Norton Family Center for the Common Good

Norton Center

Students engaged in conversation with a guest speaker

The Norton Center helps students understand who they are and the impact that they can have on the world.

The Norton Family Center for the Common Good encourages an expanded understanding of students’ roles as citizens in a diverse democracy and fosters an active, engaged approach to citizenship in our global society. The center inspires students to identify, create, and sustain ideas and actions on behalf of the common good in local-to-global contexts. The center’s curricular and community activities support the school’s mission, which exhorts our students to serve “the best self and the common good.”

Seminars in the Best Self and the Common Good

The Seminar in the Best Self provides freshmen with the time and space to encounter topics that are essential for their adjustment and flourishing both as adolescents and as members of the Loomis Chaffee community. This seminar emphasizes themes such as health and wellness, leadership, equity and inclusion, and the intersection of the best self and the common good.

The Seminar in the Common Good for sophomores builds upon the Seminar in the Best Self and asks students to think more expansively about their roles and responsibilities in the communities to which they belong. This seminar emphasizes themes such as community engagement, leadership, equity and inclusion, healthy relationships, identity, and citizenship.

Student using a button press — Seminar in the Common Good class making buttons on positive body image in the PHI.

All topics in both seminars assist in fulfilling the school's mission to advance the development of students in mind, body, and spirit, and align closely with several of the school's other co-curricular initiatives such as the advisory program, all-school convocations, and Pelican Days. The year-long seminars meet once every seven days and do not assess student work.

Community Conversations

In the interest of enabling students and faculty to engage freely in conversation about social issues and world events, the Norton Center periodically hosts Community Conversations, open to the entire school community. Topics range from specific world or national events, such as the war in Ukraine, to the impact that governmental policies and decisions have on our communities. Students often facilitate these rich and respectful conversations on topics that they have raised, practicing the art of the “town hall meeting” while they explore their own opinions, their beliefs, and their world. Community Conversations center on themes drawn from school, local, national, or world issues; personal narratives; or position statements that illuminate the theme of the common good.

Special Projects and Student-Led Initiatives

The Norton Center is a gathering space for students interested in leading and realizing their own initiatives. The Norton Center has co-sponsored teams of students working on a wide variety of projects. Examples include conversations and curricula development around issues concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion; environmental sustainability programs; and leadership development. The Norton Center's relationship with the Student Council facilitates support for student-led projects.

Campus-wide Collaborations

The Norton Center teams up with numerous departments and constituencies around campus. Examples of collaboration include support for visiting artists and musicians, student volunteer training sessions, facilitation of the work of the Chaffee Leadership Institute and Pelican Leadership Academy, co-sponsorship of Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED) professional development training, selection and coordination of the Hubbard Speakers Series, collaborations with the Center for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and shared initiatives with the Alvord Center for Global & Environmental Studies.