July 10 | 2014

Issue #2

2014 Summer School Midterms

 

Dear Parents, Grandparents and Guardians,

We are far into the second week of Hargrave's 2014 Summer School and Camp. Overall, your sons are doing a great job adapting to the program and remaining focused on the tasks at hand. Homesickness, I'm glad to report, has been minimal--especially when we compare it to previous years.  It is something that we prepare for and monitor.

Rain, which started yesterday afternoon, has also taken the edge off of the summer heat. We still need to remind every young man to hydrate!  Help us remind them!

Saturday is midterm for our summer school courses. They will be held in the morning. We will then break for lunch and our instructors will be available for Parent/Teacher Conferences, 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. If you're unable to attend the Parent/Teacher Conference, please contact your son's instructors if you have any questions or concerns. Parent's are a key contributor in advancing the academics of every young man.

Parents, faculty and staff are a team working toward the betterment of each student. Communication is important. If we don't hear from you, Hargrave faculty will attempt to contact you. If everything is OK, that is fine. We just don't want to exclude a team member.

When you talk with our faculty, I highly encourage you to ask questions about Hargrave beyond your immediate summer school and camp concerns. You have a great opportunity to talk one on one with a member of our faculty. Most of our summer faculty instructs in Hargrave's regular academic year. Others have been with us many years or are closely tied to Hargrave. In such discussions, faculty report that typical questions include: "Will my son still be productive in the fall?"; "How does the military aspect impact grades or his character?"; "Are the expectations different in the regular academic year?".

A Hargrave summer is just one small aspect of a truly great school. The majority of our summer students are new, which means they're not a regular school year Cadets. Generally, our Cadets don't attend our summer program. (We have eight here this summer.) They may take an enrichment course, or be one of the handful that need a little more work to get up to speed academically.

There are no bad questions.  As I've told several parents, "Please ask questions, I want you to be an informed consumer."
A great way to get answers about our regular Academic Year programs is via an Open House.  We have an Open House this Saturday, July 12, 2014, beginning at 12:30.  I invite you come and ask questions.

I'm proud to say that Hargrave works the core subjects very aggressively, and it shows when it is time for SAT and ACT testing. At the conclusion of the 2013-2014 Academic year, we had two Hargrave Cadets achieve perfect 800 scores, and a third scoring a 760, on the math portion of the National Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Additionally, 26 Hargrave Cadets scored over 600 on their SAT math score. The national average with math is 505!

A Hargrave junior qualified during the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualification Test (NMSQT) this year-- which puts him in a small group of 50,000 students nationwide--now eligible to compete for a National Merit Scholarship. Over one million students took the PSAT/NMSQT this past school year.

Finally, every member of the Class of 2014 was accepted to at least one institution of higher learning for the Fall--most had multiple acceptances. A good percentage of these young men were not thinking about college when they put their first foot on the Hargrave campus.

Lastly, I'm honored to have been invited to address, and facilitate, the closing session of "What works? A Conference on Educating Boys and Young Men," a leadership conference hosted by Hampden-Sydney College on July 25, 2014. I'm excited to be both a participant and speaker at the conference. If you are an educator and interested in attending, please make the time. It is a great opportunity day for participants to think about "What Works" for elevating young men to their fullest potential!

I look forward to meeting each of you this weekend. Please drive safe.
 
Best Regards,
 
Don Broome
Brigadier General, U.S. Army (Ret)
President
In This Issue
Midterm Grades and Open Weekend
Students of the Week
Sports Camp Changeover
Chaplain's Summer Recordings
Student Activities
Links
Midterm Grades and Open Weekend
Parent Teacher Conferences 

Can you believe we are already at the halfway point for Hargrave's 2014 Summer School and Camp? Midterm exams are on Saturday, July 12, 2014. Therefore Friday, July 11, 2014 is a normal "school day" with a full set of class periods, sports time, and evening study hall. At Hargrave, midterm exams are a major event worth 12.5% of course grade.

Saturday afternoon Hargrave hosts Parent/Teacher conferences. They are held between 12:00 and 3:00 pm. Check-in is at the Camden Administration Building. Hargrave does not make advanced appointments. Meetings typically take about ten minutes. If you are unable to attend, faculty can be accessed via email, voice or Skype. All parents and guardians are highly encouraged to conference with your son's instructors.

Weekend Passes begin at 12:00 p.m. for those that are unable to conference on Saturday. All pass requests end at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 13, 2014. Please have your son returned to his barracks prior to the deadline. For those that remain on campus, weekend activities are scheduled for all students.

