Boarding Program Update: Fall 2023

By Josie Ross, Director of Boarding Program

This fall, the SSFS dorm welcomed 18 students new to boarding and 7 staff new to our boarding program. With so many new faces in our community, we have started the year with a strong focus on learning and re-learning our residential life rules and expectations.  We have worked to spend time together as a community on campus, from our weekly Sunday night dorm meetings, where we established dorm norms, created roommate agreements, and shared updates and celebrations, to Tuesday night community dinner, where our staff and students spend a meal together family style.  

Off-campus, we went to the Smithsonian National Zoo to visit the pandas before they returned home, spent an evening in friendly competition at the bowling alley, and saw a performance of “Look Both Ways” by Jason Reynolds at the Kennedy Center. For our Halloween celebration, students carved pumpkins, participated in a costume contest and a door-decorating contest, went trick or treating on campus, and ended the night in my backyard for a bonfire with s’mores and mulled apple cider (a Ross family tradition!).  

As we return from Thanksgiving Break, we turn our attention to the winter holidays and setting a solid academic foundation for the second quarter.  Does your family celebrate a winter holiday?  Encourage your student to share their traditions with the dorm community! 

If your family is considering moving to boarding for next school year, contact our admissions team to schedule a dorm visit this winter.