Our Front Door is Open

How to make the most of your time at our admission open house

This is the season of Admission Open Houses at schools like The Governor’s Academy. It is an interesting concept to welcome prospective students and their families to spend some time on a campus outside of the typical tour and interview visit, and it is often very helpful for applicants as each considers educational options. While the term “open house” is used at several schools, the schedule or program varies from one to another, and I thought it may be helpful to give some general advice about how to take advantage of your time at ours.

The term “open house” comes from the idea of welcoming guests into one’s home either to meet those who live there or to see the interior if there is a plan to sell the property. In both, there is an effort at transparency for the guest. In the former, the point of emphasis is on relationships with those in the family, and in the latter, it is on the form and quality of the structure. Open houses in schools often try to accomplish both. At many schools you will have a chance to spend time with a student tour guide and to see the spaces that are most impressive. Often panels are assembled to provide information from faculty or students on topics the admission team thinks may be most helpful.

If you come to The Governor’s Academy’s Admission Open House this Saturday, October 5, you will certainly see impressive structures as the facilities available to our students are attractive and provide for engaging and excellent programming. However, I would offer that our open house is intentionally built around the chance for a prospective student to engage in a conversation-or, better, several-with our faculty and students. We will certainly help you find your way around campus, and we will encourage you to spend time in our new Alfond Coastal Research Center, but we will not tell you where to go nor will we bring you to an area where chosen members of the community have been asked to speak on a subject. Instead, we will give you a map of our campus and help you find those you wish to hear from and talk to at our school. We will have all of our faculty here, albeit in two shifts. We will have students with our faculty in classrooms or with their athletic team coaches and performing arts directors, and we will have students, parents, and administrators all around campus to help you find the people you seek. In many ways, we are opening our front door, letting you know that everyone is inside, and encouraging us to join us-to be part of the family-for a few hours.

If you are coming to Govs this weekend, I will offer this advice. Think about what you love to do-or what you feel you are good at in school or outside of it-and be ready to talk to students and faculty who share the same passion. Bring questions. Be prepared to both listen and to talk—and to laugh! We will certainly highlight our achievements and those accolades we have earned, but you will also note that we enjoy a good smile and a fun story. If you are most interested in one conversation, you may have that and not feel you are sneaking out of the next planned event. We know life is busy. If you have time, I would encourage you to move from the conversation you have with those at Govs who share a similar passion to other places that may come to represent what you are good at in life instead of what you are better than your peers at this moment. You will find in those places on campus the same optimism, engagement, and connection you found at your first stop. Oh, and bring comfortable clothes and footwear. While you will not traverse all 465 acres of our campus, you will get your steps in on Saturday!

I look forward to seeing more than 200 families on our campus this weekend, and if it rains, well, we will make our own sunshine. Come and meet the Govs Family, and I trust that you will leave understanding how you, too, can both excel and be a part of a connected community here for the rest of your high school years.

To register for Open House, click here. 
 

Author: Mike Kinnealey, Assistant Head of School and Dean of Enrollment