Acorns to Oaks and Back Again

Maclay Cancels the Upper School’s Acorns to Oaks Program

Photo by Emeri Wisotsky / Maclay Andalusian

When the Acorns to Oaks program launched at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year, the goal was simple: bring upper school students from different grades together and create a time for them to connect. The program placed students into 58 small groups, each made up of roughly two students from each grade and one faculty member. Groups met once a month during Community Time, what is now called H Block. But, after being in place for only a year, the program has been canceled. 

The program was designed around the idea that groups would grow together as students advanced through upper school. Each year, graduating seniors would leave the group while new freshmen joined, creating a cycle intended to mirror the growth of an acorn to an oak tree, while having the guidance of a faculty member alongside them. Aside from the seniors graduating and new freshman joining, the intention was for the groups to otherwise remain the same, meaning that when freshmen were assigned into a certain group, they were to stay in it until they graduated. The hope was to create a deeper bond between the students in the groups as they went through their high school years together.

According to the Maclay Dean of Student Experience, Heather Bas, the concept came from a mentorship model meant to increase interconnectedness amongst different grades. However, the majority of the time, students are in classes with people only in their grade, and because of this, they are closer to peers their own age. It can be hard to create friendships with students in other grades, so by implementing this program, the hope was most likely to make it easier for different grades to be able to mentor, guide or socialize with each other. 

“We knew that the seniors had a lot of things that they could share with the 9th and 10th graders that they normally wouldn't have interacted with,” Bas explained. “It was a way to get to know some people that maybe you wouldn't normally get to know and being able to celebrate each other and be there to support each other.”

Additionally, the groups were randomized, making it so that it wasn’t likely for friends or siblings to be grouped together, once again, pushing people to befriend students that they wouldn’t have otherwise had an opportunity to hang out with.

Though the plan sounded effective on paper, maintaining a small-group structure was a difficult task. The original groups were intended to contain six to eight students, but plans to connect the middle and upper school made scheduling increasingly difficult. Adding middle students to these groups would increase group size significantly, taking away from the original goal of a more connected group.

“The original intention was six to eight students,” said Bas. “And then, once you bring another six, it starts to look and feel like a homeroom or a class.” Despite the challenges the program faced, there were still some good results. 

“Some groups were successful in meeting that kind of goal of just getting to know other kids from other grades,” said Bas. “I would hope that they still remember each other, would be willing to say ‘hi’ to each other and chat a little bit.”

While Acorns to Oaks did create opportunities for students to meet people outside their grades, scheduling conflicts, limited faculty members to lead groups and the difficulty of maintaining small groups made the program difficult to sustain.