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New Horizons
Dominican Republic
Daniel Wallace, Admissions Director
800-333-4009
[School
visit on 2/2/03, by Ed Consultant Steve
Bozak,
518-373-8069]
New Horizons is one of the oldest therapeutic boarding schools
in the nation. It has three coed campuses for students ages 12 to 20,
each campus being for students at different levels. I visited the campus
near Santiago in the Dominican Republic.
Left to
right Tim Blossom, CEO, Steve
Bozak, Phil
Redwine,
Headmaster. |
Students may enroll
either at Marion Indiana or the summer program in Canada and
find the counseling and structure needed to finish high school and get
back on track. Kids should stay for at least one school year but may
stay longer if needed.
It is just a 3 hour flight from NYC and a 40 minute drive gets you to
a very nice part of town in the Dominican Republic where a very nice campus with
many buildings is located. 8 to 12 students live and eat in each of the dorms,
with dorm parents. My first night I enjoyed a wonderful home cooked meal with
the boys in one of the dorms. The kids told me the meals were one of the highlights
of going to school here. The kids were all dressed up for dinner but during the
day they were dressed more casually as they worked on
Girls working on campus
of
New Horizons |
campus fixing up the grounds. “Today is work day, with no classes,” one boy remarked
as I asked him about the school, and he went on to explain, “We all have chores
to do around the school and we get paid for it.”
“The strictest teachers
are the ones I like the best,” another boy told me after the meal.
He went on to explain that he is getting better controlling his temper
and improving in many ways. “And my school work is improving now that
I am here doing the work. The teachers help me.” Academics are self-paced,
with teachers for each of the subjects who help the kids stay on tract
to do their schoolwork. The 43 students here were all very friendly
and positive when I asked them what it was like being far from home.
Students told me, “I write home every week and they email it to my
parents.
Boys Dorm |
I miss my parents
the most.” Today was a workday and no classes were held. The girls
were at work helping to build a guesthouse where their parents may
come and stay, and the boys where somewhere else picking up the yard.
New Horizons is not owned by any religious organization, but the school
is very Christian. The owner of the school, Tim Blossom,
says they will enroll students of any faith but if the child wasn’t
brought up in the Christian church atmosphere, it will take many extra
months for the child to figure out the vocabulary of what’s going on
here. Tim explains: “We like to get them off meds but if they really
need them we will accommodate them.” Parents are encourager to participate
in parent seminars or therapy in the states that is provided by New
Horizons.
All the kids I spoke with said they hoped to go on to college after
finishing high school at New Horizons. They came from all over the United
States, except for one boy who was local. Two boys identified themselves
as the two worst boys on the campus. Both of these boys were well mannered
as we visited together about life at the school. The kids were happy
and appeared that they were well cared for.
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