field of study that includes the natural environment, built environment, and the sets of relationships between them...
. The computer science department offers basic computing courses in HTML and Java.
School ends every Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on other days. This extra time is generally used to schedule "away" sports meets, to allow for travel time. Hopkins adopted a modified block scheduling
Block scheduling
Block scheduling is a type of academic scheduling in which each student has fewer classes per day but each class is scheduled for a longer period of time . A student might be taking 7 different classes, but only 4 per day, and the specific daily classes would rotate through a changing daily cycle...
system in 2005, giving each class 55 minutes rather than 40 minutes. Each student has two weekly class schedules ("maroon week" and "grey week", named for the school's colors) which alternate throughout the school year.
Graduation requirements
Hopkins' one-room Latin grammar schoolGrammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
history is still reflected in graduation requirements. Every student is required to take an English course every semester, and Junior Schoolers are required to take Latin along with whichever other language they may take, if any. In addition to classical education, Hopkins requires three years of math courses and three years of a language, the completion of Atlantic Communities II and Atlantic Communities III (history courses which total a year and a half), and two years of science coursework. However, this only makes up a fraction of a student's total graduation credit requirement, while the rest is fulfilled by elective and advanced courses in any of the various departments.
Student privileges
Students have varying levels of power and responsibility at Hopkins, based upon what grade they are in and what leadership positions they hold. Lower classmen are 7th and 8th graders who study primarily in Thompson Hall, separated from the rest of the school. In addition, they have their own separate athletic teams and student organizations. Lower classmen have few privileges, though they can vote for certain Student Council posts and participate in the Junior School sports teams and student organizations of their choosing.Middle classmen are the two younger grades of standard American
Education in the United States
Education in the United States is mainly provided by the public sector, with control and funding coming from three levels: federal, state, and local. Child education is compulsory.Public education is universally available...
high school, 9th and 10th grade. In addition to lower-class privileges, Middle classmen can begin designing their own schedules, choosing a few elective courses as opposed to the nearly completely pre-designed schedules of the Junior School. Middle classmen may also participate in general school teams and organizations.
Upperclassmen are the older two grades of American high school, 11th and 12th grade. Upperclassmen have nearly complete control over their own schedules as they begin to fulfill their graduation requirements in departments and move on to study topics of their own interest. Upperclassmen can also apply for a parking space and the ability to leave campus periodically. Juniors
Eleventh grade
Eleventh Grade is the eleventh, and for some countries final, grade of secondary schools. Students are typically 16 or 17 years of age, depending on the country and the students' birthdays.-Brazil:...
can run for Student Council president at the end of their Junior year; and Seniors
Twelfth grade
Twelfth grade or Senior year, or Grade Twelve, are the North American names for the final year of secondary school. In most countries students then graduate at age 17 or 18. In some countries, there is a thirteenth grade, while other countries do not have a 12th grade/year at all...
can create a "Senior Project", a self-designed path of study replacing several courses he would otherwise be taking in the second semester. Starting with the 2006–07 school year, Seniors are excused from all second term spring exams, replacing them with a required four-day long community service project. For the 2006–07 school year, that project is building houses for Habitat for Humanity.
Student Council
The Student Council (or STUCO) is the student government of Hopkins. The setup of Hopkins' Student Council models the United States government. Each middle and upper school class elects four representatives and a class president at the end of the previous year. Eighth-graders elect two of their 9th-grade representatives and their president at the end of 8th grade, then the final two representatives once the generally large group of students has joined Hopkins in the 9th grade. In the 2004–05 school year, the Junior school added their own section to the student council. Each class also elects representatives from individual advisor groups to comprise the Class Council, which deals with class activities and fundraisers.The highest position in the Student Council is the Student Council President, a student elected at the end of their junior year to run the Council during their senior year. The president organizes school-wide fundraisers, delivers a speech at most assemblies, and holds some ceremonial graduation
Graduation
Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...
duties. Each class functions like a state with a legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
of advisor group representatives with the class president as a Governor. Class representatives act as a Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
that deals with school-wide issues with the STUCO President fulfilling the Presidential
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
role.
Extracurricular activities
In addition to traditional school organizations such as the student newspaper and yearbook
Yearbook
A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a book to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school or a book published annually. Virtually all American, Australian and Canadian high schools, most colleges and many elementary and middle schools publish yearbooks...
, Hopkins focuses strongly on community service especially within the New Haven community itself. The Student government runs school-wide events such as a fundraiser for the Connecticut Food Bank
Connecticut Food Bank
The Connecticut Food Bank is a food bank headquartered in East Haven, Connecticut. According to their motto, the bank's sole mission is to "alleviate hunger."...
, but the bulk of Hopkins community service happens through clubs. Hopkins' umbrella community service organization is called Maroon Key. Both the diversity clubs (including a racial equality
Racial equality
Racial equality means different things in different contexts. It mostly deals with an equal regard to all races.It can refer to a belief in biological equality of all human races....
club, a Gay-Straight Alliance
Gay-straight alliance
Gay–straight alliances are student organizations, found primarily in North American high schools and universities, that are intended to provide a safe and supportive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth and their straight allies .-Goal:The goal of most, if not all,...
, and a gender equality group) and specific service clubs such as Habitat for Humanity organize a variety of fundraisers and events throughout the year. While not a graduation requirement, community service is an essential aspect of Hopkins life.
Hopkins hosts Breakthrough New Haven (an affiliate of the Breakthrough Collaborative
Breakthrough Collaborative
Breakthrough Collaborative is the umbrella organization of a collaborative of programs across the United States and in Hong Kong that aim to affect positive change in urban schools...
), a program that includes both academic enrichment for middle school students and teacher training for high school and college students. Breakthrough operates an after-school program during the school year and an intensive six-week academic Summer Program during the summer. Hopkins School opens all of the campus not being used by regular summer school
Summer school
Summer school is a school, or a program generally sponsored by a school or a school district, that teaches students during the summer vacation....
programs to Breakthrough. Breakthrough students are seventh and eighth graders from New Haven public and parochial schools.
Athletics
Team sport
A team sport includes any sport which involves players working together towards a shared objective. A team sport is an activity in which a group of individuals, on the same team, work together to accomplish an ultimate goal which is usually to win. This can be done in a number of ways such as...
if they make the team, an intramural sport, or an independent sport where the student participates in a school-approved athletic activity such as martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
lessons. Seniors may also take one season off and not take any athletic for that season. Sports offered at Hopkins vary depending on the season and include cross country
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...
, soccer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
, water polo
Water polo
Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...
, 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...
, football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, 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...
, volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
, 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...
, fencing
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
, track
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
(both outdoor and indoor), swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
/diving
Diving
Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one...
, wrestling
Scholastic wrestling
Scholastic wrestling, sometimes known in the United States as Folkstyle wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practised at the high school and middle school levels in the United States. This wrestling style is essentially Collegiate wrestling with some slight modifications. It is currently...
, squash
Squash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
, 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....
, 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...
, 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...
, and 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...
. Hopkins is a member of the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council
New England Preparatory School Athletic Council
The New England Preparatory School Athletic Council was founded in 1942 as an organization of athletic directors from preparatory schools in New England.-Member schools:* The Albany Academy* American School for the Deaf* Applewild School...
. and the Fairchester Athletic Association. Hopkins competes with many other private and boarding schools throughout New England and the north east
Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau.-Composition:The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New...
.