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Student Life Overview

Walker's is your home away from home.

Whether you are a boarding or day student, you will be a part of a warm community where you will be accepted and valued for who you are.

At Walker’s, faculty are more than just teachers. They are advisors, coaches, mentors, and your family away from home. Here, all students, whether day or boarding, are part of a vibrant community that lives, studies, eats, and plays together seven days a week. It’s nearly impossible to distinguish who is a boarding student versus a day student as all students are fully engaged in the life of the school.

In between classes, Upper School and Middle School boarding and day students make the most of our facilities on campus, including the library, the Centennial Center social center, fitness center, music rooms, the barn, dance studios, and the basketball and squash courts. In warmer weather, students can be found gathering on the Centennial Lawn behind Beaver Brook or sitting at the picnic tables near the Centennial Center.

After classes, students participate in co-curricular programs then join their friends in Abra’s for dinner. Following dinner our Upper School students spend time together, rehearsing with musical groups and meeting with clubs and affinity groups. Day students are always welcome to join boarders in the Library for study hall following dinner. Residential students can also choose to study in their dorm room. On weeknights following study hall, boarding students gather in their dorm common rooms with residential faculty for games, snacks, celebrations, and camaraderie.  

On weekends, day students are often found spending time with boarding students at brunch, on the fields, and at events both on and off campus.


Boarding School Life

At a boarding school, you are never more than a few steps away from someone who is an integral part of your daily life at Walker’s.

Day School Life

As a day student, you will explore every part of life at Walker’s, including all-school and weekend events, or even staying for dinner in Abra’s.

There’s Always Something to Do at Walker’s

Weekend Life

Our student Head of Activities works with our Director of Residential Life and Student Activities to make sure there are plenty of fun events and outings each weekend. Day and boarding students will always have the opportunity for a full schedule.

Learn about Weekend Life

Student Government

Walker’s students have many opportunities to engage in student government positions which promotes the smooth running of student activities, and provides leadership for students as they face challenging issues or concerns.

Learn about Student Government

Clubs and Affinity Groups

The many student and faculty-led clubs and affinity groups provide students with the opportunity to find their niche community. Students can create their own club with faculty or advisor consent. The possibilities are endless!

Learn about Clubs and Affinity Groups

Coffee house on campus
Ice cream party in the dorm
Pep rally
Leadership
Prom
Coffee House

Students have regular opportunities to meet with peers from other schools, including coffee houses, dances, open mic nights and sporting events.

Dorm Life

Our residential faculty living in our dormitories create a healthy — and fun! — family atmosphere. Casual baking, game nights and more make the dorms feel like home and create lasting memories.

Pep Rally

Celebrating school spirit is an important part of life at Walker’s. Regular pep rallies offer a time to come together as a community, compete in fun games and cheer on our teams at the start of the season.

Leadership

At Walker’s, girls lead. Formal and informal opportunities for peer-to-peer leadership are abundant throughout campus life. Upper School student government, the Big 7, offers elected positions where girls can explore what it means to represent constituencies.

Prom

From prom and interschool dances to football games at Avon Old Farms or Salisbury School, Walker’s students get to meet students from many other schools in the area.

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Community Partnerships

Community Partnerships provide students with an opportunity to perform service in the community while acquiring skills.

Learn More

Athletics

Students choose from among 12 sports in three seasons along with fitness, outdoor adventure, yoga, and cross training.

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Riding

Riding

Middle and Upper School students participate on IEA teams as well as in rated and non-rated shows throughout the country.

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Arts

Students who have a passion for the arts choose it as their co-curricular or as classes in their daily schedule.

Learn More

Meet the Team

Elisa Del Valle Headshot

Elisa Del Valle

Assistant Head for Student Life, Director of Social Justice and Inclusion

Elisa Del Valle

 860-408-4287

B.A., Smith College
M.A., University of Massachusetts

Elisa Del Valle is a transformational educator and deep believer of young people. She was raised in East New York, Brooklyn and molded by resilient ancestors: strong women who, despite hardship, yielded joy, and her own children who remind her each day that she is here to be taught by them. It is from these wisdom guides that she has learned the most about unconditional love and the power of sisterhood. 

Elisa’s relationship to justice work is an embodied practice rooted in her own liberation and the liberation of others. She defines her work not by what she is against, but by what she is for and the world she wants to be part of. She moves in the world as a complex human with the understanding that she became this way because she was simultaneously harmed and loved by family and strangers alike. She models vulnerability, radical love, transparency, curiosity, and accountability for the young people she works with. They are her greatest motivator for this work and they are who keep her spirit light.

At Walker’s Elisa serves as the Assistant Head for Student Life and Director of Social Justice and Inclusion. Prior to her arrival at Walker’s in 2016, she spent 12 years working in higher education in residential life, student activities, leadership development, and new student orientation at Mount Holyoke College and Wesleyan University. While at Mount Holyoke, Elisa utilized her passion and graduate degree in Social Justice Education to design a more inclusive curriculum for the residential student experience. At Wesleyan, she pursued her passion for justice work on the Presidential Task Force for Equity and Inclusion and was an active voice on issues of Equity and Inclusion amongst her student affairs professionals. 

Elisa attended an all-girls high school in New York City before attending Smith College in Northampton, MA. As a first-generation college student, she majored in Government and minored in Spanish. While working full-time at Mount Holyoke College, Elisa also attended graduate school full-time at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where she graduated with a Master’s in Social Justice Education. 

Elisa is currently the Chair of the Commission on Diversity in Independent Schools (CODIS) through Connecticut’s Association of Independent Schools (CAIS).

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Nishette Isaac

Nishette Isaac

Dean of Students, Dean of Middle School Digital Library Services

Nishette Isaac

 860-408-4239

B.A., Hofstra University
M.S., Fordham University
M.L.S., Pratt Institute

Nishette joined Walker’s in 2016 from the Collegiate School in New York where she served as the school’s librarian for three years. She earned her B.A. in anthropology from Hofstra University, her M.S. in teaching from Fordham University, and her M.L.S. from Pratt Institute. Nishette began her career as a librarian for the New York City Department of Education where she served for four years at PS 305 and PS 256. There, she ran the library while being frequently called upon to perform classroom teaching duties. In 2011, she joined Dalton School as a volunteer librarian and spent the 2012-2013 year as a maternity leave replacement librarian at both Chapin School and Brearley School. Nishette was born in Saint Lucia and moved to the United States when she was 10. She is an active member of the Shelflives Book Club and has served as vice president of the Hudson Valley Librarian Association for the past three years.

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Mallory Pasquariello

Mallory Pasquariello

Director of Residential Life and Student Activities

Mallory Pasquariello

 860-408-4237

B.A., Roger Williams University
M.A., University of Leicester

Mallory is a graduate of Roger Williams University with a bachelor’s degree in art history and a triple minor in architecture, business management and English literature. She also has an M.A. in Museum Studies through the distance learning program at the University of Leicester. Previously, Mallory served as teller supervisor and customer service representative for Northwest Community Bank in New Hartford where she has gained a wealth of experience in customer service and organization. Here at Walker’s, Mallory serves as the Director of Residential Life and Student Activities. She is also a housefaculty member in New Dorm.

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Middle School Life

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Middle School Student Life