Going Beyond

Founded in 1821, New Hampton School (NHS) offers a transformative education to young men and women from across the country and around the world.  Students take advantage of outstanding facilities in the arts, the sciences, and athletics; a wide range of opportunities for service and hands-on experience, and a talented faculty committed to holistic development.

NHS is committed to becoming more fully connected to an increasingly global world, in order to provide students with the skills that they need to be successful in life.  The school is creating a progressive curriculum, a culturally relevant education, international networks, educational travel, and strategic alliances and partnerships that will set it apart from other independent schools, both regionally and nationally.

Purposeful exploration—be it on the alpine tower of the school-owned Burleigh Mountain, or sharing research results of a cooperative project with the University of New Hampshire’s Forest Watch Program on the biology blog “Global Problems, Local Solutions”—defines NHS, a college preparatory day and boarding school set within New Hampshire’s Lakes Region, near the magnificent White Mountains. NHS enrolls 320 students from 26 states and 14 nations.

Director of Admission Suzanne Walker Buck has arrived at a time of major change, as the school is enacting a Strategic Plan created under the leadership of Head of School Andrew Menke. The plan sets forth the challenge: “We commit to the development of a new curriculum...to raise consciousness and competencies around national and international challenges and opportunities that affect our planet and our peoples in the years ahead.” Buck is redirecting admissions and marketing to support Menke’s vision.

“The core of the school—our progressive environment, our focus on community, our huge breadth of academic, athletic, and arts offerings for a diverse population of learners—all this is unchanged,” Buck explained. “We will continue to send incredibly talented musicians off to Berkeley School of Music, and basketball players to Division I schools and the NBA. Our outdoor programs are phenomenal, and we offer what boarding schools traditionally offer, which is close relationships between faculty and students.

“What has changed is our rededication to serving kids better by holding them more accountable. We aim to develop in our students a greater awareness of their places in an increasingly global world, within the context of their local community. We are committed to providing opportunities for authentic self-discovery and transformation.”

Buck is new to PORTAL, as well. She is emphatic about the potential benefit of taking ownership of her own data: “So often when using a data system, that’s all it is, just a data system. You’re not looking at the relevance of the data. There’s a huge difference when you make your database more relational. Admissions is a business; admissions people are relational people.

“In the schools where I worked prior to coming here, we used Blackbaud; at one school, we had a FileMaker system that had been created in-house. I felt frustrated using a closed system that asks you to think like it does. Blackbaud wasn’t giving the information I wanted. In contrast, even though we are using only a fraction of PORTAL’s capability, using inRESONANCE has been a dream.

“I am a new user, and my ‘administrative goddess’ is also new. There are certain key functions we use most often. We personalize our letters, pulling lists of soccer kids, for example. It is easy to generate these kinds of reports in PORTAL, it’s an effective tool. We have done a few customizations, and we are starting to develop a wish list for more: we need to create different buttons—to put a new student on the development watch list, for example. We have created a few new reports. I look forward to changing layouts myself, and I have started to try to get information out in a different way.

“I am grateful for the great support we get from our director of technology, Eric LaCroix. Eric has encouraged our office to do more. Dottie, our installer from iR, has been really great, super responsible in getting back to us. And I look forward to attending iRU to gain more skill.”

Eric LaCroix added to this interview by email, writing: "One of my passions is helping people to see the real story behind the data they so dutifully collect, after working with them to get that data collected in a more user-friendly way. Years ago I selected FileMaker as my tool to meet those needs as I began building databases to patch the gaps of other systems we had in-house at New Hampton... Blackbaud, DOS-based specialized software, MacSchool, etc. 

"As users began to see how powerfully, quickly and beautifully FileMaker databases could be designed to meet their needs, we began creating our own student information system in FileMaker. If we had known about KEYSTONE from inRESONANCE before embarking on that path, we would have bought it... Later, when we needed an Admission solution, I heard about inRESONANCE... and PORTAL fit the bill perfectly! I have even modified our student information system to use PORTAL's core as our new authoritative database for student and family information.

"We eliminated three other products when we installed the single PORTAL product. It's flexible, extensible, and understandable. Finally... someone made a database the way we think, instead of thinking they know how to make a database."

For more information, visit the New Hampton School web site.