ANNUAL REPORT - Cushing Academy

Donors Help CushingStudents Dream of BhutanAT CUSHING ACADEMY, fostering acommitment to principled leadership is afundamental part of our commitment todelivering an advanced education. Centralto achieving that goal is giving studentsthe opportunity to engage in cross-culturallearning experiences so that they can fullyenvision and consider the complex issuesthat will impact their future. In March2012, three Cushing Academy facultymembers and four Cushing Academystudents went on a journey to a countrymany Americans have never seen: Bhutan.The trip was a joint venture betweenCushing Academy and the Bhutan CanadaFoundation. Bhutan’s reigning monarch,His Majesty King Jigme Khesar NamgyelWangchuck, graduated from CushingAcademy in 1999.Students involved in this program participatedin a cross-disciplinary course of study duringthe 2012 winter term called “Dreams ofBhutan.” The purpose of the course was tointroduce Cushing students to the history,culture, and religious heritage of Bhutan,as well as its 21st-century geo-political andsocial challenges. But more than being justan educational experience for one group ofCushing students and faculty, the trip was thefirst step in building an ongoing partnershipwith a Bhutanese high school that will open adialog and exchange of ideas between CushingAcademy and the Asian country.Gifts to the Academy helped make the trippossible because the Cushing Academy Fundprovides resources that ensure CushingAcademy leadership has the flexibility to takeadvantage of such opportunities when theypresent themselves. Without the support ofdonors, it would be more difficult to offerthese kinds of experiences to our students.MEETING THE KINGWhile visiting Bhutan, the Cushingdelegation had the opportunity tomeet with the country’s king, a 1999graduate of the Academy.22WWW.CUSHING.ORG/GIVE