Connecticut Prep School | College Prep School in CT

Residential Life Leadership Institute

Growth beyond the classroom.

Current and aspiring leaders in the field of residential life who are looking to accelerate the impact of their work will come together for five days to dive deeply into topics for developing excellence throughout their residential and student life programming. Facilitated by a team of residential life experts, participants will be actively engaged in every session to develop their vision for their unique programs and will leave with a strategy for implementation that will allow their impact to begin immediately and continue to grow in the years ahead. Attendees are welcome to enroll on their own, but may find that attending with a team of two to four may be beneficial.

Monday, June 12 – Friday, June 16, 2023
Pomfret School | Pomfret, CT
$2,750 with dorm lodging | $2,500 commuter option

Hosted by Pomfret School in partnership with Outermost Education Services.

Monday

Arrival

You’ll register, get set up in your dorm room, meet the cohort to establish goals for the week and for the next school year, then head to a cocktail hour and gourmet dinner at Pomfret's dining hall.

Tuesday

Purposeful Programming

You’ll spend the day learning the skills necessary to shift out of reactivity and into planful action — yes, even with a Res Life job title that often has you cleaning up messes and putting out fires.

Wednesday

Leading in Student and Residential Life

You’ll dig into the experience of leading from the middle, including mentoring new dorm parents, building a unified res life team, and cultivating cohesive relationships between senior administrators and the deans, directors, and dorm heads.

Thursday

Looking Ahead

We’ll work to identify key priorities for your next 1-3 years as a leader, craft language that aligns those priorities with the mission and vision of your school, and develop a purposeful framework for the upcoming academic year. We'll also spend time discussing work-life balance in a boarding school environment.

Friday

Planning

You’ll spend the morning finishing up your plan for the year and reflecting on your experience. Before parting ways after lunch, we’ll present our plans and celebrate the work we’ve done together!

Jackie O'Rourke
Maureen Harrison

Jackie O'Rourke

Jackie was raised on Cape Cod and spent four years at Cushing Academy in central Massachusetts. As a student, she learned a great deal about the inner-working of boarding school life through her experiences as an admission tour guide, a three-season member of varsity athletic teams, and as a dorm proctor. She loved campus life from the start and knew long before graduation that she would return to boarding school after college to live the life of the teacher, coach, and dorm parent.

As a boarding school faculty member, Jackie has served in many roles, though the Student Life and Residential components have always held a special place in her work. From dorm parent and dorm head, to Activities Director and Dean of Residential Life and Leadership, her experiences have challenged her to be a dynamic observer of how policies, programs, and routines impact the daily lives of students.

Maureen Harrison

Raised south of Boston in Marshfield, Massachusetts, Maureen first became aware of the boarding school world as a student at Williams College. While sharing a “Science on the Road” lesson with nearby schools, her eyes were opened to the possibilities of boarding life — the diverse community, the myriad opportunities, the relationships beyond the classroom; she was hooked. After a brief stint as a neuroscience researcher (think rats in mazes), she joined the faculty of Emma Willard School in Troy, New York. For the next 27 years, she embraced campus life as she lived in the dorms, scored basketball and volleyball games, taught chemistry and neuroscience (primarily), served as the Learning Support Coordinator, advised countless students, and mentored the senior proctors and other student leaders, earning an MS in Curriculum Design from SUNY Albany along the way.

Ready to transform your residential life program?

residential life leadership institute

Monday, June 12 – Friday, June 16, 2023
Pomfret School | Pomfret, CT
$2,750 with dorm lodging | $2,500 commuter option

Questions? Contact Gwyneth Connell at 860.963.5990.

Set on a stunning hilltop in rural Northeastern Connecticut.

Pomfret has been called one of the most beautiful schools in the world. Studded by maples and ringed by stone walls, our 500-acre Hilltop campus exudes New England charm. The original buildings were designed by the celebrated Beaux-Arts architect Ernest Flagg and the grounds were laid out by world-renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

Your home away from home will be the dorms overlooking the heart of campus. During your stay, you'll have access to the school’s fitness center, wooded trail system, tennis and squash courts, and yoga studio.

Learn MorE »

Covid Vaccine Requirement

All conference faculty and staff will be fully vaccinated, and all conference participants are required to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

Please Note: Specific activities are subject to change, based on State of Connecticut requirements and Pomfret School health and safety protocols.