Q: How does a boarding school environment help nurture a student’s holistic development?
A: “It’s really our responsibility to be their parents while they’re away from home. They’re with us 24/7, so if we’re just educating them academically, we’re not doing our jobs,” says Melissa Nipper, dean of academics, guidance and college placement at Grand River Academy. “These years are so important. It’s really when the kids become adults. We have faculty and staff living on campus, so you can’t help but form these relationships. With those relationships comes respect, comes caring, comes that sense of community, comes that development of empathy. We have a whole student life program that we get them involved in, and we have an honor code-signing ceremony where we talk about the sense of honor and community among all of us.”