In 1991 and 1992, Stephen C Clark Jr. and Jane Forbes Clark gave The Hill School more than 130 acres of land, providing the school with a wealth of new opportunities to use the campus as an educational resource. Many on the faculty, particularly in the Science Department, began to tap this potential through activities and lessons in water quality monitoring, tree planting and identification, outside writing, and the study of amphibians and stream ecology.

In the fall of 2005, the Board of Trustees recognized that stewardship and environmental education were closely related aspects of the school's central mission, and consequently invited Professor Steven Kellert of Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies to engage in a comprehensive study.

Over the next year, Professor Kellert made several visits to the Hill campus and interviewed many Hill School teachers and administrators. Professor Kellert wrote in his report that: "The Hill School has a historic opportunity to exercise environmental leadership consistent with its fundamental principles and mission. The school has consistently emphasized education of the whole child- physically, emotionally, intellectually, and morally- through promoting a strong sense of community, building character, self-confidence, optimism, a sense of caring and responsibility for others, while promoting experiential place-based education. Hill School's mission will be enhanced and enriched by expanding its aims to include a deliberate emphasis on environmental stewardship, incorporated into the curriculum, facilities, property, and ideally the mutual relation of all three… In serving its students and community, the Hill School can become an inspirational model for other institutions."

Professor Kellert's vision is shared by Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, which has gained attention over the past year. This book served as the focus of a national symposium on Children and Nature held at the National Conservation Training Center last fall and was attended by many Hill teachers, which resulted in the creation of the Children and Nature Network and the planning of a national forum on the topic presently chaired by governors of four states.

Hill School Academic Dean Hunt Lyman participates on the Education Panel, which is in the process of reviewing educational projects to recommend funding from a $20 million endowment. At Hill, teachers also worked intensively on the curriculum this summer. Hill received a $50,000 foundation grant for the purpose of infusing place-based education into the curriculum across all disciplines and grade levels. This summer, science teachers from other Washington areas schools worked with Hill science teachers to develop curriculum materials, to plan projects involving students in habitat enhancement and restoration, and to link the educational curriculum to landscape design and school operations.

A variety of projects were created with topics such as conservation, studying birds in their habitats, recycling, invasive and indigenous plants, and learning about local agricultural practices.

Interestingly, both lower and upper school teachers were excited about teaching their subjects outside the classroom, cultivating gardens, and observing the life cycle of plants.

Students also caught wind of the new possibilities on campus and moved forward in their own ways to improve their surroundings and discuss current environmental topics. Last spring, a new student group, The Tree Huggers, emerged out of a teen forum focused on alternative energy use and conservation. Invigorated by a brainstorming session held that evening, students began to reflect on ways to make a difference in the community. Upper school students met weekly, and lively debates about various topics became quite common. Meeting topics ranged from energy consumption at Hill and at home, to compact fluorescent bulbs and recycling.

Waste conservation and recycling are hot topics at Hill these days. New recycling bins have been sprinkled all over campus. The current recycling collection program, which has been in existence for over thirty years at Hill, will now include having students and teachers take the recycling to a local center in Middleburg. This fall, with the help of the Trex Company in Winchester, which uses recycled plastic to make decks, benches, and fences, the entire school will participate in a plastic bags recycling program, with the overall goal being to reduce the amount of bags that end up in landfills.

In an effort to reduce the amount of trash generated at Hill on a daily basis, students have been encouraged to pack trashless lunches. Each day after lunch, 6th- 8th students weigh the trash to gain a picture of how much trash we create each day.

Leadership, responsibility, and community work are essential and typical at Hill, and through their participation in projects like these that our students learn the importance of being a steward in the community.

Hill School has always emphasized the importance of environmental awareness and ecological literacy; children will only take care of places they have been given an opportunity to know and love. The school's curricular units and field trips have long encouraged children to learn about the natural world and assume responsibility for its stewardship. Now a national dialogue is focusing on the importance of connecting students to nature, and Hill's location and philosophy put the school in a position to serve as educational leaders.

The central mission, though, remains the same; to engage children with challenging and thoughtful material and experiences designed to help them become responsible adults.