By Akiva Bryant
As the days get closer to the month of May, there’s a particular thing that’s been on students’ minds — Maymester. Classes range from history to sports to entrepreneurship; you have to admit, the Maymester selection is pretty broad.
Maymester is interesting to some, confusing for others, but admittedly, the decision to implement it required little debate.
Mr. Andrew Jones, an Upper School social studies teacher, is the director of the Upper School Maymester.
“The idea for Maymester came from the leadership of the school,” Mr. Jones said. “The reason that Maymester became a program at Woodward is because we really believe that students should have more real world, hands-on experiential learning.”
Mr. Jones also explained how Maymester was inspired by other schools.
“In developing our Maymester program, we didn’t just build it out of nothing,” Mr. Jones said. “We talked with other independent schools that have similar programs. Schools like Westminster, Paideia, Mount Vernon, Atlanta Girls School, the Cannon school in North Carolina–who all have experiential learning programs–and we kind of took some of the best aspects of their programs to build our program.”
All of this isn’t for no reason, though. Mr. Jones explains that Maymester gives Woodward a chance to try something new.
“Maymester is a chance for us to have the opportunity to experience learning in a new way — to do things that we are interested in that may not be offered in our everyday regular curriculum, to explore new topics that maybe we have never had any exposure to before,” Mr. Jones said.
All in all, Mr. Jones is pretty excited about implementing Maymester. However, he isn’t the only one who feels this way.
Mrs. Ronda Zents is the Upper School assistant principal. She further describes the purpose of Maymester.
“Maymester serves our students in a way that really complements our current academic offerings and provides an exciting way to end the school year instead of the school year [ending like], ‘air goes out of… a balloon,’” Mrs. Zents said. “Someone once used that metaphor to describe how the Woodward spring semester ends. It’s like you just slowly let the air out of a balloon.”
Mrs. Zents repeats the sentiment that Maymester is in the interest of experiential learning for students.
“Maymester gives us a really exciting program to be able to keep the learning going, but in a way that’s very experiential,” Mrs. Zents said. “That’s letting students choose a course they’re really passionate about and learn for the sake of learning and not worry about grades, not worry about tests and just feel really free with the content and connecting with a teacher.”
Since teachers created their Maymester topic, Mrs. Zents loves the connection between teachers and students both passionate about the same subject. She also hopes that through Maymester, students find something that will change their lives for the better.
“Maybe it’s through a Maymester course that a student decides, ‘I really want to pursue this in college,’” Mrs. Zents said. “Or maybe they go on this international trip and meet a family that they stay in touch with for a lifetime.”
Students hold a host of different opinions about Maymester. But one thing is certain — Maymester is a new and interesting opportunity for both students and teachers.
Students such as Sabenah Abudu-Abrams ‘26 and Rylie Gardiner ’26 reflected this idea. Sabenah’s Maymester experience will take place in France, on the biennial trip for students learning French.
“I’m really excited about Maymester because we’re going to be able to go to France for two weeks and really experience all the culture and stuff,” Sabenah said. “I think that maybe Maymester isn’t really necessary, but it makes it easier so that you don’t have to, like, go to school and take tests and be all stressed out by that.”
Rylie, who is hoping to attend the Art Gallery Trip Maymester, is also positive about it.
“I mean we have to go to school a certain amount of days for us to like graduate legally in the state,” Rylie said. “So I think that having this week of fun is better than having an extra week of like, Exam Prep, or classes, and I think it helps to like, de-stress and have a fun last hurrah with everyone before summer.”
Mrs. Zents closed with a few hopeful words.
“Yes, I hope they have fun,” Mrs. Zents said. “I hope they get a chance to reimagine what school looks like, what learning looks like. That feeds their intrinsic desires to keep learning… outside the confines of a classroom.”
