In typical Hackley fashion, as one school year comes to an end, Hackley faculty and administrators are already focusing on what is ahead for the next one. There are many initiatives being launched for the 2015–2016 school year. Hackley is specifically focused on expanding itself globally through the Round Square program, and building upon the health and wellness practices encouraged at Hackley.

Led by Mr. Colten, the Director of Health and Wellbeing, the Health and Wellness initiative is quickly becoming a massive movement spreading through the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools. The vision for this program is to evolve the way that Hackley students view health and wellbeing, and to implement new health practices which will not only improve academic performance, but athletic performance, artistic abilities, maintaining interpersonal relationships, emotional control, and a person’s ability to have positive psychology as well.

The Lower School is hoping to build a garden, which would be able to support multiple areas of its curriculum. Specifically, it is hoping to cater to its science, nutrition, and sustainability needs, all the while adding to the beautiful aesthetic that the Lower School already has. Aside from the lower school’s garden, the initiative is hoping to integrate more wellness practices into the health curriculum, such as positive psychology, mindfulness, and nutrition in the middle and upper schools. They are going to take another look at what is already being taught and evaluate which units need to be shortened or removed in order to “revamp, streamline, and energize the health curriculum so that it attends to more of the students desires,” said Mr. Colten.

The health and wellness initiative is also just beginning their venture to improve positive psychology, and is working with the University of Pennsylvania’s Resilience Program in order to do so. The goal of this endeavor is to help students build their mental strength “strong enough to deal with the crashing waves of life,” said Mr. Colten.

For the 2015-2016 school year, Round Square will be changing its status from a regional member to a global one increasing the amount of students allowed on trips from 4 to 6, and allowing them to attend different conferences all around the world rather than in just the Americas. This is a huge step for the program, and the next conference that the Upper School Round Square group will be attending is going to be in Singapore, at the United World Colleges in South East Asia. “There is much to Round Square that includes travel, but it also extends much beyond travel”, said Mr. Bileca, a Middle School teacher who is very involved in the program. These trips provide Hackley students with the opportunity to have serious conversations with students from around the world, and becoming global members of Round Square for next year and the years to come will allow for Hackley to furthermore “extend its horizons” and open up to new cultures all around the globe both near and far.