Distinctively Doane
honoring traditions
Doane students develop a sense of community that is cultivated in its present but deeply rooted in its past. Our school year begins in a way that is profoundly meaningful and joyous. The entire school community, including students, faculty, family, alumni, and members of the board of trustees, gather on the bank of the Delaware River to celebrate the start of the new school year and welcome the members of the senior class as they arrive by canoe for the first day of school. Our oldest tradition originated in 1848 by St. Mary’s Hall boarding students who were unable to travel home for the holidays, the Mystery is a play celebrating the birth of Jesus. Performed word for word as it was written so long ago.
professional teaching artists
At the heart of our visual arts is our unique partnership with Studio Incamminati, one of the nation’s foremost schools of art, where professional teaching artists show our students how to see the world in higher definition as they learn the techniques and principals of humanist realism. Nelson Shanks, the late world-renowned artist and co-founder of Studio Incamminati, said that one of the goals of his Realism school and program was to train students to “see”, and to do so beyond the shape and color of the subject. Working with professionals from Studio Incamminati on a daily basis is an opportunity available only to students at Doane.
nature discovery program
Our renowned Nature Discovery program explores the world of plants, birds, insects, and the Delaware River. Among many outdoor educational adventures, our younger students will learn how to collect maple sugar from the trees on our campus and boil it down to pure maple syrup. Students will have a chance to ride on a police boat and pass Doane Academy while learning the jobs of the officers of the NJ State Police Marine Division and water safety. Students are also shown how to tag and release monarchs, as well as how to identify males and females. These are just a few adventures in our Nature Discovery program.
unafraid to generate big ideas
Doane Academy’s S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) program is dedicated to developing a community of young tinkerers ready to tackle 21st century problems with their creativity, individuality, and unique passions. Our interdisciplinary S.T.E.A.M. courses seek to accomplish this by providing students with open-ended, collaborative class structures which encourage them to pull content knowledge from a wide variety of other subjects in pursuit of problem solutions that they can truly call their own.
building character and leadership
Doane Academy is committed to maintaining character and leadership development as a priority equal to academic achievement. Both in and out of the classroom, a Doane education guides students to define the most positive version of themselves and challenges them to cultivate the integrity needed to stay true to this ideal form. Doane’s School Family program, which connects students to each other across all grade levels, is a particularly innovative way of encouraging young people to develop empathy and a sense of community. Moreover, required Strong Ethical Leadership courses help students recognize their academic studies as part of fulfilling the larger goal of building character.
education beyond classroom walls
Each September, the school year moves quickly into high gear with our outward-bound style program, “Rocks, Roots and Wings”. Working to cultivate social and emotional growth along with a balanced approach to developing a positive self-image, we find this program among the keys to the character and leadership development goals of Doane Academy. Leaving the "comfort zones" of home and school gives students opportunities to grow in many ways. These traditional class trips, also known as RRW, last three to four days, and are designed to stretch students with situations and expectations that are progressively challenging - to test their limits and to use resources they may not know they have within them.
a commitment to linguistic and cultural literacy
At Doane Academy, Spanish is offered 5 days a week for students age 3 through 12th grade. This course provides an introduction to the study of Spanish and is designed for students new to the language. Students will read, write, and speak in Spanish and develop listening comprehension skills in the target language. Students will learn the phrases necessary to communicate in day-to-day situations in Spanish and eventually matriculating to seminar-style discussions and writing complex essays.