The Senior Parent Class Gift of 2018 went towards campus beautification, creating collaborative outdoor spaces in the form of patios and sitting walls, accented by newly planted trees and flowers, outside Case and Field dorms. These new spaces are accompanied and furnished with outdoor tables and chairs, the gift given by the senior class itself. “The purposes of these amenities is to provide areas for students to meet in small groups,” says headmaster Father Schell. He imagines them being used for social purposes and other collaborative work: “one of the ways to encourage learning is to make places where people can gather.”

These new spaces are especially great because they take ad- vantage of Kent’s lovely outdoor surroundings. On a beautiful fall or spring day when the weather is nice, they are especially enjoyable. The headmaster cites a tour he took at MIT as a strong influence, explaining how the outdoor collaborative spaces he saw there left a profound impact on him. “There are lots of nooks and crannies all over their campus where you have seating arrangements for three or four or five people,” he comments.