Growth Takes Time

The New Acorns to Oaks Program Holds Promise for the Future of the Maclay Upper School

Photo by Simon Wilkes on Unsplash

At the advent of the 2025-26 school year, Maclay Upper School launched a new connection-building program called Acorns to Oaks, where each upper school student was assigned a group that would meet once a month during Community Time. While the future of the program is promising, it’s still in its early stages, and more time will be needed to determine its overall success.

The program consists of 58 different groups, with approximately two freshmen, two sophomores, two juniors, two seniors and one faculty member per group. These small groups are meant to increase participation and facilitate closer connection between the student body.

“Being in a group of eight,  you can't just sit in the corner and not be a part of it,”  Dean of Upper School Student Affairs Heather Bas said. “So that's where the small group size was so crucial for being able to spend time together.”

The goal of Acorns to Oaks is to create a safe space that students can rely on throughout their time in upper school. When the seniors graduate and everyone else moves up, two more freshmen will be added to each group. This not only welcomes the new Upper School students, but also provides each student with a connection that will last longer than a year.

“[Acorns to Oaks] derived from a mentor program that we learned about at a summer conference from a school with similar characteristics of Maclay telling us that it was a foundation of their culture because the grades all grow with each other as they move through their high school career,” Bas said. “We decided to show the growth from the acorn to the famous oak trees all around campus.”

Each group has slightly different approaches to the program that are developed as the year goes on. This allows some individualism between each group and allows students to discover common interests.

“I like the activities that our teachers do because everyone does different things,” senior Anna Chuku said. “[I like to] see what my friends do.”

While Acorns to Oaks is an appealing concept, it will take a while before results are visible. Building connections takes time, so it’s hard to immediately know whether the program will be a success. The level of success will also vary from group to group, making it difficult to label the program as a success or a failure.

“It definitely takes time,” Bas said. “We don't want to force it, obviously, and I hope some groups get a little more inspired to share a little bit with each other.”

Some groups already have strong connections and are able to comfortably talk around each other. 

“I have Dr. Bevilacqua and we always [have] very deep and very genuine conversations with our groups,” junior Lauren Ferraro said. “That's really nice.”

On the other hand, some groups are still struggling to make a connection with each other. This is an inevitable blockade that has to be passed before a major connection can be established. Regardless, students feel that, as time goes on, they will start feeling more connected with their groups.

“Sometimes it’s a little bit awkward just because we don’t really know each other that well, but I feel like that will go away as we continue having meetings,” junior Avery Campbell said.

While the focus is primarily on a better connected upper school, efforts are being made to bridge the connection schoolwide. This expansion is something that upper school connection groups haven’t really emphasized before and is very promising for the future of the program.

“One of my favorite parts about my group is how we interact with the lower school,” Campbell said. “We do things as a group, but also our group interacts with the little kids.”

Middle school has a House Cup system, which is similar in structure to Acorns to Oaks. The hope is that Acorns to Oaks will become an even stronger connection than the Houses and ultimately meet more often. The House Cup system, then, will be a beneficial transition from middle to upper school. 

“[Middle schoolers] have a similar way of the older students welcoming in the new younger students into their House Cup team,” Bas said. “What we'd like to see instead is the Acorns to Oaks groups meet more often, have more opportunities to be together and build those bonds.”

There’s certainly excitement surrounding what Acorns to Oaks could do for the overall connectivity of the upper school. Even as seniors graduate and freshmen move up, there will still be a level of stability. It will just take time to truly see the growth.

“I hope students find opportunity, but that the freshmen can hear from the seniors and the juniors of what they're going through in those upper classman years experiences and that they have something to look forward to,” Bas said. “...Again, that's the goal. We'll get there.”