Hotchkiss School
The Hotchkiss School is an independent, coeducational American college preparatory boarding school located in Lakeville, Connecticut. Founded in 1891, the school enrolls students in grades 9 through 12 and a small number of postgraduates. Students at Hotchkiss come from across the United States and 37 foreign countries.
Hotchkiss is a member of the Eight Schools Association, begun informally in 1973-74 and formalized in 2006. Hotchkiss is also a member of the Ten Schools Admissions Organization, founded in 1966. There is a seven-school overlap of membership between the two groups.Taylor Smith, "History of the Association," The Phillipian, February 14, 2008 Hotchkiss is additionally a member of the G20 Schools group.
As of the 2005-06 school year, the school had an enrollment of 595 students and 151 classroom teachers, for a student-teacher ratio of 4-1. Hotchkiss has one of the lowest admissions rates in the country with only 20% of students who applied being accepted Review Rankings for Hotchkiss Accessed . – in comparison, the Phillips Exeter Academy has recently admitted 25% of its applicants. Prep Review Rankings for Exeter. Accessed August 25, 2008.
History
Maria H. (Bissell) Hotchkiss founded the school in 1891 to prepare young men for Yale University. The Hotchkiss School History and Traditions, The Hotchkiss School. Accessed July 21, 2008. Maria originally had aspirations for the school to serve underprivileged students, and the original charter provided some scholarships, and reserved space for academically gifted Lakeville boys (regardless of family income). Maria Hotchkiss was the widow of Benjamin B. Hotchkiss, who founded the French arms company Hotchkiss et Cie, made famous by the use of its machine guns in World War I link. This led to a nickname for the school, " son of a gun".See Wertenbaker and Basserman, The Hotchkiss School, 1966, p. 68. The current Head of School is Malcolm McKenzie, former principal at Atlantic College in Wales. McKenzie is a Rhodes Scholar, and holds a degree in linguistics from University of Oxford. Interview with Malcom McKenzie, The Hotchkiss School. Accessed July 21, 2008.Campus and facilities
Arts facilities
2005 saw the completion of Hotchkiss' Esther Eastman Music Center. Elfers Hall seats 715 and has excellent acoustics. The school has equipped the hall with a handmade Fazioli piano, 12 Steinway pianos, 12 practice rooms, 3 ensemble practice rooms, the WKIS radio station, and a Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) lab. link The Hotchkiss School Academic Resources. Accessed March 12, 2009.Athletic facilities
;Indoor facilities- Field House - multi-purpose playing surfaces with an elevated indoor exercise track
- Ice Hockey Rinks (two) - Dwyer Rink (Olympic), Schmidt Rink (NHL)
- Natatorium - 10-lane pool with a separate diving well
- Fowle Gymnasium (hardwood basketball court)
- Wrestling/Multi-Purpose Room
- Squash Courts (eight)
- Ford Indoor Tennis Courts (three)
- Chandler Fitness Center
- Boat House (sailing)
- Training Rooms
- Locker Rooms and Shower Facilities
- Nine-hole golf course (designed by Seth Raynor)
- All-weather track
- Outdoor tennis courts (twenty)
- Paddle tennis courts (two)
- Field hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and softball fields
- Climbing walls
- Football stadium
- Baseball stadium
- Lake Wononscopomuc (sailing)
- Three ponds and extensive hiking trails on a wooded campus
Boarding and general facilities
Hotchkiss has twelve dormitories on campus, six for boys (Tinker, Edelman, Coy, Dana, Watson, and Wieler) and six for girls (Bissell, Buehler, Flinn, Memorial, Garland, and Van Santvoord). Rooms vary in size, from singles to the occasional triple. Dorms, The Hotchkiss School. Accessed July 22, 2008. The dining hall and snack bar provide food. Three meals a day are served buffet-style in the dining hall. A salad bar, deli bar, pasta bar, cereal bar, soup bar and dessert bar are provided in addition to hot entrees. Meals at the dining hall are included in the tuition. Usually the snack bar is open when the dining hall is not.Athletics
Hotchkiss currently fields 17 interscholastic sports teams. The school is a member of the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council and the Interscholastic Sailing Association. Sports, Hotchkiss School. Accessed July 22, 2008. The athletic directors of Hotchkiss and the other members of the Eight Schools Association compose the Eight Schools Athletic Council, which organizes sports events and tournaments among ESA schools.http://www.nedgallagher.com/journal/archives/003158.html, dated May 2, 2010; http://www.nedgallagher.com/journal/archives/002489.html, dated May 3, 2009; http://www.nedgallagher.com/journal/archives/000968.html, dated April 11, 2007 Historically strong athletic programs include the girls' field hockey team, the girls' volleyball team, the boys' hockey team, the boys' lacrosse team, and the boys' track and field