Proctor Academy is pleased to announce a combined $8M in recent gifts and pledges directed toward a new Health and Wellness Center at Proctor. Sparked by an anonymous lead gift of $3M in 2023 and another anonymous $1M gift in 2024, a subsequent pledge of $4M by the Stonesthrow Fund, the largest single cash gift in the school’s history, was made toward Proctor’s new integrated Health and Wellness Center and associated programming.
Interim Head of School Steve Wilkins notes, “It is a beautiful thing when donors’ visions align so profoundly with Proctor’s strategic plans. This is the case with the lead gifts for the programming and the facilities of Proctor’s health and wellness initiatives. We could not be more pleased than to get to work on both the building and the curriculum that will help define Proctor’s leadership in the world of boarding schools as a community that addresses teen wellness in profound ways.”
Proctor recognizes that for every teenager, regardless of educational background, family history, or lived experience, adolescence can be complicated. As a bold leader in the world of independent schools and the comprehensive care for students, Proctor seeks to provide students the support, knowledge, confidence, and systems to actively pursue physical and mental health and an understanding of themselves.
Taking a holistic view of student health and wellness requires deep trust, as well as systemic coordination among adults within the Proctor community. Proctor believes marrying physical health, mental health, and wellness programming is best accomplished by reframing our support systems around a Clinical Health and Wellness Director position, someone who will allow Proctor’s already robust services to become even more efficient and proactive. These evolved personnel will live within a building designed specifically to house the functions of Proctor’s health center and counseling services, and will provide additional structure to the school’s wellness curriculum.
In 1941, Proctor purchased the old Congregational Chapel, at the intersection of North Street and Observatory Lane, to become the school’s infirmary. Originally constructed in 1884 by the Andover Congregational Church, for a cost of $800, the building has served in its current capacity for more than 80 years. Over those 80 years, Proctor’s student body has grown from 140 boys and one nurse to a robust community of 390 students and eight nurses.
Proctor’s current five-bed facility located in the heart of campus has helped us navigate a pandemic, but struggles to adequately serve the needs of a growing student body. It has become clear that as Proctor’s student body and wellness curricula evolve, so too must its Health and Wellness Center, and the radical generosity of donors have helped address this community need.
The newly designed Health and Wellness Center will retain the historic aesthetic of the old Congregational Church while providing an entirely renovated and newly constructed facility. The new facility will feature two floors of integrated health and wellness space (health services on the first floor and services and wellness programming space on the second floor).
Having a highly intentional design, the new Health and Wellness Center will include eight single patient rooms; an enhanced nurses station and quarters for medication distribution and coordination of care; an open living room area to welcome students needing a place to rest and regroup; a counseling center named “The Robin’s Nest,” after longtime counselor Robin Mayer, who passed away recently; a clinical director’s office; and a Community Wellness Room used for group counseling meetings, wellness classes, yoga, meditation, and other small group activities.
With total building costs of roughly $6.5M, an additional $3.5M in endowment funds will be raised for wellness programming and support in perpetuity for Proctor students and employees. Through the profound generosity of the two lead donors and that of several additional early supporters, a total of $8.1M has been committed. It is an incredibly exciting time to be at Proctor as we elevate the standard of education for our students and bring the very real mental and physical health needs of adolescents to the forefront of our mission.
Members of Proctor’s health and wellness teams, alongside lead donors to the project, crafted a mission statement to guide the construction of Proctor’s Health and Wellness Center. Its words will guide this project and our collective work helping raise adolescents within the Proctor community:
“Proctor’s Health and Wellness Center seeks to provide comprehensive and integrated health care, addressing the mental, emotional, and physical health needs of the Proctor community. Through a nurturing and inviting space and providing integrated health services, individual and group counseling, and wellness programming, the Health and Wellness Center provides a space that empowers students with the tools and resources needed to achieve optimal health and well-being while tackling the challenges of adolescence, leading to increased resilience, self-awareness, and success in their lives both within and outside of the Proctor community.”