An Education for an Inspired Life

“Asheville School has remained small by design, not succumbing to the idea that bigger is better. Here, you will feel strongly supported in exploring your interests, displaying your talents, and coming to know – and show – who you are as a distinct individual.” Archibald R. Montgomery, IV8th Head of School

Our mission is to prepare our students for college and for life,

and to provide an atmosphere in which all members of a diverse,

engaged, and purposefully small school community appreciate

and strive for excellence — an atmosphere that nurtures

character and fosters the development of mind, body, and spirit.

Our School Motto, Vitae Excelsioris Limen, translates to “Threshold of a Higher Life.”

Our Core Values: Perseverance, Integrity, Respect, Compassion

“Asheville School prepares kids for life. If the kids take it seriously and really try, it creates in them a sense of life skills early on that will carry them through college and the workplace.”

Gary Dickinson, Class of 1974Father of Meredith Dickinson 2014and Hudson Dickinson, Fifth Form, JuniorSarasota, FL

“Coming here was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. From my academic capability to my relationships with adults, to my social ability and my athletic ability – absolutely everything has grown. In every aspect of life, I have been growing as a person.”

Olivia WatersSixth Form, SeniorBoone, NC

5 miles from downtown Asheville

“I love living on campus and I love living on the dorm. You

make special connections that you wouldn’t if you’d been

going to a day school. You get to see people outside their

normal roles. You see them as students, friends, athletes,

singers, roommates. You get to share everything with a

whole group of people. Basically they become your family,

and that’s a really cool thing.”

Luis De La CruzClass of 2015 Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Our Students

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Zan McPhersonClass of 2014Seattle, WA

“The teachers here want you to experience different types

of writing skills. The writing curriculum gives you this broad

range of what you will be writing in college depending on

what classes you take. You’re not just doing research

papers and you’re not just doing creative writing.”

40%acceptance

rate

“The minute I got here, I knew it was the place where I wanted to be.”

Niara WebbSixth Form, Senior

Cary, NC

“I don’t think I’ve worked harder in my life. You learn what real hard work is. There’s no other place on the planet that prepares you like Asheville School does.”

Corrie KuehnClass of 2015Asheville, NC

Our Faculty

“It’s a special kid who chooses to come here — who wants something different out of a high school education. There’s a buy-in that you don’t necessarily have at other schools.”

Helen PlaehnInstructor of Humanities

“Being part of a boarding school, the students know

about us. They know who my kids are. They know what I

like to do, and I can bring that into the classroom. They

know that I’m not just a math guy. I think that most of

my colleagues are sharing their personal stories and

professional stories with their kids in the classroom,

and I think that makes a rich environment.”

Dr. Mike HillInstructor of MathematicsDepartment Chair

73% of teaching faculty hold advanceddegrees

“I love seated meals. I like that we take a timeout in the middle of the day. I love getting to know kids that I wouldn’t have interacted with otherwise. I think it is a healthy practice for them to learn to carry on a conversation with others.”

Megan Grant Instructor of Mathematics

“Asheville School is a challenging environment, but it’s a real hands-on caring environment, especially for ninth-and tenth-graders.”

Frank Kriegler Instructor of SciencesDepartment Chair

4:1Overall

student-facultyratio

The ClassroomAsheville School has high expectations for every student in the classroom. The academic course of study is rigorous and stresses a traditional core curriculum of Humanities, mathematics, science, foreign language and the arts.

Through the study of these subjects, students learn the fundamentals of good writing, critical thinking, and clear and persuasive communication.

While the curriculum may be traditional, faculty use technological tools and innovative approaches to teaching to engage and help students connect subject matter and ideas.

The Asheville School classroom is a warm and inviting place. Class size is small, allowing students to engage in respectful discussion and debate with their peers or one-on-one guidance with their teacher.

“There’s a 1950s kind of neighborhood feel to this campus, and yet it’s a 21st century global community.”

