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Avery Loew, a rising senior at Hopkinton High School, raises her hand in her Law and Governance class at the Advanced Studies Program at St. Paul’s School on July 18. -
Merrimack Valley student Tim Gordon in his molecular biology class at the Advanced Studies Program at St. Paul’s School on July 18. -
Bow High School student Will Albushies looks over his Spanish book during his Advanced Studies Program at St. Paul’s School on July 18. -
Tess Lavoie, a rising senior at Bishop Brady High School from Allenstown performs in an Advanced Studies Program production for her “major” course, Mysteries of the Ancient World.
Earlier this month, New Hampshire federal judge Joseph Laplante passed along a last-minute message to administrators of a high school program at Concord’s St. Paul’s School: His courtroom was about to become the national epicenter of the fallout from President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, and Laplante, an alumnus of the program, thought this year’s students ought to be there.
That is how Avery Loew, a rising senior at Hopkinton High School, found herself on the packed wooden benches of Laplante’s courtroom on July 10. Loew, who is considering becoming a lawyer, had never before been to New Hampshire’s federal court.
That day, Laplante temporarily blocked the executive order from going into effect in a decision that made national news.
“Obviously, it’s such a big topic right now, and it was just really interesting to see it in federal court,” Loew said in an interview a week later.
She got the opportunity through a course called Law & Governance, one of 15 offered during St. Paul’s Advanced Studies Program. The five-week program convened 180 of the brightest rising high school juniors and seniors in the state this year for an intense month of learning and living on the prep school campus.
Though many boarding schools host summer programs for high school students, the Advanced Studies Program is believed to be the only one in the country that caters exclusively to students from the school’s home state, according to program director Michelle Taffe. This year, the students came from 61 public and parochial schools, spanning from Berlin to Nashua.
For many students, the program — which began in 1958 — is a longtime bucket list item passed down by older siblings and friends. Others have never heard about the program before receiving encouragement to apply from a guidance counselor or teacher.
Alumni say the month spent with fellow Granite Staters can prove life-changing, shaping career trajectories and college pursuits and connecting students with lifelong friends. Taffe, who grew up in Nashua, is an alumnus herself. She went on to work in independent schools, including teaching French, which she studied during the program.
“It just was mind-blowing to me,” Taffe said of the summer in 1985 she spent at St. Paul’s. “The way this looked, to be in a classroom where kids really wanted to learn, to be with kids who are really smart and talented. I didn’t realize how talented individuals could be.”
The days are long but the program flies by, this year’s students said. Just as during St. Paul’s academic year, students attend classes six days per week starting at 8:45 a.m. Every student enrolls in a “major” course and a writing workshop. In the afternoons, they participate in recreational activities, such as trail running and badminton. The day ends with a two-hour study block before students head to their dorms.
Will Albushies, a rising senior at Bow High School, said the unstructured time at the end of the day has become a highlight.
“The camaraderie is great in the basement when everybody’s there together and we’re each having a different conversation, but we’re all still there together,” said Albushies, who is studying advanced Spanish.
In a break from routine, students gather on Saturday nights for activities in the student center or to attend a dance. Maddie Short, a rising senior at Concord High School, gave rave reviews.
“It’s better than any of my high school dances; that’s for sure,” Short said. “We got to prom — no one danced for like an hour. But here it’s like the second we walked in, everyone’s ready to have fun.”
Students said they were blown away by how quickly they formed deep connections with each other. Although New Hampshire is relatively small, the program offered a window into the surprisingly different ways people in other parts of the state lived. Two of the friends Short has met are from Hanover and Lebanon.
“They go into Vermont to get home, and that’s just bizarre to me because I am in the center of New Hampshire,” Short said. “Especially the first few days, that was kind of all we talked about.”
The “major” course forms the bread and butter of the program. Some students, like Loew, explore a professional interest through their course selection. Others take a different approach.
“I have a very specific career in my mind that I want to go into, and I thought it would be very interesting to do something not really related to it,” said Hayden Petersons, a rising senior at Pembroke Academy.
Petersons, who hopes to study environmental science, chose a course on biomedical ethics. In the class, he’s examined human experimentation and different philosophical approaches to the consideration of major ethical questions. Despite not selecting the class as part of a career exploration, Petersons believes what he’s learned will be useful.
“If you take an ethical view and apply it to any problem, then you can probably find out something to do and connect the two,” he said.
The program encourages students to explore outside of their comfort zones. For Tess Lavoie, a rising senior at Bishop Brady High School, that involved performing at a program ‘coffee house’, where students play music, recite poetry, or share other performing arts.
“Me and two of my friends went up and performed a song, and I don’t think I’d ever played piano for a crowd that big,” said Lavoie, whose group played “Cigarette Daydreams” by Cage the Elephant.
“Getting up on stage and everyone giving us a standing ovation — I don’t think I’ll ever forget that feeling,” she added.
The program wraps up this week and students will soon spread back out across the state, bringing different aspects of the experience with them. Lavoie, who has been playing piano for eight years, said she will consider performing more.
“My piano teacher really likes to nag me about getting out more and performing more,” she said. “So, it’s definitely made me realize that it’s not as hard as I think.”
Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.
