Berwick Academy

Infobox Private School
name = Berwick Academy


motto = _la. Dei Timor Initium Sapiente
(Fear of God is the start of knowledge)
established = 1791
type = Private, Day
religion = Unaffiliated
head_name = Headmaster
head = Greg Schneider| city = South Berwick
state = Maine
country = United States
campus = Rural, 72 Acres, 11 Buildings
enrollment = 602
faculty = Approx. 75
class = 14 students
ratio = 8:1
year = 2004
SAT = 588 Verbal
603 Math
athletics = 13 Interscholastic Sports
27 Interscholastic Teams
colors = Blue and White
mascot = Bulldog
conference = Eastern Independent League
homepage = http://www.berwickacademy.org|www.berwickacademy.org]

Berwick Academy is a highly selective, 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 hill overlooking the Salmon Falls River, near the border of Maine and New Hampshire. Approximately 600 students in grades K through 12 attend the school from nearby regions of southern Maine, southeastern New Hampshire and northeastern Massachusetts.

History

Berwick Academy is the oldest educational institution in Maine, predating the state itself 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." 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 small 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.

During the 1970s, 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. The founding of a Middle School in 1971 and a Lower School in 1977 and the discontinuation of boarding in 1976 was accompanied by significant enrollment and physical plant expansion continuing to the present day. During this period the school has come to occupy a somewhat unique academic position in between traditional English-model prep schools and the more progressive country day schools, although it is much older than most prep schools and all country day schools.

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.

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 and technology. In keeping with the school'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.

College Placement

Berwick Academy has traditionally "fed" students to Maine's three highly selective private liberal arts colleges: Bowdoin, Bates and Colby. This has continued, but graduates now matriculate at a variety of such colleges in the United States, including the Ivy League, "Little Ivies" and other similarly selective institutions.

Athletics

As an integral part of the Academy's mission to "educate the whole person", participation in sports is generally required for grade advancement. Middle School students are required to play three sports during their course of study, and participation in interscholastic athletic is required of Upper School students. (Waivers are given to Upper School students for other extracurricular activities, such as drama or dance.) Lower school students participate in intramural sports.

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 sometime used.

Notable alumni

Some notable alumni of Berwick Academy include:

* 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
* 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
* Sam Fuld (1981-present), major league baseball player.