Jay BonnerAssociate Head of SchoolHumanities Teacher

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1 Alpine Tower 2 Anderson Hall3 Arbogast Field4 Arnold Field5 Baxter Taylor Tennis Center6 Bement House7 Boyd Chapel8 Brooks-Hollandsworth House

Asheville School Campus Map

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300 acres of campus

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9 Crawford Music House10 To Downtown Asheville11 Faculty Duplexes12 Faculty Housing13 Fall House14 Kehaya House15 Lawrence Hall & Clarke House16 Lewis Field17 Lower Soccer Field18 Mitchell Hall19 Outdoor Learning Center

20 Paulsen Outdoor Center21 Perkins-Raymond Building / Walker Arts Center22 Rodgers Memorial Athletic Center23 Sharp Hall24 Skinner Library / Memorial Hall25 Stables & Ireland Riding Ring26 Vandergrift Science Center

Visit our Virtual Campus Tour on our award-winning app at ashevilleschool.org/app.

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Academics: A SamplingChineseWe offer it, along with French and Spanish. Note: We have a cooperative agreement with Tsinghua University High School in Beijing, China where several of our students will study abroad.

Calculus and/or AP StatisticsWe want everyone to take at least one.

AP English Language and CompositionEveryone will take it.

Classics We read Shakespeare, Homer, Dante,and Chaucer, for starters.

Cutting edge We have top-notch technology with fiber-connected buildings & offer wireless Internet.

Class sizeSmall, very small. Average class size: 13 students.

ConnectionsWe make them across disciplines including history, art, literature, music, philosophy and religion. We also make them across the world (we have part-nered with Shoulder to Shoulder, which supports student service in seven Third World countries).

CoreWe offer the courses and study skillsstudents need for college and for life.

Advanced Placement Our students excel. We have even added AP Computer Science.

CollegesOur students are, frankly, over prepared. Today, they’re attending such colleges as Harvard, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, among others.

College Work & Readiness AssessmentWe were among the first schools to participatein this new testing. The results affirm our students are mastering critical writing, problem solving, reading and thinking. By graduation, our seniors are outperforming students at public and independent schools: a value added by the Asheville School experience.

13 students is the

average class size

Our TraditionsAs a school founded over a century ago, we honor some special traditions that have become

essential to our identity. We simply wouldn’t be Asheville School without seated family-style

meals, the chapel program, girls field hockey & giris lacrosse, and our Blues vs. Greenies football

rivalry, with the first game dating back to 1912. Over the years, Asheville School has acquired

its share of unique traditions; slice a banana in half lenthwise, sprinkle

lemon juice and sugar on top, and you have what our community

calls the Asheville School banana. There’s even a special

selection of Vineyard Vines “banana” ties and bowties to

commemorate this tradition.

Celebrating Girls’ Sports

Family-style Seated Meals

Asheville School Banana

Playing for the Trophy

Senior Chapel Talks

“You are all so the opposite. You

have so much more trust and

sympathy toward one another

than normal high schoolers do.

You are bonded like no other

group of people I have ever been

a part of. I can’t even describe

how grateful I am for this school.

I don’t know where I’d be if I had

stayed at home.”

— excerpt from a student Chapel Talk

Our Parents

“I feel more convinced than ever not to worry one iota about her when she goes to college because she’s already mastered so many of those things that a lot of kids struggle with when they go away for the first time. She’s already two steps ahead.”

Debra (Debbie) PatrickMother of Cori Patrick, Class of 2015 Hendersonville, NC

“You show up to the Asheville School and you drop off your child. Shortly thereafter, the child that you left there at the beginning of the school year has become a young adult standing in front of you. That truly was apparent after leaving Michael there his freshman year. It was amazing in that short time the maturity level he had achieved, the development.”

Bill Holowesko Father of Michael Holowesko, Class of 2014Nassau, Bahamas

“Because of the spirit of Asheville School and the support from all of the faculty and staff, my child has been given the desire and the tools to become the student and the citizen that she wants to be. Joanna has developed friendships that will be with her a lifetime.” Lisa CromartieMother of Joanna, Fifth Form, JuniorLeesburg, GA

“Boarding is like a really weird social experiment gone amazingly right. You get to know people really well. You get to meet people you never would have met before.”

