By Jenny Shen ’23
On March 30th and April 3rd, 2023, The Frederick Gunn School hosted two revisit days for admitted students. As Mrs. Day states: “revisit days are a really important part of the admission process. It’s a time for us to invite accepted students and their families back to campus for another look, and hopefully experience what we call a day in the life of an FGS student.” In preparation for this event, the admissions team put in a lot of work to make sure the students that were revisiting were feeling like they were getting to know our current students. Each accepted student was matched with people that were similar to them in age, grade, and interest so they could feel connected to the school.
The day was divided into two parts, one was for the revisiting students to connect with current students to get to know the school better, and the other was for the parents to get more information about our school and what the experience would be like for their students. During the day, the admission hosted a leadership panel that included Ms. Gum, Mr. Low, Mrs. Leblanc, and Mr. Drew for the revisiting parents to meet with the leaders at the school, while also allowing the parents to either go sit in a class or hear academic and college counseling sessions. In addition, the school also hosted a student panel where the parents got to have six representatives of our students in front of them for questions and discussions. “This is usually what the revisiting parents enjoy the most about the whole experience,” says Mrs. Day. Later in the day, the admissions team brought the revisiting students and parents back together for a couple of art performances from the string ensemble and the chorus. Then the day ended with the co-curricular fair and more panels that talked about various programs, athletics, art, campus life, academics, Gunn Outdoors, and Citizenship and Just Democracy.
When asked how this year’s revisit day was different from the previous ones, Mrs. Day said: “I think the TPACC and the auditorium, as spaces where we can gather our visitors, brought a really positive impact on revisit days for us. And then when we open up the Lizzie next year, it will be even better, because we will have additional spaces for our families. Also, what I feel like has been different is that we really try to have more and more faculties and students involved in the revisit day process each year.” When asked the same question, Ms. Hedden answered: “During last year’s revisit day we did master classes, so we had these primary classes that we allowed students that were visiting to select from. This year, we sent students into real-functioning, day-to-day classes. We also had students go through the servery this year, which we didn’t last year because of covid. The feedback is great, I think we do a good job of presenting in a good way but also being authentic at the same time.”
When recalling her experiences at the revisit days this year, Mrs. Day expressed that “I really enjoy seeing the interactions between the visiting families and the current faculties, students, and parents at the beginning of the day during family registration. I like the end of the day as well where families are able to come out again and connect with people in our community directly at the fairs. I feel like those are moments where they really get to see us in our authentic selves. I also really enjoy watching the student panel, having students up there talking directly to the parents, and taking questions. They are just such a great representation of our school. They make us really proud.” Ms. Hedden also remarked: “The best part of revisit days is to see revisiting students, whom I’ve met in my office during one-on-one meetings, start to actually integrate into the community. It’s a fulfilling part of the job when you see little friend groups starting and Snapchat being exchanged, where you can look back four years from now and kids will talk about ‘Oh I remember meeting you on revisit day!’ It gets me excited for the years to come.”
Lastly, I just want to give a big thank you to all of the students and faculties who participated in and made this year’s revisit day such a success! It truly takes everyone’s best effort to make this day special for the revisiting families. Thank you again and be proud of yourself for your hard work!
