Over 1,600 family members crowded campus last weekend to catch a glimpse of Andover life during the annual Parents’ Weekend, which ran from Friday, October 26 to Sunday afternoon.
This year, parents had the opportunity to attend a new “Parent-to-Parent” forum. The forum was sponsored by Parents of Students at Phillips Academy (PSPA) and the Graham House Counseling Center to help families adjust to life with a student at boarding school, according to the Andover website.
The forum discussed family communication during school, parental separation anxiety and caring for a child from afar.
PSPA organized the forum in order to give parents a chance to talk to one another and to enable returning Andover parents to share parenting tips, according to Debby Murphy ’86, Director of Alumni Affairs.
The College Counseling Office (CCO) also hosted a meeting in Kemper Auditorium for parents of Juniors and Lowers about beginning the college search process. In the past, students and their families generally did not meet with the CCO until their Upper year.
In addition to meeting with their students’ teachers and house counselors, parents also had the opportunity to tour the Addison Gallery of American Art and visit the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology.
Many families found Grasshopper Night, a student-produced variety show performed on Friday and Saturday evenings, to be a highlight of their weekend.
“I loved Grasshopper Night the most because I could see all the different talents at the school,” said Angela Tang ’16.
On Saturday morning, parents attended their students’ classes, with each period lasting 20 minutes.
“We were able to put a face to all the names that [our son] had talked about,” said Ann Kelleher, mother of Benjamin Kelleher ’16.
Murphy said, “The goal [of the weekend] is for parents to ‘experience’ their child’s life on campus…to sit in on classes, attend dance, music and theater performances, athletic events.”
After the classes, they attended a special All-School Meeting for parents, where Head of School John Palfrey and MJ Engel ’13, Executive Secretary of Student Council, spoke. The meeting also included performances by Keynotes, Andover’s co-ed a capella group, and Tang on the violin.
“The most important ‘objective’ for Parents’ Weekend is that parents and their children are able to reconnect and have some quality time together,” Murphy wrote in an e-mail to The Phillipian.
Tang said she enjoyed reuniting with her family “after two months of living solely with friends.”
Daphne Xu ’14 said, “When you see [parents] at first, it’s really exciting, but I admit that after a while it can get a little exhausting–but overall, it was really good to see my parents again, to get away from the work.”
“I don’t really get to talk to [my parents] that much because of the time difference between here and Jordan, so actually being able to talk to them for more than half an hour at a time was nice,” said Dory Jones ’13.