Boarding School LifeStudents arrive at Asheville School from diverse ethnic, geographic, socioeconomic and religious backgrounds, and bring with them a broad and interesting range of experiences, interests and talents.

Those rich differences come together at Asheville School and form the foundation of a caring and understanding community, where students from all over the world live and learn, side by side, for four years.

With an annual enrollment of approximately 285, Asheville School is an intentionally small community. Students and faculty know one another personally and call each other by name.

Over three-quarters of our students are boarders and reside in one of three dormitories, Anderson Hall, Lawrence Hall or Kehaya House. In those rooms and halls, students learn responsibility to oneself and respect for others, and they develop bonds with friends that will last a lifetime. Never far away are dorm parents, student leaders and other faculty ready to celebrate a student’s success, give advice, counsel or just listen.

Max WinebrennerClass of 2015

Falls Church, VA

285 students from

20 states

16 countries

80% boardingstudents

AthleticsAsheville School offers an extraordinary range of athletic opportunities for a school our size. We have 23 interscholastic sports teams during three separate seasons over the course of the year.

We compete in Boys Girls

baseball x

basketball x x

cross country x x

field hockey x

football x

lacrosse x x

soccer x x

tennis x x

track and field x x

volleyball x

wrestling x

23interscholastic sports teams

“School spirit is so big here. You’re not just cheering on your sports team; you’re cheering on your friends. People are more compelled to come to games and support the teams because they know the players personally.”

Corrie KuehnClass of 2015Asheville, NC

Go Bluesis what our fanscheer at games

“Asheville School athletics is really about one thing: team. Even in our most individualized sports — cross-country, wrestling, and swimming — our kids uphold the pull of the team, defining themselves not necessarily by what they personally accomplish in their sports but by their contribution to the team. They are Blues, and that identity, that spirit, connects them from sport to sport, season to season, and year to year.”

Tim Plaehn, volleyball coach, Humanities teacher and Honor Council Chair

“The Mountaineering program is something everyone should do at Asheville School. There are so many kids today who don’t get toexperience the outdoors. They live in big cities or towns, and they don’t really get out in nature. The Mountaineering program lets them do that.”

Zan McPhersonClass of 2014Seattle, WA

Equestrian

From competing in regional horse shows to signing up for Exceptional Equestrian, our students have excellent opportunities to learn the art of riding. Riders practice daily after classes in our Ireland Riding Ring and often ride on our more than six miles of wooded trails. School-owned horses are avail-able for students to ride, or a student may board his or her own horse.

The ArtsOfferings for Visual Arts: Ceramics, Painting, Illustration, and Industrial Design

Offerings for Performing Arts: Drama, Dance, Private Vocal and Instrumental Instruction, Chorus, Chamber Choir, Handbell Ensemble, Instrumental Ensemble

In 2015, Asheville School students won 10 Scholastic Arts Awards.

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productions

“Art is so important. It helps teach spatial reasoning, problem solving and right-brain activity. So much of our life is the rigid left brain. In this day and age, that’s not going to get you very far. It’s the creativity, inventing new ideas, and learning how to take these random pieces and put them together into some-thing that’s cohesive and new — that’s important.”

Casey ArborArt Teacher

10Scholastic Arts

Winners in 2015

Our History

Boyd Chapel — a poem

The first picture that comes to mindwhen I think of Asheville Schoolis looking out the window of my roomon the first floor of Anderson Hallat the white walls of the Chapelstanding out against the black landscapein the soft shadows of the moonlight.It is a wonderful memorythat I can see every timeI close my eyes andthink back on those days.

- Bob Kimberly 1948from his book of poems about his experience at Asheville School

Kimberly went on to graduate with a BA in Chemistry from Williams College and have a successful business career in the Pacific Northwest. In retirement, he writes poetry.

In 1900, Asheville School was founded by two Ohio men, Charles Andrews Mitchell and Newton Mitchell Anderson. They wanted to pursue a special vision of a place where boys, removed from the distractions of a city, would come to learn, play and build lifelong friendships.

