On Sunday, August 28, Asheville School welcomed a record number of 289 students to campus on Opening Day. This marks the school’s 10th consecutive year with record enrollment numbers.
Director of Admission John
Smith credits the school’s welcoming community and focus on academics as the
driving force for healthy enrollment. “Asheville School stays true to its
roots,” he says. “It is one of the last truly small co-ed boarding schools in
the southeast, and we do a great job at focusing on academics and developing students’
character. Parents, through word of mouth, have shared that, and word has
spread about what a wonderful place Asheville School can be in preparing
students for college and for life.”
Students are coming to
Asheville School from 20 states and from 16 countries. Eighty percent of the
students board and 20 percent are local day students from the Asheville area.
The average class size consists of 13 students and there is a 4:1 teacher to
student ratio.
This year, students have an
extra stop on the checklist to get them settled in for the start of the
year—each will receive a new MacBook Air in a 1:1 computer initiative. These
laptops will be issued by the school and at the end of their time at Asheville
School, they will be given the option to purchase the laptop or give it back to
the technology department.
These computers will help
strengthen technology programming and create more opportunities to incorporate
technology into the classroom at Asheville School. “There are several benefits
to our students all using these same high quality Apple MacBook Airs,” said Bob
Williams, Director of Communications. “Because of this new initiative and partnership
with Apple, Asheville School has the ability to teach our students some
extremely marketable technology skills, while emphasizing critical thinking,
problem solving, and collaboration — all important ingredients for building a
meaningful career later in life.”
The computers allow for a new
afternoon activity where students will learn to use Apple’s Swift programming
language to create apps for Apple devices like iPhones, iPads, and Apple TV.
“We can now teach App Development and dedicate more time to robotics, computer
science, and engineering,” Williams said.
Students are excited to have
a new computer and for accompanying campus-wide Wi-Fi access. “It will be a lot
easier to communicate,” says Asheville School junior Ella McIntosh. “It is a
much easier way to get things to and from teachers, and you can take them home
over breaks, which will be really nice.”
The 1:1 computer initiative
is made possible by the work of Charles Long, Bob Williams and the Stonecutter
Foundation, which has generously funded the program. “We are thrilled to have
the support from Mr. James Cowan ’63 and the Stonecutter Foundation,” Williams
said. “The Foundation’s gift allows the school to teach our students skills
that are highly valued by companies like Apple, IBM, Google, Microsoft,
Facebook, and Amazon. These are also skills that will prepare our students well
for college and beyond.”
Asheville School is a nationally acclaimed co-ed,
college preparatory boarding and day school for students in grades 9 through
12. Recent graduates have been accepted to Amherst, Columbia, Davidson, Duke,
Elon, Emory, Furman, Georgetown, Harvard, NC State, Rhodes, Sewanee, UNC-Chapel
Hill, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, William & Mary,
WashU, Wofford, and Yale among others.
No comments:
Post a Comment