Welcome

WESTMINSTER WELCOME | 3

Welcome to Westminster

Westminster School began with the idea of surrounding young people with smart, accomplished and resourceful adults who would instill in their students the desire to pursue excellence in everything they did and who would give them plenty of opportunities to learn and grow. That idea of mixing excellence and opportunity still captures the essence of a Westminster education.

4 | WESTMINSTER WELCOME

WESTMINSTER WELCOME | 5

More than a century and a quarter later, Westminster is one of America’s leading independent boarding and day schools. Through the years, the school’s mission has remained constant, to provide students with an outstanding education that extends far beyond the classroom. In the process, Westminster strives to put the school’s motto Virtute et Numine, loosely translated as Grit and Grace, into the character of every person who becomes a part of the Westminster community.

Westminster School sits atop Williams Hill in Simsbury, a quaint town in north central Connecticut in the heart of New England, about equidistant from Boston and New York City. The town is just a short walk from campus and affords students the opportunity to meet a faculty member for a coffee, catch up with friends over pizza or enjoy a nice meal with visiting family. With easy access to the greater Hartford area, opportunities abound.

It is a great location for a school, especially for a school dedicated to bringing excellence and opportunities together for its students and committed to preparing them in every way possible to meet head-on the world before them, equipped to make the choices they will need to make in that world. That is the promise of a Westminster education.

Students come to Williams Hill from approximately 25 states and 20 countries. They come with open minds and big hearts. When they get here, they connect in so many ways with a diverse and inspiring faculty— a whole world of adults who want to be in their lives, who see being involved in the lives of their students as another opportunity to develop character, as another way of building grit and grace.

At Westminster, grit means never, ever giving up, no matter how perplexing the problem set, no matter how intractable the canvas or the song, no matter how great the odds in the gym or on the playing field. Grit means seeking every opportunity to learn and grow.

Grace means always pursuing excellence, always aspiring to do better and to be better, always accepting the highs as well as the lows with humility, courage and humanity. Grace means looking people in the eye, always offering a helping hand, being polite and gracious, in victory and in defeat.

There is a synergy between grit and grace that turns these virtues into the highest of ideals and the most powerful of personal qualities. Where grit and grace come together, where excellence meets opportunity, almost anything is possible.

The idea that individuals and the communities they live in could be defined by the pursuit of excellence originated in Greece in the 5th century BCE. The ancient Greeks believed that human beings were most fully human, and reached their fullest potential, when they aspired to be the best they could be in every endeavor of their lives. Their word for excellence, arête, is sometimes translated as virtue, as in Westminster’s motto Virtute et Numine.

Excellence is not inherent. That’s what education and schools are for, to provide students with the training, guidance, inspiration, and, most importantly, the opportunities they need to move towards excellence.

The word “opportunity” means a situation or condition favorable for attainment of a goal or a good chance or prospect for advancement or success. The word comes from two Latin words meaning “convenient” and “doors,” and nothing could describe better what Westminster offers its students. Convenient doors to knowledge and skills and habits of mind. Convenient doors to the wisdom of the past and to the possibilities of the future.