The first 53 boys, in grades 5-12, were drawn largely from established Midwestern families. A century later, our diverse co-ed student body comes from all over the world, but Asheville School’s character as a small boarding school preparing students for the rigors of college remains intact.

Founded in

1900

About Asheville, NCPopulationCity: 87,000 Metro area: 425,000

By carAtlanta (3 hrs), Charlotte (2), Knoxville (1.5), Winston-Salem, (2.5), Raleigh (4), Greenville, SC (1), Charleston, SC (4), Nashville (4)

By air- 9 nonstop flights daily from Asheville Regional Airport.- Served by Allegiant, Continental, Delta, United and US Airways.- Daily nonstop flights to Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Ft Myers-Punta Gorda, Orlando-Sanford, Palm Beach, St. Pete-Clearwater- 65 miles from Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport

LodgingAsheville offers a wide variety of lodging options – from economy hotels and charming B&Bs to luxury resorts and five-star inns.

For a listing of lodging options, including several located close to campus, visit www.ashevilleschool.org/about/asheville-nc

Asheville and the city’s reputation as a great place to live and visit is being featured by a growing number of national media, including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Barron’s, Forbes, US News & World Report.

Recognized as a top arts small city 10 years running, including No. 1 in 2010and 2011

- AmericanStyle magazine

Top 10 Food & Wine Destination in the U.S.- TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice, 2011

One of the “Most Beautiful Places in America” - ABC’s “Good Morning America,” August 2011

Top 10 Architectural Wonders(Biltmore Estate)-American Institute of Architects, 2007

10 miles from

Asheville Airport

“There was an intensive focus on rounding out the entire person at Asheville School. The mandatory afternoon activities, the leadership opportunities and the academics all really prepared me well to enter college and be successful.”

David Pless, Class of 2009Atlanta, GA / Bates College Class of 2013All-American/Division III Three-Time NCAA Champion

American University of Beirut

Amherst College*

Barnard College

Bates College*

Boston College*

Boston University*

Bowdoin College

Carleton College

Centre College*

Clemson University*

College of Charleston*

College of William and Mary

Colorado College*

Columbia University*

Cornell University*

Dartmouth College

Davidson College*

Duke University*

Elon University*

Emory University*

Furman University*

George Washington University*

Georgetown University*

Georgia Institute of Technology

Grinnell College

Harvard University

Harvey Mudd College*

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Middlebury College*

New York University*

North Carolina State University*

Northwestern University

Rhodes College*

Savannah College of Art & Design*

Smith College

Spelman College

Stanford University

University of California – Berkeley*

University of California – Los Angeles*

University of Chicago

University of Georgia*

University of Illinois*

University of Michigan

University of North Carolina – Asheville*

University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill*

University of Pennsylvania*

University of Richmond*

University of the South (Sewanee)*

University of Southern California

University of Texas - Austin

University of Virginia*

University of Wisconsin

United States Military Academy (West Point)*

Vanderbilt University*

Wake Forest University*

Washington University in St. Louis

Williams College

Wofford College*

Yale University

Approximately 70 students graduate from Asheville School each year. These are some of the schools chosen by Asheville School graduates over the last 5 years (multiple matriculations have an asterisk):

“The Senior Demo is a great experience. If students choose well, they have a chance to pursue a topic they enjoy, with an adult with whom they have a connection, and then demonstrate that they are really ready to go to college.”

Jay BonnerAssociate Head of School

College Matriculation

“There was an intensive focus on rounding out the entire person at Asheville School. The mandatory afternoon activities, the leadership opportunities and the academics all really prepared me well to enter college and be successful.”

David Pless, Class of 2009Atlanta, GA / Bates College Class of 2013All-American/Division III Three-Time NCAA Champion

Asheville School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color,religion, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of itseducational or admission policies, scholarship and loanprograms, or athletic and other school-related programs.

Download the Asheville School App for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad atwww.ashevilleschool.org/app