The Loomis Chaffee School is the first introduction that I had of Boarding Schools. My education was far from the private sector, as I attended a small public school in New Jersey. The campus that boasts 300 acres filled with red-bricked buildings, green open landscapes, and high-quality athletic facilities holds a proud community to represent the legacy of its founders that goes back to 1874. This campus is now my home, which has allowed me to have a unique experience as an educator, coach, advisor, dorm parent, and neighbor to faculty and students. While I hold different roles within the community, my interactions with students go beyond the classroom setting, exposing me to various aspects of the school and its social context. From imparting classes during the day, coaching on the field or the mat in the afternoon, to unlocking rooms in the dorm in the middle of the night when students lock themselves out, my experience in this boarding school has provided a holistic view of the social context of the institution. 

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Indeed the vast interactions the members of this community can have with each other through the model, norms, policies, and structure of the traditional boarding school may create a unique institution that demands complete immersion to the culture. Perhaps the term Total Institutions through the definition coined by Evan Goffman (1961) can describe the unique and distinctions of this school as he states, "A total institution may be defined a place of residence and work where a large number of like-situated individuals cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period of time together lead an enclosed formally administered round of life." However, Loomis Chaffee is a more complex total institution, in my opinion. As another important characteristic of a total institution is that "all aspects of life are conducted in the same place and under the same single authority" (Goffman 1961) the single authority tends to be a board that is limited to the diversity of the student body from different national, social, ethnic, racial, and economic backgrounds, creating frictions within the student. From a more evident perspective, the distinction in the experience of the boarder versus the commuting or "day" students presents dissonance in the institution's social context. Therefore, the various elements that construct the social fabric of the school create intimate interactions among students and faculty that would not occur otherwise, but can also create exclusive and discriminatory scenarios that affect the community as a whole.

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The Loomis Chaffee school claims to be a place that brings people together from various backgrounds and identities. While these people are physically together in the same facilities, Loomis’ mission statement commits to creating “an inclusive community” that allows diversity to coexist. Diversity is an element that should always be celebrated as it is no simple task to bring people together in harmony. The institution has to create a common fabric that will uniform the expectations for accomplishing academic achievements and educational success through the arts, athletics, and campus life. This fabric of expectations for academic excellence is established by the legacy that preserves traditions of elitism that sets them apart. In creating a cultural shift, legacies that were established by dominant social-economic groups in previous decades are now becoming more accessible to individuals that come from different ethnicities, nationalities, and socioeconomic backgrounds, thus diversifying the social fabric at Loomis Chaffee.

 

Boarding schools are beginning to expand opportunities to those whose character resembles a strong work ethic and willingness to be challenged in academics, athletics, and the arts, making them competitive for a spot in their institutions. In his book Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School, Shamus Khan (2012) describes his definition of the "New Elite" not as those who come from breeds or dynasties that have served as the pipeline to boarding schools but those who are well-positioned to showcase merit that reflects their potential to thrive in these spaces (loc. 284).

 

In the rigorous expectations under which students are admitted to these boarding schools, the resources of the self-governed entity are poured into a wide range of sophisticated courses in many disciplines. "Once admitted to an elite boarding school, students embrace–albeit– to varying degrees –the expectations that they will take full advantage of the school's offerings and strive to be, as one of student put it, "the best of the best." ( Gaztambide-Fernández, 2009, loc 394) The offerings that Loomis Chaffee has made this a school that attracts students from all over the world. In the attempt to reach students from different backgrounds, Loomis Chaffee works arduously to admit students who will bring diversity in culture to shape the social fabric of the school and at the same time to raise the bar in rigor. These are the complexities that make Loomis Chaffee a place where continuous growth exists, recognizing that there is a lot more work to do in creating an inclusive community that strives to represent the best self. 

 

Due to the complexity in the social fabric, culture, tradition, and the drive to create an atmosphere for excellence and rigor, the bodies of governance that form the leadership at Loomis Chaffee are composed of individuals representing different sectors of the institution. During my fellowship, I was entrusted to analyze the leadership and policies of the school by attending senior leadership meetings that assembled representatives from academics, admissions, diversity and inclusion, campus safety, development, and strategy and marketing under the guidance of the Head of Schools. In harmony with a board of trustees assembled by alumni ranging in different years of graduation, the various components are unified under the mission statement that strives for the best self and the common good of all who make up the social fabric of Loomis Chaffee. Through consensus or unanimous votes from these representatives that shape policies and decisions for the institution, which impact not only current students but also alumni who hold deep roots in the identity and tradition of the school. 

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The approaches to which members of the leadership committees ought to subscribe are strategical to ensure the fulfillment, operation, expansion, and consistency of the sectors in our school. For instance, Loomis Chaffee, as an independent entity, needs to meet financial goals that preserve the endowment and the funding of the programs provided to the students. With these all other factors in mind, the leadership team has a voice in shaping year-to-year tuition and allocating money for financial aid to support the most students. In this non-profit model of governance, it is with a philanthropic approach that donors and families who pay tuition entrust the leadership of Loomis Chaffee to foster a mission that inspires a desire for the best self in all who serve the community no matter at what capacity. ​

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