Berkshire School - Review #3

Every year at Berkshire School, the school holds a Pro Vita week. During this week, students get to take classes that vary from their typical classes. These classes span from learning how to cook sustainability to learning about sports broadcasting. Often, the classes are student taught and many include special guests who are specialist in the class's topic. During this week as well, students have the opportunity to go on a trip. In the past some of these trips have been to Thailand, Hawaii, and Peru. Pro Vita is unique to Berkshire and allows students to learn about things that you might not in a typical classroom.

During boarding school I became a confident student, person, and leader. My teachers taught me aspects that applied to various subjects and life that I still carry with me. Now, I feel confident in the fact that I am a good student and capable. Being away from home during high school allowed me to see that I can thrive in any environment, raising my confidence.

I would try more new things! Berkshire is a great environment to step out of your comfort zone and try something new. My last semester at Berkshire I finally did, I did theater instead of playing lacrosse, and the experience was wonderful and I wish I had done something different and new at Berkshire earlier.

My favorite thing at Berkshire was the classroom experience. I always felt engaged and excited about my studies. I felt genuinely excited about class and learning at Berkshire.

Utilize the mountain a lot more! Its a truly special part of Berkshire.

Academics at Berkshire are challenging, collaborative, and engaging. Each class I feel interested in what I am learning, which is mainly due to the fact Berkshire teachers utilize a discussion based method of learning instead of just lecturing at their students. Students at Berkshire are far from competitive with each other and help each other understand the material. While academics at Berkshire are challenging, the load is extremely manageable and teachers are always there for you, hosting office hours and meeting with you during their free time to ensure you understand the material.

Berkshire offers a diverse, challenging, athletic program. There are options for athletes of all levels. People just starting a new sport can play 3rds or JV and those who are high level athletes can play on Varsity. Berkshire's teams often make it to the New England tournament and hold multiple titles as New England champions. Berkshire's athletic facilities are state-of-the art. I have not seen better facilities at any other boarding school and many colleges facilities can't compete with Berkshire's.

Berkshire offers many art classes, ranging from improvement to studio art to jazz ensemble. Not only is there an opportunity to take art classes during the academic class, but Berkshire offers after-school programs that students can instead of sports. These programs include theater, art option, and music option. Berkshire supports the arts, seen by the fact Student's will go and support their fellow classmates at their performances.

Berkshire has a variety of extracurricular opportunities from Newspaper to women's activism club to fishing club. At Berkshire, if a club doesn't exist that you are interested in, you can create that club!

At Berkshire, each boarding student has the opportunity to be a part of a close knit dorm community. Every Saturday night the dorm comes together for dorm snack, Birthdays are celebrated in the dorms with treats, and fun activities like secret snowflake happens in the dorm. Berkshire has varying room options, from singles to triples. One special thing about Berkshire is that in the girl dorms they have a plethora of singles.

Besides Tuesday night Community dinner in the fall and spring and Wednesday advisory lunch, students have the freedom to sit where they like in the dining hall. Berkshire's food is great and there always something to eat, from the hot bar, salad bar, toast and cereal bar, sand-which and panini bar, to the soup bar. Berkshire's dining holds a special place in my heart where I spent countless hours siting around a table chatting with my friends over a good meal.

Berkshire is surrounded by an extremely natural area, seeing by the fact it's nestled under Mount Everett. Knowing this, students have the ability to do a lot of hiking, swimming, fishing, skiing, mountain biking, and more! Besides this, Berkshire is about 10 minutes away from Great Barrington, which is a great, cute town with a lot of restaurants. Berkshire offers shuttles there Friday through Sunday.

The best part of Berkshire's social life was all the community held social events, fostering a close knit community and people interacting with various types of people. Every Saturday Berkshire had an event which ranged from a dance, bingo night, to roller skating.