Signature Programs Second to None

Millbrook is a community of thinkers who collaborate, experiment, and explore remarkable ideas that have the power to change the world. Big ideas take center stage in Millbrook's unique academic programming. 

Would you be interested in partnering with professors at Vassar College to test DNA sequencing related to the fertility of endangered red pandas?
You can do this only at Millbrook.

Do you want to apply your passion for marine biology by designing an independent scientific study of blue-green algae plumes in the Hudson River to uncover possible solutions to mitigate toxic plumes?
You can do this only at Millbrook.

Do you want to study topics like incarceration, beauty, racial tension, and powerful personal narratives through the lens of non-traditional, engaging English electives?
You can do this only at Millbrook.

Do you want the autonomy to hone your artistic skills while exploring a project of your own design in an individual honors art studio space in a building that is alive with creative energy?
You can do this only at Millbrook.

Click on the links below to learn more about these ONLY AT MILLBROOK academic opportunities that will prepare you not just for college, but for life.

Independent Science Research

Our science department offers a unique independent science research opportunity for motivated students. Students enrolled in this class conduct one of two forms of research: one that involves creating and conducting an original experiment or a second that involves contributing to an existing experiment. The latter option could involve assisting in data collection for research being done on Millbrook’s campus or by partnering with a scientist at a local university or research facility. Participants meet as a group with a teacher once a week and must be prepared to organize their work and time to meet specific goals. Research completed as part of this class is presented in Millbrook’s Science Conference at the end of the spring semester.

Teaching Lemurs How to Count

The Best Fuel for Student Brains

Culminating Experience for Seniors

All seniors at Millbrook are required to complete a Culminating Experience during their senior year that provides them opportunity to develop their intellectual independence in a particular discipline or disciplines by engaging in an authentic intellectual project. Seniors also hone their public speaking skills before making a required formal presentation to all members of the Millbrook community. 

Seniors Share Their CES Choice

CES: Unleash Your Creativity

Opportunities in engineering and robotics

Millbrook students are learning 21st-century skills and nowhere is that more apparent than within academic and extracurricular offerings in engineering, robotics, and design thinking.

Millbrook students are excelling in 21st-century skills. Millbrook qualified to compete in the national finals of the 15th annual Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC), the world's largest rocket contest, held at the Great Meadow in The Plains, VA, just outside of Washington, D.C. To qualify, they had to build a rocket, launch it carrying one raw egg, reach 775 feet before returning the egg to Earth, uncracked, all within 41 to 43 seconds.

“For me, this project really highlighted my year in advanced physics and how we can apply the concepts we learned in the classroom to real-life. I want to be a pilot and work in the aerospace industry, and participation in TARC only confirmed my interest and passion,” said senior Thomas Denney.

In addition to rocketry challenges, Millbrook's engineering students are competing in local and regional VEX robotics competitions.

Developing Organized, Effective, and Persuasive Writers

"Everything we do in the history department culminates with the Blaine essay. Students pose challenging questions and complete intensive research in order to establish original and well-supported arguments."
-  History Department Chair Lindsay Peterson
Millbrook's English and history departments have a cross-curricular and focused mission: to teach students how to communicate effectively. This is done through a very intentional, structured, and focused development of writing skills through a student's four years at Millbrook.

Our curriculum provides every student with the tools necessary to ask penetrating, relevant questions, to research answers, and to articulate an opinion in a coherent, organized, and well-written paper. In the history department, students in the IIIrd form write A LOT, beginning with well-structured uber perfect paragraphs (UPP) and culminating with a Blaine Essay in their VIth form history electives. 

The Blaine Essay Prize is unique to Millbrook and is awarded each year to a graduating senior who offers the best essay concerning an issue of contemporary or historical significance. Each year, the research papers are read by a visiting professor who awards the Blaine Essay Prize to a winning student author. Recent judges have included professors from Middlebury College, Yale University, Williams College, Vassar College, Johns Hopkins University, and Barnard College.

Read some of the winning papers here.

Arts at the Heart of the Academic Program

At Millbrook art is a full and collaborative, cross-curricular partner with other academic departments, and every art course pushes students to be curious and fully engaged in the creative process. Art is the perfect exercise in humility and integrity.

We encourage you to explore Millbrook's very unique art program and facilities on our main website and to browse through the amazing student portfolios below that represent the imaginative and gifted work of students who are mathematicians, historians, writers, singers, athletes, and scientists.

Student Portfolios