Be Curious About Everything

A Vision of the Academic Program

In its 1778 constitution, Phillips Academy is charged with ensuring its students learn “the great end and real business of living.” Inspired by this charge, we seek to cultivate in our students the capacities—among them analytical rigor, imaginative thought, and nuanced skepticism— necessary to identify and attain a great and worthy end: human flourishing. Our founders knew that adolescence is formative. By introducing our students to the diversity of human experience and to the complexities of the natural world, we push them to understand the world as it is. By fostering their abilities to question beliefs, systems, and the ways things are done, we press them to envision the world they seek to create.

To prepare its students for life in the world, Phillips Academy offers a liberal education. Oriented to all aspects of human experience, liberal education affirms that knowledge is intrinsically good and denies that education terminates with technical skill or professional success. Resisting specialization in favor of breadth, it initiates students into connected fields of understanding and prepares them to lead lives characterized by learning and understanding, responsibility and freedom.

The practice of responsibility and freedom demands that citizens have dispositions of the critical mind to recognize fact and valid argument and to comprehend the implications of the knowledge they produce and the things they create. It requires that citizens act against intolerance and injustice and build communities conducive to human flourishing. To help students become such citizens, Phillips Academy seeks to prepare graduates who are educated broadly, discerning of ideologies, and committed to the public good.

Our Faculty

We have hundreds of friendly, caring faculty and staff members, including more than 200 classroom teachers—nearly all of whom live on campus. They have interesting lives and complex, colorful histories. They’re versatile, inspirational, and ever-present as teachers, coaches, academic advisors, house counselors, mentors, and lifelong resources. Most of all, they were once like you: brainy, insatiably curious, multi-dimensional high school students. So they see you for who you are, and they help you discover who you’ll become.

“It’s different here. Everyone is at the same level—really smart. We’re looking for a challenge. We want to push ourselves.”

Alex, Senior New Canaan, CT

300

courses offered, including 8 world languages and 150 electives

13

students in the average class

25,000+

objects in the Addison Gallery of American Art

[footnote]

The Sidney R. Knafel Map Collection is a rare and unique collection of atlases, maps and globes dating from 1434 well into the 19th century. The maps are frequently used by classes as teaching and learning tools to gain historical perspective on subjects being studied.

Andover prides itself on having a 5:1 student to faculty ratio. Our classes are small and intensely interactive.

Meet our Faculty

These are the people that make Andover so special.

Leon Calleja

“I currently teach English electives that explore the intersections of law, literature and philosophy.”

view full profile [email protected]

Kassie Bateman ’06

Russian Department Instructor & Chair, Head Wrestling Coach, Assistant Girls Varsity Lacrosse Coach, Advisor, Bagpiper

view full profile [email protected]

Hector Membreno-Canales

Hector’s work explores official histories, American patriotism, and the Military-Industrial Complex.

view full profile [email protected]

Stephanie Curci

“We’re all constantly learning from one another, and the students keep teaching me how to teach them.”

view full profile [email protected]

Kareem Lewis

“Allowing your body to be a vessel for expression, that’s what drew me specifically to classical ballet”

view full profile [email protected]

Yasmine Allen

Spanish Instructor, CAMD Advisor

view full profile [email protected]

Paul Tortorella ’80

“It is an honor to coach in the rink named after my own coach at Andover."

view full profile [email protected]

Kiran Bhardwaj

Instructor and Chair, Philosophy and Religious Studies

view full profile [email protected]

Keith Robinson ’96

Instructor in Biology and Chemistry, Biology Department Chair, Head Coach Nordic Skiing

[email protected]

Tools for An Expansive Education

Students and Teacher in Class

Tang Institute

A catalyst for connected learning explorations and experiences on campus and beyond, the Tang Institute is dedicated to helping Andover prepare students for tomorrow’s complex and interconnected world.

Students in CAMD

Brace Center & CAMD

The Brace Center for Gender Studies and Community and Multicultural Development bring together students, faculty, and staff to learn from one another in inclusive and accepting spaces.

Students and teacher in observatory

Gelb Science Center

Three floors of flexible, contemporary lab and classroom space; college-level scientific equipment and digital integration; a seismometer, fish tanks, reptiles, and an observatory on the roof.

Two Students Looking at a Painting

Addison Gallery of American Art

A nationally renowned art museum, right in the heart of campus. Home to works from Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer, Cindy Sherman, Georgia O’Keefe and Frank Stella ’54.

students gather outside the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library

Oliver Wendell Holmes Library

Home to a makerspace, 90,000 volumes in print, hundreds of thousands of digital resources, and the most comprehensive secondary school reference library in the country.

Stuart Travis Mural

Peabody Institute of Archaeology

A rare archaeological resource. Offers interdisciplinary classes, independent project opportunities, and expeditionary programs to France and the American Southwest.