A new Mercersburg program will help students refine their focus by aligning coursework and experiences with their interests and aspirations.

The school is creating a series of academic concentrations grounded in existing classes and experiential education opportunities, leading to a culminating capstone experience. Much like a college major, the concentrations will provide a framework for a student’s path of study.

“We are creating opportunities for student choice within the parameters of our curriculum, so that they’re feeling a greater sense of ownership, leaning into those concepts of meaning and mastery with guidance and mentorship, but also a greater degree of autonomy than a traditional educational setting might provide,” said Dean of Enrollment Management and College Counseling Michael Conklin. “All of that is inherently linked to the school’s mission.”

The academic concentration framework will be introduced this winter to 9th- and 10th-grade students, with options in Global Studies or research science, and then will expand to include other disciplines in subsequent years. 

Following the initial rollout, the school is exploring the option of introducing entrepreneurship, humanities, and the arts in upcoming years. The expansion potentially will continue with engineering and environmental science.

In adding the academic concentrations, the school will not change graduation requirements for the foundational liberal arts education students receive, noted Associate Head of School for School Life Julia Stojak Maurer ’90, P ’18, ’20, ’22, ’23, ’28. These focused pathways will allow students to complement a core course of study with in-depth investigation.

“Growing evidence emphasizes how essential a self-determined, meaningful connection is to long-term retention of knowledge and to finding joy in learning,” Maurer said. “An academic concentration offers a powerful way to deepen student engagement, support intellectual growth, and elevate the overall academic culture of the school. This program will foster sustained inquiry and purposeful choice, key indicators of deep learning.”

Dean of Academics Jennifer Miller Smith ’97, P ’23, ’24 likens the concentrations to a menu that students can select from, based on their interests and abilities.

“For example, in several concentrations, we recommend calculus because it is a common college requirement,” Smith said. “However, it’s a ‘menu’ option rather than a strict mandate, ensuring students who start in Algebra I can still successfully complete their concentration.”

Students will begin exploring concentrations when they are in 10th grade. During meetings with college counselors, students will select classes and related experiential opportunities. The academic office and the Office of College Counseling will collaborate to track a student’s progress.

“We recognize that not all students will be interested in or ready to declare a concentration in 10th grade,” Maurer noted. “We will continue to support these students as we do now, and they will still have the option to engage meaningfully in a capstone experience during their senior year.”

The school analyzed potential pathways for several typical student profiles and determined that academic concentrations will be possible for all students.

“Students can achieve that depth of study in a particular area of interest without sacrificing the breadth of their experience here,” Conklin said. “Our college counselors and academic office have been in frequent communication to make sure that we’re aligned in the guidance that we’re giving students. That support accounts for Mercersburg’s policies and the evolving landscape of college admissions.”

The concentrations will help students do work that is distinct, unique to them and their experience, Conklin said.

“My hope is that one measure of success will be the response of the colleges to the quality of this work,” Conklin said. “We’re building the structure, making space for students to do what we know they’re capable of doing, holding them to a high standard, creating expectations, and providing a high level of support so they can do and achieve things that they maybe never thought themselves capable of achieving.        

“When you have a really highly motivated student, you want to give them the tools and, to an extent, get out of their way.”

Goals for the initiative include helping students understand which courses will be most useful based on what they want to do after Mercersburg, and providing clarity externally on what the student’s focus and accomplishments are, Smith said.

“We can’t measure success until we have it enacted,” Smith noted. “But early conversations indicate that the colleges our students are applying to would appreciate something like this, that it would help them. College admissions offices don’t have a lot of time to read applications, so anything that provides more clarity is useful for them.”

In addition to the coursework, students will participate in engagement opportunities offered by the school. For the Global Studies concentration, students can choose experiences such as traveling internationally with the school, serving as a language fellow, or working as a language or history teaching assistant.

For the research science concentration, students can choose from such options as a science-focused summer internship, serving as a math and science fellow, or participating in the Bahamas or Iceland Global Programs trips.