The Mountain School of Milton Academy is an independent semester program that provides high school juniors the opportunity to live and work on an organic farm in rural Vermont. Each semester the Mountain School draws 45 high-achieving students from all over the country. Courses provide a demanding, integrated learning experience that takes full advantage of the school's small size and mountain campus. While living with teachers in small houses, students help to make important decisions concerning how we live together and manage the farm. Every semester a group of 60 people from varying backgrounds works to create a trusting atmosphere where everyone belongs and every voice matters. Admission is selective.
The Mountain School of Milton Academy is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
Mission Statement
- Welcome students from different backgrounds and schools around the country, and challenge them to work together and learn from each other, as they explore the intersection of the school’s farm, academic program, and residential life. Return students to their schools and communities more clear about themselves and better prepared to become effective citizens.
- Build collaboratively a school culture that expects both individual and institutional responsibility, where students and adults develop a social contract of mutual trust, considering together the balance between the needs of the individual and those of the community. Model the values of simplicity and sustainability in practices such as food preparation, energy use, and the maintenance of facilities.
- Provide an intellectually demanding curriculum that balances hands-on learning and critical thinking; that links academic disciplines; and that inspires self-reflection and personal development, while pushing students to reach beyond the self and focus on the common good.
- Help students discover their own relationship with an evolving natural system, embodied in the farm and the forests surrounding the school. Through daily chores and farm jobs, have them experience the satisfaction that comes from meaningful physical work and understand the connections between our everyday actions and our world.
Statement of Inclusiveness
The Mountain School assembles students and faculty from varying economic backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, and geographies. We create a safe place for students and faculty to get to know each other genuinely, and we strive to address issues of difference with sensitivity and candor. Our goal is for all students and faculty to belong fully both to their particular semester and to the wider Mountain School network.
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