Park Tudor School
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Park Tudor School is a co-educational, independent private school for grades Pre-K through 12 in the Meridian Hills neighborhood of Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Park Tudor was formed in 1970 when Reginald Pilkington, a teacher at Tudor Hall (founded in 1902 as an all girls' school)helped the school merge with Park School (founded in 1914 as an all boys' school, formerly known as the Brooks Preparatory School). There are currently (March 2007) approximately 1,000 students enrolled at the school, of which 400 are in grades 9-12.
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[edit] History
The Park Tudor campus is located at the former site of the Lilly Orchard and was donated to the school by Eli Lilly, Jr., and Josiah Lilly. There is still in fact an apple store on the campus, though the apples are now brought from nearby orchards. The campus consists of several buildings chiefly arranged as a quadrangle. Among them are Foster Hall (c. 1925) which was built by Eli Lilly, Jr. to house his collection of Stephen Foster manuscripts. More recently constructed are the Hilbert Early Education Center (1997), the Lower School (1967), the Middle School (1988), the Jane Holton Upper School (1970), Frederick M. Ayres Auditorium (1976), the Fine Arts Building (1976), Allen W. Clowes Commons (1967), and the Ruth Lilly Science Center (1989). Park Tudor has numerous athletic facilities, including three gymnasiums, an artificial turf football field, and a baseball field. With annual tuition exceeding $16,000, Park Tudor is the most expensive non-boarding private school in Indiana.
[edit] Academics
Graduates of the Park Tudor attend some of America's best universities and liberal arts colleges, with 100% of graduates attending college every year. According to the school's website, 98% of students attend one of their top three colleges of choice. 95% of young alumni surveyed say they were prepared enough for college through the exceptional education they had received at Park Tudor. In 2007, the 93.5-member graduating class declined nearly $1.5 million in college scholarships from nearly $5 million offered. In the 2006 graduating class, there are Park Tudor graduates currently attending institutions including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Brown, NYU, Wash U., Yale, Notre Dame, Miami U., Cornell, Vanderbilt, Emory, Tufts, Northwestern, Georgetown, and Boston College. The school offers Advanced Placement courses and boasted the highest SAT average among all schools statewide in 2006.
Instead of an established International Baccalaureate (IB) program, Park Tudor is home to the state's only Global Scholars program. A significant number of students choose to undergo this rigorous program in grades 11 and 12 as a way to challenge themselves beyond the normal requirements of the school. As part of the program, students must also complete 200 hours of community service, take two years of a Philosophies of Knowing course, and obtain a grade of 3 or higher on five AP exams (including at least one foreign language exam). These requirements aside, the most daunting part of the program to most students is the 2-year research project. Students must thoroughly research a topic of their choosing with the help of a mentor (often a professional involved with the project topic), and hand in a written report in the spring of their senior year. They must then complete a presentation of their findings before a board and audience, complete with a Q&A session. This program is considered by some to be harder than the IB program because of the additional community service requirements (200 hrs) and the fact that the work assigned by the program is done in addition to the regular work needed to attain a diploma, which is not the case with the IB, a very distinguished and reputable program itself.
Park Tudor students have won numerous awards in regional, national and international academic competitions. In 1998, a Park Tudor student, Chris Mihelich, was the winner of the Siemens Westinghouse Competition, the U.S. math and science competition for high school students. Melanie Wood, from Park Tudor, was the first female (ever) on the U.S. Math Olympiad team.
[edit] Clubs and Academic Teams
Students of Park Tudor are involved in a variety of typical and unusual clubs, including the highly successful Speech and Debate team, Brain Game, Model United Nations, and Spanish club. Park Tudor is one of six schools in the United States that is invited to participate in The Hague International Model United Nations conference every year. Each year also brings new clubs catering to various interests, such as Anime club, Guitar club, Ping-Pong club and Philosophy club, ensuring that there is always something new to experience on any given day for curious students. Park Tudor's Brain Game team is particularly renowned, having won the championship in nine of the last twelve years. Most recently, the team of captain Kathryn Crabb, James Lipshaw, Karl Selm, Michael Harris, and alternate Tom Schroeder, and coached by Mr. David Kivela and Mrs. Joanne Black, defeated Hamilton Southeastern High School by a score of 50-38 to win the 2007 Westfield Insurance Brain Game tournament. The Indiana Academic Super Bowl competition was also a competition in which Park Tudor has excelled at in recent years. In 2007, Park Tudor took all six teams (Science, Fine Arts, English, Math, Social Studies, and Interdisciplinary) to the state finals in Academic Super Bowl. Not only had this feat never been achieved by Park Tudor before, the Interdisciplinary team also won the state title in that category.
[edit] Panther Athletics
Park Tudor holds numerous state championships in women's tennis, including those in 2005, 2006 and in 2007; numerous individual tennis singles state champions; six state championships in boys' tennis since 1990 including 2006; a state championship in 2006 for women's lacrosse; a state baseball championship; and two individual championships in the 400 meter in state track. The Park Tudor men's lacrosse team recorded the only undefeated season in state history on its way to the 2001 state title.
The Park Tudor Hockey team won AAAA state championships in four consecutive years, 1994-1997, 1999, 2001, and won the first ever AAAAA state championship in 2002. In addition, the Panthers clinched the Midwest Prep League title in 2001 and 2002.
[edit] Arts and Drama
The arts and drama of Park Tudor have excelled dramatically in recent years. The Middle School recently sold out their performance of "Willy Wonka, Jr" in April of 2008, the first sell out in middle school history! Grades 7 and 8 perform an annual musical (recent productions include Aladdin, The Music Man, HONK!, and Free to Be You and Me...), while the Upper School has both an annual fall play (The Good Doctor, Peter Pan, Death Takes a Holiday) and a spring musical (Oklahoma!, Cinderella, Footloose, Once Upon A Mattress). The art department, school band, choir, orchestra, and jazz ensembles have each had similarly impressive annual performances. Park Tudor competes annually in Indiana State School Music Association competitions. The Visual Arts department is strong with many of its students receiving Gold and Silver Keys at the regional level of the Scholastic Art Competition. A former student even received the American Vision Award, a national award given to less than 20 talented students.
