Greenhill had their first Heart of the Hill meeting of the school year on Sept. 21, and their second on Oct. 11 during Homecoming week.
HOH is a campus-wide program that brings different grade levels together, one grade per division. Groups, known as Legacy Groups or HOH Groups, meet about seven times per year. Students, faculty and staff participate in projects that serve Greenhill and other communities.
HOH started 25 years ago in 1998 when a group of seniors realized that students rarely had the opportunity to interact across divisions.
The seniors brought the issue to Greenhill’s administration, and they came up with the HOH to ensure that the different grade levels could unite. These groups come together for thirty minutes once a month to create a sense of community within Greenhill.
“The idea of Heart of the Hill is community,” Associate Head of School for Mission, Community, and Culture Tom Perryman ’81 said. “Making community, being in community, [and] celebrating community. Taking the time to get together, when during regular school days, we are all separated.”
During the meeting HOH, students first participated in ice breakers. Then, students wrote down some of their favorite things to put into a time capsule. Lastly, students drew what they thought the Greenhill campus would be like 50 years from now.
Another aspect of HOH is allowing new students to experience the full community – those who were not at Greenhill in Lower or Middle School.
“As a new student, I feel like I’ve really gotten to create a better bond with the school because of HOH,” junior Kaden Castillo said.
The most recent HOH took place on Oct. 11, in accordance with Homecoming. One of the main events of this week was the seniors taking part in a special event called the Wildflower Stomp. Every year, the seniors go down to the creek and spread wildflower seeds. They stomp them into the ground, and supposedly, in the spring, they will grow.
These groups involve fifth and eighth graders as well, who are also nearing the end of their time in their division – allowing this to be a meaningful stomp for them too.
“From when I came to Greenhill in fifth grade to now being a senior, doing the stomping culminated my experiences in HOH and made me feel more connected to the younger kids.” senior Vivaan Gupta said.
The non-senior groups drew with chalk on various pathways around campus. They drew pictures and wrote kind words to support Greenhill athletes who were playing in a Homecoming game.
“I think we don’t realize is that in a lot of ways, those thirty minutes are more important to a lot of kids than anything they learn in English that year,” Perryman said. “Kids will remember these kinds of bonding times.”
