Community Life Program

Growing up through the ages around 14-18 is never simple. It is easier, however, when you are surrounded by an attentive, supportive community. As a “total community” that attends to the needs of its students around the clock, it is our great opportunity and great responsibility to help our students navigate this transitional stage of life. Simply put, our Community Life program is about teaching and ensuring healthy living.

The Community Life Program aims to address the topics and issues students will face both in the present and later in college, career, and life: healthy relationships, wellness and stress management, drug and alcohol use, appropriate technology use, citizenship (both local and global), and leadership, to name just a few. We address these issues through organized events designed to stimulate open conversation.

We hold all-school assemblies twice a week to address a range of topics in school life, and monthly Community Life Meetings within houses for further discussions in smaller groups. We also offer “Choices” for freshmen and “Connections” for sophomores, programs where groups of ten students meet in faculty living rooms to share stories, laughter, stresses, and some cider and homemade brownies. These intimate gatherings are led by two faculty members and a senior member of Peer Support, and together the group discusses common challenges that teenagers face outside the classroom.

Of course, a healthy community supports its members outside formal meetings as well. Through our advisor program, where students are assigned a faculty member to assist with all aspects of Middlesex life (and often beyond), we hope to ensure that each student succeeds in the full sense of the word.