Chewonki is a place on the rugged coast of Maine where you can be yourself. It is a place that every student has chosen, and has worked hard to reach. Once here, students appreciate our collaborative environment where it is cool to be smart and curious. They appreciate classes that are interdisciplinary and hands on.
Three times each day we “break bread” together -- students, teachers, and staff alike -- with healthy meals and relaxed conversation. With a student-to-teacher ratio of three to one, we get to know each other well, especially outside of the classroom.
Nonetheless, living and learning at Chewonki can be challenging. Sharing a cabin with four to seven other students and stoking the wood stove on a winter night will demand the best of you. Working on our farm will remind you of the effort needed to put good food in your body. Keeping up your studies during days loaded with activities will require extra self-discipline and time management. Leaving your cell phone at the door will remind you that you are somewhere different.
That somewhere is our 400-acre coastal campus where you have the opportunity to be a young adult. We will depend upon you to uphold our community values, do your homework without prodding, to take care of yourself on outdoor adventures, and to do the work – alongside your teachers – that brings food to our table and wood to our fireboxes.
Together we will pursue important ideals. We will honor and explore our differences as we live and work together. We will be thrifty in our living as we strive to reduce consumption and increase production to meet our basic needs. And we will celebrate volunteerism and service as precursors of leadership.
At Chewonki you will find a home away from home, as you demonstrate personal responsibility. If you want something more than the familiar for your junior year, take the risk of stepping away from what you know. If you believe that even one person can make a difference, I hope that you will apply to Chewonki.
With warm regards,
Bill Hinkley
Interim Head of School
