House System
Similar to many boys' schools in England and Australia, University School's has a House System. Every student is assigned to a house, which integrates students from all grades and provides a structure for the boys to connect with each other for companionship and support. Houses participate in community service activities and spirited athletic competitions. Every year, younger and older boys compete in Founders’ Day, a tradition that celebrates the school’s founding in 1890. Houses are organized to encourage greater interaction between students, especially students at separate campuses and in different grades. As such, the House System is a large part of student life at University School. House meetings occur regularly at the Upper School, in which faculty and students may plan activities and community service projects such as the annual Thanksgiving food drive. Each House elects a prefect from the senior class who acts as the House leader.
Houses are typically named after former Headmasters or notable alumni donors, and each House has a color to represent it. The numbers, names and colors of Houses have changed over the years.
The current House names are: Anderson (maroon); Cruikshank (white); Goodwillie (navy blue); Hawley (purple); McCarraher (orange); McKinley (royal blue); Peters (red); Pettee (black); Pickands (green); and Sanders (gold).
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Famous quotes containing the words house and/or system:
“Till having failed at hugger-mugger farming
He burned his house down for the fire insurance
And spent the proceeds on a telescope
To satisfy a lifelong curiosity
About our place among the infinities.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“When the finishing stroke was put to his work, it suddenly expanded before the eyes of the astonished artist into the fairest of all the creations of Brahma. He had made a new system in making a staff, a world with full and fair proportions; in which, though the old cities and dynasties had passed away, fairer and more glorious ones had taken their places.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)