Berwick Academy
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| Berwick Academy | |
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Dei Timor Initium Sapiente
(Latin: Fear of God is the start of knowledge) |
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| Location | |
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| South Berwick, Maine, United States | |
| Information | |
| Religion | none |
| Headmaster | Greg Schneider |
| Enrollment |
602 |
| Faculty | Approx. 75 |
| Average class size | 14 students |
| Student:teacher ratio | 8:1 |
| Average SAT scores (2004) | 588 Verbal 603 Math |
| Type | Private, Day |
| Campus | Rural, 72 Acres, 11 Buildings |
| Athletics | 13 Interscholastic Sports 27 Interscholastic Teams |
| Athletics conference | Eastern Independent League |
| Mascot | Bulldog |
| Color(s) | Blue and White |
| Established | 1791 |
| Homepage | [http://www.berwickacademy.org |
Berwick Academy is a competitive, private, coeducational college preparatory/country day school located in South Berwick, Maine. Founded in 1791, it is the oldest school in Maine and one of the oldest private day schools in America. The school sits on a 72-acre, 11-building campus on a hilltop overlooking the Salmon Falls River. Approximately 600 students in grades K through 12 attend the school from nearby regions of southern Maine, southeastern New Hampshire and northeastern Massachusetts.
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[edit] History
Berwick Academy is the oldest educational institution in Maine, predating the State of Maine by almost 30 years. In 1791, the citizens of Berwick, York, and Wells (then villages in the Maine Territory of Massachusetts) raised $500 to teach languages, liberal arts and sciences to "the deplorable youth in this part of the country." They appealed to the Massachusetts Legislature to incorporate a school. Later that year Massachusetts Governor John Hancock signed a charter creating an academy for the purpose of "promoting true piety and virtue and useful knowledge among the rising generation."
At this time the Academy consisted of a single schoolhouse: a simple, hip-roofed Georgian house on land donated by Judge Benjamin Chadbournes. Known simply as "the 1791 House", today it is home to the Academy's admissions office.
Before and after Maine achieved statehood, the Academy served a dual role as college preparatory school and regional comprehensive high school. As the surrounding region grew, expansion was necessary to accomplish this dual purpose. In 1894 the William Hayes Fogg Memorial Building, a Romanesque Revival edifice built by architect George A. Clough, was completed and housed both the Academy and the South Berwick Public Library. Complete with electricity and state-of-the-art science labs, and landscaped by the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted, it became the primary Academy building, as it remains today.
Up until the 1950s, the town of South Berwick contracted with the school to educate local students. By 1955, Berwick reverted to a completely private status with an exclusive college preparatory program in accordance with the intent of the Academy's founders. Berwick became a boarding school for boys, with a day department for girls, and expanded its facility by acquiring land for playing fields and old homes for dormitories. A new gymnasium and a commons building (housing a dining hall and science laboratories) were completed in the mid-Sixties.
In the Seventies Berwick transformed from a boarding academy to a country day school, although it was neither historically nor academically part of the Country Day School movement. A day Middle School was founded in 1971 and a Lower School in 1977. Student boarding was discontinued from 1976. Berwick has since occupied a somewhat unique academic position between traditional English-model prep schools and the more progressive country day schools - but it has a longer history than most prep schools and all country day schools.
Berwick has continued to expand over the past 25 years: the new Whipple Arts Center was dedicated in 1985; Kendall Lower School and Clement Middle School were dedicated in 1988 and 1994, respectively; a new Athletic Facility opened in 1997; the Jeppesen Science Center opened in 1999, and the new Jackson Library opened in 2002. (The Athletic Facility was originally named in honor of former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski, who was the principle donor behind the complex; the name was changed in 2003 after Kozlowski was implicated in a corporate scandal and sentenced to prison.)
[edit] Organization
The school is governed by a Board of Trustees, with a Headmaster in charge of fundraising and the day-to-day operation of the Academy. The Academy's three subsidiary schools are headed by Division Directors.
[edit] Academics
The Academy is divided into three schools: the Lower School (grades K-4), the Middle School (grades 5-8) and the Upper School (grades 9-12). The academic calendar is divided into semesters and quarters; students typically taking year-long classes, with the exception of certain Upper School electives limited to a semester in length. Students follow a rigorous academic program combining classical education with the latest technology. In keeping with Berwick's mission of "educating the whole person," subjects of study are diverse and include Liberal Arts, Sciences, Fine Arts, Music and Mathematics. The Academy has implemented "Learning with Tablets", a one-to-one notebook program, which requires each student to purchase a tablet PC in the seventh grade.
[edit] College Placement
Berwick has traditionally educated its students for Bowdoin, Bates and Colby, but graduates now matriculate at a variety of top-ranked colleges in the United States. The Ivy League, "Little Ivies" and other similarly selective institutions are all popular destinations.
[edit] Athletics
As an integral part of the Academy's mission to "educate the whole person", participation in sports is generally required for grade advancement. Students are required to play three sports through-out their Middle School experience. (Students pursuing other extracurricular activities, such as drama or dance, may obtain athletics waivers in Upper School.) Upper School students compete interscholastically; Lower school students compete intramurally; Middle School students do a bit of both.
Berwick currently fields teams in soccer, cross country, golf, ice hockey, swimming, skiing, basketball, lacrosse, baseball, softball and tennis. Teams compete in the Eastern Independent League and New England Preparatory School Athletic Council and are divided by gender and skill level. The boys and girls' lacrosse teams are traditionally competitive, and boys' ice hockey is a perennial power.
Interscholastic sports teams are known as the "Bulldogs", though during the Academy's years as a boarding school the nickname "Vikings" was used.
[edit] Notable alumni
Some notable alumni of Berwick Academy include:
- Gardiner Spring (1785-1873), religious reformer, author of the Gardiner Spring Resolutions of 1861, which required American Presbyterian pastors to swear political allegiance to the Union at the dawn of the Civil War
- Usher Parsons (1788-1868), professor of anatomy and surgery at Dartmouth Medical School, and one of the first professors at Brown Medical School
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-82), 19th century poet (Paul Revere's Ride, A Psalm of Life, The Song of Hiawatha, Evangeline). Reputed to have attended Berwick before going to Bowdoin College, but this remains unproven.
- John Holmes Burleigh (1822-77), U.S. Congressman from Maine
- John Noble Goodwin (1824-87) U.S. Congressman from Maine, Congressional Delegate from Arizona Territory, Chief Justice of Arizona Territory, and the first Governor of Arizona
- Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909), 19th century novelist, author of A Country Doctor (1884), The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), other books
- Marcia Oakes Woodbury (1865-1913), turn-of-the-century American painter and wife of marine painter Charles Herbert Woodbury
- Gladys Hasty Carroll (1904-99), bestselling author of As the Earth Turns and other books
- Casey Coleman (1951-2006), Cleveland, Ohio television personality for 30 years
- Mike Eruzione (1954-present), captain of the gold medal-winning 1980 U.S. Olympic Men's Hockey Team
- Mark Andres (1959-present), painter, illustrator of the Bert & I books by Marshall Dodge and Robert Bryan
- Albert A. Simpler, pioneer of solar energy technology
- Sam Fuld (1981-present), major league baseball player.
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