On Wednesday, October 12, the Kent community took a break from the usual schedule of classes to engage in multiple activities. Third-formers were involved in a Third Form Day of Service, fourth-formers had an educational wellness meeting, fifth-formers were taking PSATs and sixth-formers had an opportunity to work on their college essays with the help of English and ARC teachers and College Counselors. 

This year’s Third Form Day of Service consisted of activities such as Apple Pie Baking, where the students baked twenty-four apple pies and four sheets of chocolate chip cookies. Other groups organized books for the sale at Kent Memorial Library in town, played with kids at the Kent Nursery School, visited the Morningstar Nursing Home to visit with residents and play music, and planted trees on campus.

Fourth-formers had a Day of Wellness, including a lecture with the sleep expert Dr. Whitney Roban, who talked about why sleep is important, and what can be done to improve sleep. Although the session had to be on Zoom, the meeting was a great start to the conversation of the sleep barriers Kent students experience. Our new Wellness Director, Dr. Ann Kearney, is already working on how to improve the sleep environment by bringing more sleeping tools on campus. Dr. Whitney Roban also gave advice on the sleeping room temperature, food before sleep, and sleep hygiene. “The meeting was interesting – I learned that it is not very healthy to take naps after 3pm, and that they should be limited to 30 minutes only,” shared Sofia Sanabria ’25.

While the North Court was packed with the fifth formers taking the PSAT, a lot of the seniors were very pleased to have a day off to focus on college work. “The comments from the English teachers were very helpful, said Tara Edwards ’23.