Large gatherings have fallen out of favor recently, but Oliverian School, a hybrid boarding school based in New Hampshire, was able to celebrate a good old-fashioned Thanksgiving this year. And they have COVID to thank for it! The school’s COVID protocol required faculty and students to stay on campus during the holiday break — so they decided to make the most of it. Students and faculty were invited to Head of School Will Laughlin’s house for a huge feast and lots of fun.

The diligent efforts of faculty, students, and parents have allowed Oliverian to create and maintain the COVID-free bubble of safety that allowed their normal-ish Thanksgiving feast. The entire Oliverian faculty sacrificed a week of vacation and a day with their own families to keep the students safe and nurtured during the holiday. Sharon McCallie-Steller, Dean of Counseling, raised five turkeys on her local farm for dinner (two turkeys were pardoned). The entire staff created a seamless experience for the students, complete with mud football, a Macy’s Day Parade, lazy football viewing, holiday arts and crafts, and dessert baking.

Students also worked hard to make the day successful. For the entire semester, they have committed to wearing masks, keeping their distance, washing their hands, following inconvenient quarantine requirements, and allowing the Oliverian nurse to periodically COVID test them. The students’ efforts have been the most critical for keeping Oliverian 100% COVID free, which is a rarity among boarding schools and programs. When one Oliverian student who was initially reluctant to wear a mask was lauded for his unprompted mask-wearing, he said, “I am putting aside my personal convictions for the greater good.”  It is that kind of other-mindedness that has made this extraordinary year work so well at Oliverian.

Will Laughlin, Head of School, is proud of the entire community, stating “It is reassuring to see how the collective suffering of the day is, perhaps, chasing us out of ourselves and toward each other. You might not see evidence of that on whatever cable news channel you watch, but I see it here everyday. My faculty and, with greater and greater frequency, our students, set aside their personal comfort, wants, and wishes for the good of each other.”

About the Oliverian School

Oliverian School, located in Pike, New Hampshire, is a non-profit all gender boarding school with college prep academics and an average class size of five and a one to one faculty to student ratio, including three full-time licensed therapists. Our campus is contiguous with 2000 acres of recreational preserve land. Oliverian is licensed by the state of New Hampshire and accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.  For more information please contact our Admissions Department at 888.922.5565