The Hill School – along with only four other schools in the country – has been accepted into the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education (CSEE) Recognition Program for Excellence in Ethical Education.

Last summer, Ellen Nelson, Hill’s chairman of the Arts Department and adviser to the Honor Council, met David Streight, CSEE’s executive director, while attending the 2013 Institute for Ethical Education Leaders in Chicago. David and John Roberts, CCSE’s consulting editor, inspired Ellen to pursue Hill’s recognition by this select program.

With the support of Jackson Crispin ’14 and Rosa Mas Volpe ’14, Honor Council co-presidents, Ellen began gathering information relating to the Hill’s ethical standards, including the School’s mission statement; outlining ethics-related goals; determining organizational responsibility; and sharing evaluation plans.

Ellen, Jackson, and Rosa drew inspiration from The Hill School’s five Core Tenets (www.thehill.org/CoreTenets). The fourth Tenet states: “The Hill School values and nurtures principles of honesty and genuineness, courtesy and respect, and gratitude and concern for the greater good. At The Hill, character is not so much taught as subtly lived.”

This past spring, John and David visited The Hill to observe the community. A few weeks later Ellen received the letter informing her of Hill’s acceptance into this notable program. The letter highlighted Hill’s commitment to integrity by stating: “Honor and integrity are woven into coursework at The Hill. Students comment on the number of teachers who address the School’s motto in the context of a normal class experience … Where the rubber meets the road is in student life. CSEE visitors to the School were more than impressed by their casual interactions with students [who] knew what their school wanted of them, and they spoke with remarkable consensus to the fact that being at The Hill means strong relationships as much as it means growing into integrity.”