Westminster School
Horizons
Westminster School, in Simsbury, Connecticut, is an independent, coeducational school with a diverse, close-knit community of 95 faculty and 407 students from around the world in Grades 9-12 and postgraduate (75% boarding, 25% day). Driven by a desire to serve young people and the responsibility of an independent school to serve a public purpose, Westminster’s mission statement concludes with a call to “commit to a life of service beyond self.” Horizons at Westminster is an outgrowth of that mission with a transformative and long-term impact on the young people of Hartford and the Westminster community. This tuition-free, summer learning program leverages a public-private school partnership to close opportunity gaps and advance educational equity for students from under-resourced areas in Hartford.
Our six-week summer program delivers a comprehensive curriculum—focused on literacy and STEAM education and enriched with experiential learning, field trips and swim lessons. Saturday Academies during the school year support students’ learning. Horizons students start in 1st grade and return every summer through 8th grade. The powerful combination of early intervention and long-term commitment helps underserved students from Hartford transcend the statistics of their peer group and fulfill their potential.
In Summer 2022, Horizons at Westminster surpassed the half-way point of building out its program with 75 students in Grades 1-5. We will continue to add 15 first graders each summer through 2025—when the program reaches full enrollment with 120 students in Grades 1-8. The generous support of the E.E. Ford Foundation, combined with two matching endowed gifts, has been a critical catalyst for setting Horizons at Westminster on a path toward a sustainable future.
The Westminster community has wrapped its arms around Horizons at Westminster. Each year, nearly 70 Westminster students volunteer in the classroom, chaperone field trips and work with students on reading and math. The “two-way-street” nature of this program is abundantly clear—as our Westminster student volunteers learn and grow alongside Horizons students. As volunteers develop lesson plans, help students learn to swim and create science labs, they master an academic subject well enough to teach it, shore up their water-safety skills, and hone their own STEAM skills of problem-solving, critical thinking and communication. This strong partnership has served as an important incubator for Westminster students in their growing commitment to service. The long-term impact is transformative as Westminster students widen their global perspectives, deepen their habits of service, and develop an understanding of the structural inequalities that plague under-resourced communities.
The benefits of Horizons at Westminster reverberate among the broader community. Horizons students start each school year with stronger academic skills, increased confidence and experience working collaboratively—all of which buoy the culture and level of work in the classroom. According to Christine McCarthy, principal of our partner school in Hartford,
“Horizons students grow to become leaders among their peers, and that has a tremendous ripple effect on our school.” We are inspired by the program’s profound impact on Horizons students and the Westminster community.
For more information, please visit Horizons at Westminster.