WOODSTOCK --- The Woodstock Academy, beginning with the 2017-2018 school year, will offer a Post Graduate Program. The PG program will be academically focused with athletic and extra-curricular components.
The Post Grad Program, similar to a gap year program, allows students who have already graduated from high school to bolster their academics in preparation for college, while also further developing their individual interests; whether it be through participation in Post-Graduate athletics, crafting a more robust artistic portfolio, or another specialized program.
The Academy is already preparing a robust SAT prep course which will be offered to all students, and will be an essential part of the Post Graduate Program. In preparation for the Post Graduate Program, The Academy is strengthening its partnerships with Quinebaug Valley Community College, Eastern Connecticut State University, and other local colleges to offer more college level courses for college credit. These classes would be open to both traditional and PG students.
Headmaster Chris Sandford said, “As the demand for quality post graduate programs increases, The Woodstock Academy is uniquely positioned to meet that need with the facilities and flexibility that the acquisition of South Campus affords.”
Students will enroll in the Post Graduate Program through an application process separate from traditional high school students. Students from the local area, across the country, and around the world are all encouraged to apply. The program will attract a variety of students and increase the diversity of the student body. Sandford said that “Diversity among the student body is invaluable in helping students understand the world.”
Then
This is Bugbee's department store in 1955, downtown Putnam. Putnam Town Crier file photos.
& Now
This is the same sidewalk today, looking toward the Montgomery Ward building. Bugbee's is now the Antiques Marketplace.
PUTNAM — Mix roast pork and bowling balls — and you get a college degree.
That’s the plan, anyway, for Putnam High School Class of 2016 alumna and UConn freshman Elyse M. Bergeron, who is this year’s recipient of the $1,000 Cargill Council 64, Knights of Columbus, Dr. Robert Johnston Memorial Scholarship.
The council raised the money for the annual, competitive scholarship by holding a bowling tournament and a pork dinner.
In keeping with the council’s policy, Bergeron was actually selected last spring. The scholarship program’s rules call for the winning applicant to receive the money after they’ve successfully completed their first semester of college. That wasn’t a problem for Bergeron.
An excellent student, Bergeron is studying biological sciences at UConn, with plans to follow that up with a graduate degree from pharmacy school, on the way to becoming a pharmacist. She said she already has enough credits to earn her bachelor’s degree a year early, in just three years. The 18-year-old is grateful for being selected to receive the scholarship, saying it will be a big help to her education.
The scholarship program is named for the late Dr. Robert Johnston, a Putnam dentist and a Cargill Council Past Grand Knight, who died in 1966. One of his sons, Shawn T. Johnston, said the scholarship was awarded intermittently since shortly after his father’s death and has been given out continuously since 1986. The program is open to any Putnam High School senior who plans to earn a college degree leading to a career in health care.
Winter Sky
The sky has a certain Maxfield Parrish sparkle in the wintertime. The moon hangs in the sky above the Woodstock Airport. More photos on page 6. Linda Lemmon photo.