Thornton Academy Postscripts Alumni Magazine Fall 2008

Thornton

POSTSCRIPTS

Academy

Boarding Program Established at TA
What’s Inside

Image courtesy of Barba + Wheelock

The new residence hall at Thornton Academy is being constructed near Hill Stadium and Route 1. This
architectural rendering shows what the structure will look like from south of the building.

Photo by David Hanright

Residence Hall
groundbreaking
ceremony
See photos on page 3

3 new members join
Board of Trustees
See story on page 4

Thornton Academy
revamps its web site
See story on page 18

Photo by Jennifer Hass

Irving Backman ’43
helps launch TA
science project
See story on page 7

TA Quote
“Between now and
the Bicentennial
we hope to engage
most of our students
at some level in
Thornton’s history.”
—Headmaster Carl J. Stasio, Jr.
See story on page 17.

Mark Powers & Shawn Rousseau
brought on board as school prepares
to welcome students in fall 2009
It was a historic moment on Oct. 17 when—nearly
200 years after the school was founded—Thornton
Academy held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new
residence hall that will house students in grades 9-12.
The 18,200 square foot facility will be two floors,
have 38 beds and include four apartments for residential staff.
“Good schools are always evolving, and as we move
forward with the boarding program it will allow Thornton to welcome students from every corner of our
country and from around the globe,” Headmaster Carl
J. Stasio, Jr. remarked.
Board of Trustees President James E. Nelson ’67
also spoke at the event.
“Today marks the beginning of a truly exciting new
era in the history of Thornton Academy. We have always been a school that builds and nourishes a strong
sense of community. While Saco is our home, Arundel
and Dayton are equally close to us. We cherish all of
our community connections within and around southern Maine. With this groundbreaking ceremony for the
construction of our first on-campus residence hall, we
are taking the first step in expanding that community.”
Finally Student Body President John Gilboy ’09
addressed the crowd, which included staff, faculty, students, alumni, friends of the school as well as members
of the architectural firm Barba + Wheelock and representatives from project contractor PM Construction.
Also that day, a plane flew overhead taking aerial
pictures while students linked hands around the area
where the new building will be constructed on campus
off of Route 1 near Hill Stadium.
This past summer, Director of Admissions Mark
Powers and Director of Boarding Shawn Rousseau
joined TA’s administrative team.
The Director of Admissions
Powers joins Thornton Academy from The White
Mountain School in Bethlehem, N.H., where he served
as Associate Director of Admission. Previously he was
Associate Director of Development and Alumni Affairs
in Limestone, Maine, at The Maine School of Science
and Mathematics. The Bates College graduate says he’s
excited to jump-start TA’s admissions office.
“There’s no question this is going to be an amazing
program and a great opportunity for our new students,” he said.
Powers is an alumnus of Middlesex School in Concord, Mass., an independent high school with a residential program that serves the majority of its student
body. Meeting people from near and far was an “eye
opening” experience that provided Powers with more
than the classroom alone can offer, he explained.
“I still have so many good friends from attending
school there, and they came from all over the country,
all over the world. It helped me to be a critical thinker
and a global thinker.”
That perspective no doubt proved helpful when
Powers went on a three-week tour of Asian countries
– including Japan, China and Thailand – earlier this
year to speak with international students about enrolling.
Thornton Academy’s prime location in southern
coastal Maine should be a big draw. Incoming students
can take the train for a weekend in Boston or even New

Director of Boarding
Shawn Rousseau

Director of Admissions
Mark Powers

York City, catch the bus and spend an afternoon in
Portland, or walk just a few blocks to enjoy downtown
Saco’s shops and restaurants.
Although in the past boarding schools may have
been regarded as elitist or only for the rich, Powers says
that the goal at Thornton Academy is to create an environment with lots of diversity in terms of the students’
cultural, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.
Powers’ central role beyond marketing the residential program is to field inquiries from potential boarding students, to set procedures for the application
process, and to implement benchmarks and standards
for Thornton’s future international students. He will
also act as the point-person for inquiries from parents
or students who want to know more about TA’s day
school, which accepts students in grades 6-12.
Now living in Saco, Powers is an avid downhill skier
and Red Sox fan.
The Director of Boarding
Rousseau, who grew up in Lewiston and graduated
from Bowdoin College, returned to Maine to work at
Thornton Academy as Director of Boarding and an English teacher. Although he attended a public high school,
Rousseau spent his junior and senior year at Salisbury
School in Connecticut, and that experience greatly
influenced the trajectory of his career. He has 10 years
of experience as a dorm resident and has worked in a
variety of administrative positions at private schools,
most recently as dean of St. James School in Hagerstown, Md. He has also worked at St. Mark’s School in
Southborough, Mass., Hebron Academy and Monmouth
Academy.
“We’re taking nothing and building a complete
residential life program here,” Rousseau said. TA will
offer a 24-hour curriculum to the boarding students, he
explains, that will include afternoon and evening activities, supervised