周同学，建平中学，GPA3.0，SLEP，被Cushing Academy,Garrison Forest School录取
学生点评：
小周，你好！
最近学习还顺利吗？昨天我收到了Amy老师发来你的成绩单，她说你的英语有了很大的进步，在课堂上也积极踊跃了许多！看到这样的评价，我为你感到由衷的高兴。马上就要升11年级啦，要继续加油努力哦！如果在学习或者生活上有任何问题，记得要跟我交流哦！
祝一切顺利！
路老师
看到这封邮件，我顿时心生一股暖意，想到来美国快两年了，但是路老师一直关注着我的学习和生活状态。初到美国时，几孚天天都能收到路老师的邮件；由于我刚到美国时英语会话还是很训练，总是羞于开口，也不适应这边的教学方式，在课堂上总是默默无闻，不大参与课堂讨论，遇到问题时也不会及时跟老师求助，那时，我总觉得来美国似孚是个错误的选择，甚至想到要临阵脱逃！是路老师一通通电话和一封封的邮件，字里行间的鼓励让我重拾信心，终于挺过了最难的前3个月。在那3个月中，路老师每周都回和我的老师Amy联系，了解我的学习和生活适应情况，有些我用英语难以表达的问题，都是通过路老师和Amy老师的沟通才得以解决的。我甚至觉得路老师对我就像是姐姐照顾第第一样无微不至！细细想来，还是庆幸当初我找到了美勤留学，遇到了路老师！那时的我，
对于去美国读高中完全没有概念，不了解到那边的教育体制，也不熟悉那边的课程设置，仅仅是因为当初有个朋友打算去美国读书而产生这样的留学念头。路老师很耐心、详细给我介绍了美国高中的教育体制和教学请况，也让我了解一下美国高中生的学习和校园环境。通过路老师的讲解，我对美国留学才有了一个初步的认识。路老师还对我进行了入学申请时需要的英语测试和面试培训，由于我的英语口语不是很好，因此路老师针对我情况对我进行了每周两次的一对一强化训练。每次的学校面试，也都是路老师陪我去见学校的老师，有她在身旁，我总觉得安心很多，面试的发挥也都不错。这为我最终能够进入心仪的学校，打下了坚实的基础。拿到了学校的Offer以后，我就开始天天盼着去美国的日子，那时候英语的学习也松懈了下来。当时，路老师知道之后，千叮万嘱我还要继续英语的训练，但是我那时已经被幸福冲昏了头脑，完全听不进她的忠告。这样才导致了初到美国的生活举步维艰！我当时就想，路老师知道后肯定会严厉地批评我，但是，当我在美国收到她的邮件，听到她的声音，无一不是用着鼓励和肯定的语气！每当我想要放弃的时候，我就会想起路老师的话语，又会充满信心，去迎接新的挑战！
现在我每次放假回家都会去美勤的办公室看望路老师，和她交流我在美国的一点一滴，而路老师也会给我一些未来的规划，指导我更好地发展。我很庆幸遇到了这么好的老师和这么负责任的公司，希望美勤可以帮助更多的人完成飞跃梦想！也祝愿美勤留学越来越成功！
Cushing Academy
For many of us, identifying some of the basic facts of Cushing’s history is easy. For example, the school was chartered in 1865, and it was coeducational from the start. But what precipitated this charter? How did this school on the hill come to be, and who decided it would be so? Whether you know the answers, have a faint idea, or are completely perplexed, let us take you back in time and get you up to speed.
The year is 1850, and Thomas Parkman Cushing has drafted his last will and testament. A successful Boston merchant and Ashburnham native, Cushing bequeathed to his wife and family what one would consider typical in a will such as money, securities, and valuables. Following seventeen items of directing personal assets, Cushing’s will makes extensive plans for the future of his Ashburnham estate.
"…I am particularly desirous of using a portion of the estate with which God has blessed me, for the promotion of to important an object as that of improving the education, and thus of strengthening and enlarging the minds of the rising and future generations. Hoping that others having similar views and opinions, will hereafter co-operate with me towards effecting the same great and desirable end: my Will, therefore, further is, that two schools or seminaries of learning, shall be established and forever continued in my native town of Ashburnham, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; entirely distinct, and separated by a quarter of a mile – the one for males of over ten years of age, and the other for females of over ten years of age…"
Following this declaration, Cushing’s will outlines the foundation and endowment of the schools, as well as the wish that “…the Trustees hereinafter named, shall apply for, and obtain from the Legislature of this Commonwealth, a suitable Act of Incorporation or Charter, under which all the business and affairs of the schools herein founded may be conducted forever.”
With a vision in mind, Thomas Parkman Cushing was most detailed with his plans for the school, be it plans for a “suitable library” or “ample grounds for the exercise and recreation of the pupils of each school." One mention in particular rings true today with the Academy as we know it: “The building for the school for males to have a tower, a clock, and a bell weighing no less than two thousand pounds.”
Cushing’s will further dictated careful consideration in terms of the teaching that would occur within the school’s walls.
"And I would further suggest, that inasmuch as character is founded upon the modes and habits of thinking, in each individual, it should be a distinguishing feature of the schools herein established, that all the scholars of both sexes, should be carefully trained to think rightly and systematically upon the objects and principles which are to influence and govern them during their subsequent lives. Perhaps this cannot be better effected than by frequently requiring from each of them compositions on all important subjects; thus whilst they are displaying their thoughts freely and unreservedly to, and under the supervision of able and judicious Instructors, they will form opinions and characters which will constitute them intelligent, wise, leading and useful members of society."
Thomas Parkman Cushing died in 1854. After the ten years had passed in which he directed that trust funds should increase and accumulate for the establishment of the school, the Trustees applied for a charter. It was granted in 1865.
"There is hereby established in the town of Ashburnham an institution of learning by the name of the Cushing Academy, for the purposes set forth in the said will of Thomas P. Cushing… [The trustees] are hereby incorporated into a body politic and corporate be the same name forever, with all the powers and privileges requisite for carrying into full effect the provisions of said will, and with all the powers, rights, and privileges, and subject to all the duties, restrictions, and liabilities, set forth in the sixty-eighth chapter of the General Statutes, and other acts in addition thereto, and in this act, not inconsistent with the provisions of said will."
While Cushing was very much in favor of coeducation – a pioneer of his time – his desire wasn’t overly so. While two separate campuses were directed by Cushing’s will, the available funds would not allow for such plans. Separate entrances into the single academic building were as far as the Trustees could take this notion.
Today, Cushing Academy is still going strong. While Thomas Parkman Cushing may not have foreseen the wonderful growth and development that have evolved on campus and within the institution, the vision he saw is one that remains clear centuries later.
“…It is my opinion that the stability of our Laws, and the safety of our Government, the right direction of our Republican Institutions, the preservation of virtue, and of good morals: and, in short, the well-being and happiness of society, depend in a great degree upon the general diffusion and practical and useful knowledge among the people…"
Garrison Forest School
Garrison Forest School (GFS) is a college preparatory school, in Owings Mills, Maryland, near Baltimore, with a nationally distinctive educational model. The school offers a day school for girls, pre-first through grade 12, as well as a coed program from ages two through kindergarten. The regional, national, and international residential program is for girls in grades 8–12. For fall 2009, total enrollment is 683 students across three divisions: the Lower Division (preschool and elementary grades), Middle School, and Upper School. The school averages about 60 residential students per year.