Peter Hutton—Head of Beaver from 1992 to 2020—inspired Beaver faculty and students to launch/test/refine their ideas, make excellent mistakes, embrace the New Basics, and learn from outside experts sharing their knowledge with our community.
As a result, Learning By Doing has become the hallmark of teaching and learning at Beaver—and it is here to stay. When Peter announced his departure, we knew the best way to honor his contribution to our school history was to create a way of keeping BVR a step ahead. The Hutton Explore Fund is an endowment set up to ensure that our students and our teachers have the resources to launch, test, and refine new ideas.
As we envisioned this effort, we imagined taking existing courses to the next level. For example, in our current Entrepreneurship Class, Upper School students develop their own new and innovative companies and then pitch them to a panel of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs at the end of the term—aka Shark Day. Already a sought-after course, we know we can always iterate and add another dimension by helping students take their ideas to market. Peter had dreamed of providing funds for our student CEO teams to start a company while in school, with the support of our connected community.
In just a few short months, more than $1M was raised to honor Peter Hutton and preserve a hallmark of his leadership: to be ready for the ideas that we haven’t thought of yet.
So what kind of impact is the Hutton Explore Fund having already: Exactly what Peter hoped: it is funding something new.This month, we welcomed Joe Delfino, Beaver’s first Computational Thinking (CT) Professional In Residence. Joe’s job is to partner with our teachers and students to explore CT so that they understand how algorithms, artificial intelligence and computers shape the world around us and to help them learn how to collaborate with computers so that they can have an impact on our increasingly digital world.
“Beaver actively prepares for the future. Rather than waiting until they get to college, or their careers, to start working on real issues, Beaver provides resources, expertise, and frameworks that give students access to work on things that matter to them now and that need solving today. Beaver is also committed to forming partnerships with outside organizations to expand Beaver’s academic experience, guiding and encouraging our students to make valuable connections.”
— Peter Hutton (Head of School, 1992-2020)
Celebrating Peter Hutton (in-person, finally!)
On May 6, during Reunion Weekend, we were able to come together to celebrate Peter as a community (previous celebrations had to be postponed due to Covid). Alumni, former parents, trustees, and faculty and staff gathered to connect and raise a glass to Peter. Rob Connor—a beloved past Beaver faculty member who began as a history teacher and then served as department chair, Upper School director, and eventually, Assistant Head of School—shared his experience working with Peter, and current Head of School Kim Samson thanked Peter for his contributions.
The greatest gift for a new Head of School has to be joining a community in which the mission is DEEPLY embedded, from the Head of the Board to the youngest students in the sixth grade, including the entire faculty and staff. You gave that gift to me. Everyone at Beaver knows that we are an outlier in education because we are ALL ABOUT Expanding the Nature of School and keeping students firmly at the center of every decision we make. That is YOUR legacy at Beaver, Peter; and it is the foundation upon which I’ve begun my work here.”
— Kim Samson, Head of School