(L-R): Freshman students Marianne Rose Weber and Lauren Gray. Since 1996, students and faculty at the Waldorf School of Garden City have hosted a 3-day orientation at Camp Glen Brook, the school's 250-acre extension campus in Marlborough, New Hampshire. An event that precedes the start of school and offers new students the opportunity to meet fellow classmates as well as upper class students, this annual trip is an opportunity to officially welcome the school's freshman class to the high school. Past participants attest that their orientation experience was a great way to begin their high school career.

"Camp Glen Brook offers a year-round program that builds fundamental life skills. As an outdoor center, it also offers students a chance to pursue outdoor adventure that fosters a sense of personal responsibility and land stewardship. In the process, students learn what it takes to work together, forging new friendships and strengthening old ties," said Twain Braden, Director of Camp Glen Brook.

"In just three days of orientation at Camp Glen Brook, our new high school students learned about the value underlying a Waldorf education," said High School Chairman Roland Rothenbucher. "Seniors and faculty members welcomed the incoming freshman class through trust exercises, work projects and chores. Meeting their challenges with enthusiasm and good will, working cooperatively with one's peers and solving problems in a reflective and attentive manner, the students departed Camp Glen Brook prepared for the first day of school after having forged new friendships and renewed old ones." With a successful orientation trip day behind them, the class of 2012 can look forward to their high school journey. In May, they will return as part of their Main Lesson course in American Literature.

Straight from Glen Brook's own garden, members of the freshman class take part in a spirited corn husking competition. Throughout the school year, grades 5 through 12 each take a week-long trip to Glen Brook where they become immersed in the physical experience of their academic studies. Astronomy, botany, geology, cartography and history come to life amid the farm, fields and forests of Waldorf's New Hampshire campus. At Glen Brook, students and teachers also work side by side to tend to the farm animals, prepare meals, cut and split wood, maintain buildings and grounds and complete whatever chores this rural setting requires. In addition, Glen Brook has a high ropes challenge course which students experience in high school.

Straight from Glen Brook's own garden, members of the freshman class take part in a spirited corn husking competition. The Waldorf School of Garden City is chartered by the New York State Board of Regents and accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools and the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA). Camp Glen Brook, the school's 250-acre extension campus, is accredited by the American Camp Association (ACA). For more information about the school, please call 742-3434 ext. 129 or visit www.waldorfgarden.org. The school will host a High School Open House on Sunday, October 14, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm.

Visit http://www.waldorfgarden.org/events/ to see the photographs from High School Orientation.

Freshmen, seniors, Waldorf faculty and Camp Glen Brook staff gather for one last group picture before heading back to Garden City.