Day Student Life | Junior Program
Day students are strongly encouraged to take part in all aspects of the Junior Program experience. Though the traditional day student schedule is from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, day students are welcome to attend any or all evening activities or weekend trips, and to sleep over one night each weekend. Each day student is also assigned a Day Advisor, who helps students have a positive experience by assisting them with overnight sign-ups, answering questions about day student buses, and making sure they get to know other students. In addition, each day student is part of a single-sex day group of 8-12 students, and is assigned a locker to store swimsuits, books, and sports equipment during the day.
The Junior Program offers an extended day program for day students. Students may arrive as early as 8:00 AM and eat breakfast at the Program. Some families may have commitments that make it difficult for students to return home before dinnertime. To help meet family needs, day students are welcome to stay for the evening events as long as they have a ride home. They may eat dinner at the Program and then participate in evening activities until 8:45 PM each night. Day students are encouraged to spend one night each weekend sleeping at the Junior Program. Students arriving for breakfast, or staying for dinner or an overnight will be charged a small additional fee to cover dinner and/or breakfast.
Although not mandatory, we encourage day students to join us on our weekend and evening trips. Many day students spend the weekend at Exploration, combining a weekend trip with a Friday or Saturday overnight.
All parents are welcome to call the Junior Program at any time with questions or concerns regarding their child. In addition, we regularly send information home with students and we update our summer website daily to help families keep in touch with what is happening at the Program.
Because day students return home and have the opportunity to speak with their parents on a daily basis as compared to residential students, day student parents should not expect regular updates from the Program regarding their child. Of course, should concerns arise at the Program, the Dean’s Office will work diligently to make contact with the parents of any student, day or residential.
Bus Service
Day students living within a 15 to 20 mile radius of St. Mark’s School are picked up at centrally located meeting places. Day student buses leave the Junior Program at 4:00 PM each weekday afternoon. Our six school bus routes operate Monday through Friday. Click here to download the 2010 Junior Program Bus Schedule, complete with pick-up and drop-off locations and times. Families choose the stop most convenient to their home or workplace from any of the bus routes, keeping in mind that students are dropped off in the afternoon at the same place they are picked up in the morning. There is a $150 fee per session for this service.
Conversation From Our Summer Site
dillon from massachusetts
Dillon is here at Explo for his first summer and has attended both sessions. After taking some artistic courses during first session, he has chosen two courses for second session that reflect his love of science: "Explo's Most Exreme" and "Pond Scum".
Does Explo have a lot of options for people who are really into science?
Definitely, but it has options for everyone else, too! Like, if you like art, you could have all your classes and activities be entirely based on art. Or, you could have half your activities based on science and half based on sports! You definitely try new things here, too.
As a day student, do you stay late or go on weekend trips often?
Almost every day I stay late. It’s just so fun because there are different main events every night. If you stay until 8:45, then you get to see the main event, which can be anything from a yo-yo show to a live animal presentation. My favorite main event was probably the yo-yo show. They did so many cool tricks with yo-yos and hula hoops. They had one yo-yo that actually went off the string! They shot it up as high as they could get it, and then they got it to land right back on the string!
>> Read More of Dillon's Conversation