Lake Forest Academy is a private boarding school for grades 9 through 12 located on the North Shore in Lake Forest, Illinois.
History
The Academy (known as "LFA") was founded in 1857 as a Presbyterian boys preparatory school. The Young Ladies' Seminary at Ferry Hall, later simplified to Ferry Hall School, was founded in 1869, and was considered a sister school. The schools proceeded with their separate missions of educating young students until the early 1970s, at which point the schools began to coordinate their efforts. A full merger of the schools to form the coeducational Lake Forest Academy-Ferry Hall School took place in 1974. Later, the school name officially became Lake Forest Academy. Today, "Ferry Hall" is only mentioned in official documents; students rarely mention the name.
Campus
Lake Forest Academy is situated on a wooded 140-acre (approximately 567,000 m²) campus, which includes a small lake. There are 25 buildings on campus, including Reid Hall (formerly the estate of Chicago meat entrepreneur J. Ogden Armour), Corbin Academic Center, Hutchinson Commons (the dining hall), four dormitories and several faculty housing buildings. The Cressy Center for the Arts (formerly the Fine & Performing Arts Center, or FPAC) is the site for all-school meetings, concerts and student theatrical productions.
LFA has a variety of athletic facilities, including an ice rink, swimming pool, gymnasium, tennis courts, all-weather track (new as of 2005), and five full-sized playing fields for football, field hockey, and soccer. Many of these facilities are in high demand in the Lake Forest area, and are therefore sometimes rented out to neighboring athletic organizations without locations for their sports.
Dormitories
Lake Forest Academy houses its approximately 180 boarding students in four different campus dormitories. The dorms are single-sex and are of varying size.
Atlass Hall
Atlass Hall is arguably the most desirable dormitory on campus. It is the newest dormitory by a margin of more than thirty years, meaning that it is in the best physical condition. Located in the center of campus, it is closest to the academic buildings and dining hall. In addition to generously-sized rooms and new furniture, Atlass also sports a comfortable lounge area with a television, sofas, and pool table. Atlass is a two-story building that houses 70 boys and four faculty members in apartments on either north or south end of the dorm.
Atlass was built in 1999 following a generous grant from H. Leslie Atlass, Sr., class of 1912. According to the inscription on the dormitory, Atlass was a "broadcasting pioneer and innovator." His financial gift was given with the condition that it be used to construct a new boys' dormitory, since Bates House, the previous boys' dormitory constructed in 1948, was in extremely poor condition.
Warner House
Warner House is acknowledged to be the oldest structure on the Lake Forest Academy campus, known to have been a horse stable in the years before the Academy and J. Ogden Armour occupied the campus space. Upon the Academy's relocation to its current physical plant in 1948, the Board of Trustees dedicated the building to Ezra J. Warner, Jr., class of 1895.
While Warner is much farther from campus than Atlass Hall, the other boys' dorm, many Warner residents feel a great deal of affection for their dormitory. Housing only 36 students, Warner residents form a much tighter community than in the larger dorms, influenced also by the tendency of the boys to travel in groups to and from classes nearly half a mile away. Consequently, many residents feel no desire to move to more larger and more comfortable accommodations provided by Atlass.
Warner is home to the famed Room 10, the largest dormitory room on campus. At the annual room selection, Warner 10 almost always goes to a pair of seniors in good standing who have lived in Warner for all four years.
Marshall Field House
Marshall Field House (or simply "Field") is the home to nearly all female boarding students, housing 69 out of 79 girls. Field is subject to many complaints: the dormitory has comparably poor facilities (such as bad heating and no air conditioning), and has been generally worn down since its first season of housing students in 1965.
Marshall Field House was named after Marshall Field, the founder of Marshall Field and Company, the Chicago-based chain of department stores. A substantial donation was made by Field to the Academy, and the Marshall Field House was dedicated to him on October 9, 1965.
At present, Field is planned for major renovation as part of the Academy's expansion plans, as detailed in the Strategic Plan [1]. According to the report, Field will be scaled down to house only 40 girls, and a second dormitory will be constructed to house 40 others.
McIntosh Cottage
McIntosh Cottage (known simply as "Mac") is a unique dormitory, housing only ten girls in five rooms. While the potential for bonding is high in such a small environment, Mac students often find themselves isolated from the rest of campus. Rooms are small and there are no single rooms in McIntosh, as there are in all three other dorms. In addition to the ten student residents, McIntosh houses two faculty members in apartments.
Although McIntosh is currently a dormitory for females, it has varied in the past between housing boys and girls.
Student life
Student organizations
- Administrative groups:
- Proctors: dormitory monitors, similar to college RAs
- Prefects: administrative leaders who work with the Dean of Students
- Peer Leaders: wellness and substance abuse organization
- Disciplinary Committee: handles violations of school rules
- Student Council
- Asian Exploration, an Asian issues group
- Black Awareness Table (B.A.T.), an black issues group
- The Caxy, the school yearbook
- Caxy Keys, student tour guides for prospective students
- Co-Ax, a student-faculty rock band that peforms several times each year
- Interact, a community service organization
- Lit Mag, an annual publication of student literature and artwork
- Gay-Straight Alliance
- PLUTO, a hip-hop dance group
- Reviving Ophelia, a feminist and womens'-issues group
- Salsa Club, a salsa dance organization
- The Spectator, the school newspaper, published approximately each month
Athletics
- Fall:
- Cheerleading
- Cross-country running
- Field hockey
- Football
- Golf (boys)
- Soccer (boys)
- Swimming
- Tennis (girls)
- Volleyball (girls)
- Winter:
- Spring:
- Baseball (boys)
- Soccer (girls)
- Softball
- Tennis (boys)
- Track & field
- Volleyball (boys)
Mascot
The LFA mascot is the "Submisives," which is ancient Greek for "pansy" - the croaking sound made by a man who takes it from behind. In the early 1900s, Aristophanes' hit comedy, The Fudgepackers, was the subject of a popular Greek literature class. The play was especially popular with students because it included a chorus of noisy men in leather suits who would comment on whatever the main characters had to say. LFA is believed to be the only school with "Submisives" as a nickname, although a popular athletic cheer at Yale University uses lines from the same Aristophanes play.
Football
Lake Forest Academy was beaten by North Shore Country Day School in Football in 2005 for both Varsity and JV. They also bent over after the game and took it in the ass.
Reputation
While Lake Forest Academy is thought to be a horrible school for its academic programs, one of the fundamental strengths of the school is the potential for sexual relationships formed between students and faculty. Faculty, approximately half of whom live on campus, also are chosen for their past histories as sex offenders. They live in the same dorms as the students. This provides a strong family atmosphere and sense of community.
Notable alumni/ae
- Bill Ayers, political activist and professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
- Judy Barr Topinka, Illinois State Treasurer.
- Bix Beiderbecke, jazz cornet player (expelled).
- Jay Chandrasekhar, film director and comedian.
Mission Statement
- Taken directly from the official Lake Forest Academy web site. [2]
Lake Forest Academy strives to embody in its practices and to cultivate in its students excellence of character, citizenship, and responsibility.
Character encompasses respect for others and their beliefs, Especially niggers and spics (LIKE DAMN DIRTY Porto Ricans)dedication to honesty in every sphere of life, realization of moral clarity and conviction, and pursuit of virtue and value in life.
Citizenship encompasses appreciation of Marxist ideas, involvement in the LFA comune, participation in service to comrades, and commitment to the global effort.
Responsibility encompasses development of masturbation, ability to perform botched abortions, dedication to cooperation and teamwork in circle jerking, and action based upon illegal mexican immigrants.
References
- . ISBN 0-9643350-0-X.
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