Grading Period 1 (Midterm) grades (based on the coursework through Saturday and midterm exam) will be posted late Monday evening or early Tuesday morning.  Grading Period 1 counts as 50% of the course grade.  The second half of the summer term (Grading Period 2) will count for the remaining 50% of the course grade and includes a cumulative exam covering coursework assigned during Grading Period 2.

 

Students of the Week
Dumas, LeBlanc

LeBlanc; Dumas with BG Broome.
Hargrave named two young men 'Students of the Week' for the first week of the Academy's 2014 Summer School and Camp. Students are selected based on the recommendations of the Academy's faculty and staff. The following young men were particularly noted from their enthusiasm and willingness to adapt to the boarding school environment.

Representing the summer Center for Integrated Studies (CIS) is Chance LeBlanc. CIS involves the 7th, 8th and 9th grades at the Academy. LeBlanc is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Brad LeBlanc of Fulton, Maryland.

Representing the Academy's upper school summer program is Tony Dumas. He is the son of Ms. Georgia Platt of Frederick, Maryland. The Academy's upper school involves 10th, 11th and 12th grade students.

Recognition was provided by BG Don Broome (USA, Ret.), president of Hargrave Military Academy.

 

Sports Camp Changeover

Sports Camps will change on Monday.  All students may chose to change camps except *into* Adventure Camp. Some camps (Air Rifle, Lacrosse, and Tennis) will be closed due to low enrollment/interest, but rest assured that there is plenty of room in the other camps.  A two-week camp, Military Certification and Orientation will open.  Activities in MCOC will include repel tower, swim qualification, military obstacle course, 5K hike, a cover and concealment class, and more.  These activities are taken from Hargrave's regular-year "Eye of the Tiger" program.

 

Chaplain's Summer Recordings

Hargrave serves the whole person, and that is especially true for each young man's spiritual development. Hargrave Chaplain Joe Moran records he sermons for parents, who wish to hear his message to their sons. Check them out:

 

Hiking, Extinction, Go Karts, a River Trip
and Paintball
Student Activities 

Hargrave's Student Activities department hosted a huge weekend for the summer students.

On Friday, July 4, 2014, the Adventure Camp departed campus with Coach Bill Eberly and Coach Will Moran in the early afternoon for a fun water hike at Anglers Park in Danville, Virginia. The park features a nice creek that flows through the center of it. Water ranges from ankle to thigh deep and features several small waterfalls. Turtles and crawfish were discovered in great abundance. After a great afternoon at the park, the young men cleaned up and joined many other students for Ci Ci's Pizza buffet and a movie in Danville.

Later that evening, a very large group of Cadets celebrated the 4th of July with a movie trip to see the new Transformers movie, "Age of Extinction." The group departed in a charter bus and stopped at Ci Ci's pizza for a buffet dinner. CPT George Trickey, CPT Jeremy Eubank and Ms. Darlene Paton chaperoned. It was a great holiday evening building new friendships and enjoying the night.

On Saturday, July 5, 2014, Coach John Eife, CPT Joe Merricks and Mrs. Kneyokee Shelton chaperoned two groups of students to the Virginia International Raceway for Go Kart racing. In order to keep the ages and abilities close, and to prevent a large number of students waiting their turn in the heat, Hargrave sent the 7-9th grade students to the track first, and then brought the 10-12th graders in the second wave. Speed was constant and fun was high. Great teamwork from the chaperons made it all work.

The Adventure Camp also took to the James River for canoeing and kayaking on Saturday. Coach Eberly, Coach Moran and the camp spent five hours on the water. "The guys did an incredible job paddling and maneuvering through the Class 1 and Class 2 rapids. They took in the sights, like the waterfalls coming down off the mountains," Coach Eberly said. "When I asked the students if they were enjoying themselves, each one said, 'Coach, I could stay here all day!'"

On Sunday, July 6, 2014, CPT Luke Davis chaperoned the Hargrave paintball field. Several acres are dedicated to a 'battle zone' littered with bunkers and forts. The event was very well attended by the Summer School and Camp, which made for a lot of noise and a lot of spraying paintballs. The shots hurt just enough to make you run for life and dive for cover.

Paintball is the most popular summer event. The bumps and bruises the students receive from paintballs is like a trophy to most of them. Post-play comments include, "Dude, check this out!" and "You should see the other guy!" They had a really good time and they look forward to playing again this Sunday.

 

Summer Links