That moment you realized USL was right for your child.
These are thoughts from Peter and Oksana Ingle on why USL was a great fit for their daughter Olivia.
“We will always be grateful to USL for its core values, distinct culture, and unique focus on human interaction and communication. A few specifics stand out:
• USL is a place where the head of school teaches as well as administrates, knows each student personally, and takes thoughtful interest in each child’s personal as well as academic growth.
• USL is a school where students are scored, not only with customary grades, but through a comprehensive “skill wheel” of learning and maturity traits that are surprisingly not part of every school’s measure of its students’—and its own—success. Each student’s skill wheel is
completed by the teachers every quarter and each student is required to respond with comments via a personal letter to the head of school. It is a rare form of direct, clear communication between all the parties involved in education.
• USL is a school where every student participates in an advisory group of peers that includes one student from each grade. These groups meet regularly, discuss things, learn from each other, and take direct responsibility for the school. A secret ingredient is that the groups
provide a powerful means of cross-fertilization throughout the school where everyone knows everyone else from direct, ongoing contact.
• USL is well known for its weekly Wednesday field trips throughout the tri-counties and across the state. These trips include a wide range of community-involvement events, exposure to every religious faith, and real education about local, regional, and national politics. The trips are a remarkable, exhaustive addition to the standard curriculum and a
very practical complement to it. USL parents can often be heard saying that they wish they had had such a regular dose of learning-by-doing (and seeing) while they were in school.
These elements (and more) of USL instill powerful lessons of human interaction that weave classroom learning into a broader, richer fabric of growth and excellence. Such growth and such excellence lies at the core of what education is really about and, fortunately, this fact has not been
lost on Jason Kreutner, his unique vision for USL, and the extraordinary cast of teachers who support it. USL clearly enriched and broadened our daughter’s personal, social, and learning potential in a way that has not only prepared her extremely well for high school, but which surprises her new peers, catches the attention of teachers, and keeps opening doors of discovery and opportunity. We consider ourselves among the lucky ones who found this school and held onto it for six wonderful years.”
