Clubs & Activities

A Variety of Opportunities

Waterford caters to a wide range of talents and interests. Upper School students can choose from Student Government, Community Service Council, Outdoor Program, Yearbook, Literary Magazine, Ballet Academy, Debate, Math Team, and Science Club. Students participate in school plays and instrumental and vocal music performances. Summer Term offers additional opportunities for further study and travel.

Community Service

The purpose of Community Service at Waterford is twofold:

First, to serve the local, national and international communities, to look beyond ourselves and to alleviate suffering where help is needed.

Second, to affirm to students that “learning is enhanced by the recognition of responsibility. Accountability for one’s learning further encourages the realization that learning is inherently communal and connected. Learning is inescapably moral. All learning bears on living and ultimately on how best to live” (see Mission Statement). While serving others, students learn about other people and other cultures.

Service benefits those that are being helped and changes those that are performing the service. Their world and their lives are enlarged and enriched as they see how others live. Service creates a canopy of relationships that can overarch all communities.

The goal of the CS program at Waterford is to offer every student an opportunity to experience hands-on community service and to assist students in defining the world anew.

Activities throughout the year include working with TreeUtah, The International Rescue Committee, trips to the Navajo Reservation and Kolkata, India, feeding the homeless, working with the Odyssey House, collecting goods for the Utah Food Bank and for The Road Home, and many other ongoing activities.

Outdoor Program

Located in the early-morning shadow of the Wasatch Mountains, the Waterford Outdoor Program has the unique opportunity to introduce students to the richness of a life lived in connection with the wilderness. The goal of the Outdoor Program is to ensure that students are equipped with the knowledge, practical skills and fundamental respect required to enjoy a lifetime of safe and meaningful experiences in the wilderness. Outdoor Program participants are consistently challenged intellectually and physically through numerous and diverse adventure wilderness experiences.

Students in the Middle and Upper Schools participate in the Waterford Outdoor Program in a number of ways. The Outdoor Class is offered as an athletic elective and includes weekly afternoon excursions into the Wasatch Mountains to hike, climb, rappel, snowshoe, and backcountry ski and snowboard. All Waterford students may choose to participate in multiple weekend trips offered throughout the year. Trips range from day climbing excursions in the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains to multi-day canyoneering, kayaking, mountaineering and backpacking trips throughout northern and southern Utah. Each year, the Outdoor Program also offers multi-week expeditions for more adventuresome Middle and Upper School students. These wilderness-based trips include mountaineering trips in Utah and the Pacific Northwest, sea kayaking trips along the Colorado and Green Rivers, backpacking and canyoneering excursions in Southern Utah, and sailing expeditions in British Columbia. For more information about our extraordinary program, please see the Outdoor Program website.

Upper School students committed to the Outdoor Program and its mission may pursue leadership opportunities through involvement with the Upper School Outdoor Program Student Council, which fosters the Outdoor student community, helps to plan trips, and runs the indoor climbing wall for the broader student community. Upper School students also act as intern leaders on Middle School trips.

Ballet Academy

The timeless art of classical ballet embodies the highest standards of precision, discipline, and beauty. Now, your children can immerse themselves in this remarkable 400 year-old legacy — by participating in the Waterford Ballet Academy.

As students of the Academy, your children will learn essential skills and techniques from highly-trained instructors who understand the subtleties and nuances of the art form. They will develop an enduring love of dance and music. And they will gain the confidence, poise, and strength that inevitably spring from a fine education in classical ballet. More information is available here.

Summer Term

During Summer Term, students can choose to participate in a wide range of activities. Lower School students might choose programs in science, art, ballet, or sports. Older students might also choose a sports or dance program, but have additional options such as (in Summer 2010, for example) Grand Staircase Canyoneering, Landscape Painting, British Columbia Sailing Adventure, Shakespeare Camp, and language trips to Spain and Germany. More information about 2011 opportunities is here. Rising Grade 9 students also participate in the end-of-summer Interim Trip, a 5-day backpacking experience in the Wasatch Mountains that is an opportunity to bond as a group and reflect on the coming transition to Upper School.