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We are a community of both day students and boarding students and we pay special attention to cultivating a community life that is inclusive, and in which there is not a great divide between day and boarding culture. Shared community experiences and signature grade-level experiences are part of our weekend and weekday programming.
Although academic life takes up much of the day, there’s so much more available to you — an environment rich with opportunities to socialize, to get involved, to develop interests and passions. Once the academic day is done, the campus hums with activity. Students meet with their clubs, spill out onto the fields for athletics, go to their service locations, or to the theater for set design or rehearsal. Then there’s time to hang out at the Belfry or the UpTown Lounge. You can play foosball with your friends or play volleyball or Frisbee on the South Lawn. You could sing a song, or recite a poem, or cook for Community Dinners —a beloved Westtown tradition —which are weekly dinners with special menus and themes that are often cultural or religious celebrations. Or you and your advisor group, a small group of students with a common advisor, might go get ice cream together. There are so many possibilities!
Nearly 75% of our Upper School students live on dorm. We believe so strongly in the benefits of living and learning in community that we require all students who enter Westtown in 8th grade or later to live on dorm in 11th and 12th grade. No other boarding/day school makes this commitment. Our intentional residential curriculum is designed to cultivate effective study skills, build healthy relationships and conflict resolution skills, foster acceptance and independence, and prepare students for living in a diverse and interconnected world. It makes boarding a truly transformational experience.
Learn more about residential life at Westtown →
There are ample leadership positions available (more than 60 at last count!), an organic farm on which you can help cultivate foods for the Dining Room, and clubs for just about everything from Earth Service to Model UN to the school newspaper. And if there’s not a club for something you’re interested in, you can create one.
Learn more about clubs and affinity groups →
As part of our Quaker focus on community, service is integral to a Westtown education. Through Service Network, Work Program, school-sponsored service trips locally and abroad, clubs, and service projects within some academic courses, students engage in community service in many ways. We believe that service learning enhances academic learning, helps students to see outside themselves, how to participate in building healthy communities, develops specific skills, and expands students’ worldview. Service is essential in our mission to inspire stewards and leaders of a better world.
Learn more about our work and service programs →
Weekly Quaker Meeting for Worship is an essential part of the educational experience for all students. Community members are welcomed into the Meeting House — a building with no religious symbols or decoration — in silence. There is no pastor nor sermon, as Quakers believe that individuals do not need an intermediary between themselves and the Divine, and that all have direct access to God and to Truth.