team. Hotchkiss's field hockey team has won ten New England championships, including seven consecutively from 2002–2008. link, Hotchkiss School. Accessed February 10, 2009 Hotchkiss's volleyball has won seven New England Championships including the 2007 New England Volleyball Championships. Sports Records, Hotchkiss School. Accessed July 22, 2008. The boys' track and field team was undefeated in regular season meets from 2005 to 2009. During this five year span, they placed in the top three at Founder's and NEPSTA Championships each year and won both titles in 2007 Varsity Track and Field, Hotchkiss School. Accessed 19 May 2009. and in 2009. link, Hotchkiss School. Accessed August 25, 2008. In the 2008 fall athletic season, Hotchkiss became the first school to win four New England Championships in one fall season. The four championships were a seventh straight in field hockey, a second straight in volleyball, a first in soccer, and a second in football.Clubs
Hotchkiss students run a number of clubs, Student Life, Hotchkiss School. Accessed July 22, 2008. including The Record, a bimonthly, student-run newspaper; the Human Rights Initiative; WKIS Radio Station; BaHSA, the Black and Hispanic Student Alliance; the Gay/Straight Alliance; HotchkissTV; Hotchkiss Under God; The Whipping Post (Hotchkiss's satire publication); the Writing Block (a creative writing publication); the Chinese Club; Hotchkiss Republicans; Hotchkiss Democrats; the Hotchkiss Political Union; Science Club; and SEA (Students for Environment Awareness). Clubs are student-run, though most have faculty advisors, and many of them receive a budget from the school to provide for their various needs.Round Square
Hotchkiss is one of four U.S. schools in Round Square, a global conference of more than 50 secondary schools. Students have the option to go on an exchange for a semester to another participating school, or they may meet other Round Square students while working together on a project in an area of need. Hotchkiss has recently hosted students from Australia, Germany, South Africa, and India.Notable alumni
Hotchkiss has a history of captains of industry in attendance, such as:- founders of Time Henry Luce and Briton Hadden;
- automotive giants Henry Ford II, Edsel Ford, and William Clay Ford;
- candy men Forrest Mars and John Mars;
- former New Jersey governor and son of inventor Thomas Edison, Charles Edison;
- former Solicitor General, U.S. Attorney General, and U.S. Court of Appeals judge Robert Bork;
- Wyoming oilman and politician Warren A. Morton;
- founder of Morgan Stanley Harold Stanley;
- former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart;
- former Deputy Secretary of Defense, and partner of prominent New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Roswell Gilpatric; and
- CIA director Porter J. Goss.
- Nobel prize laureate Dickinson W. Richards (Medicine);
- John G. Avildsen, director of Rocky and The Karate Kid; and
- Tom Werner, producer of television shows such as That '70s Show, The Cosby Show, and '' Roseanne', now co-owner of the Boston Red Sox.
Hotchkiss in print
- The school is mentioned several times in F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise and in his short story Six of One.http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/f/fitzgerald/f_scott/paradise/chapter1.html
- In the book Primary Colors by Joe Klein, later turned into a film, the principal character, Henry Burton, was educated at Hotchkiss, and is frequently referred to as "Hotchkiss". History Unfolding retrieved 1-19-08
- In Jeffrey Archer's novel Sons of Fortune, protagonist Fletcher Davenport is a Hotchkiss alumnus.http://books.google.com/books?id=9muWsKagCcIC&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=%22Jeffrey+Archer%22+%22Sons+of+Fortune%22+hotchkiss&source=bl&ots=tsnAfW7xsG&sig=HmUibEb9EBZmMV5fbDfy3scpQRg&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA34,M1
- For the school's centenary, Ernest Kolowrat was commissioned to write Hotchkiss: A Chronicle of an American School (ISBN 1-56131-058-1). Amazon.com retrieved on 1-19-08
- The Hotchkiss School: A Portrait was published by the school in 1966 (Wertenbaker & Basserman, p. 113). Amazon Hotchkiss Portrait retrieved 1-19-08.
- Prominent alumnus, Librarian of Congress, and poet Archibald MacLeish refers to Hotchkiss in a 1982 interview in American Heritage magazine. He mentioned not liking his time at the school.Robert Cownley (interviewing Archibald MacLeish), " America Was Promises" (August/September 1982), American Heritage Magazine, vol. 33, issue 5.
- Barney Penniman plans to go to Hotchkiss in the young-adult fiction book Through the Hidden Door.Amazon.com, " link", Amazon.com: Preview of Through the Hidden Door, retrieved on 4-25-10.
- Serena van der Woodsen from the teen series Gossip Girl attends Hotchkiss before the start of the storyline.New York Magazine, " link", 'Gossip Girl' Goes Straight to the 'O.C., retrieved on 7-16-10.