Crew

"We are crew, not passengers."

That single phrase, at the heart of the EL Education model, shapes more of the Greene School experience than any single class or subject. Crew is where students are known — not just as learners, but as people.

What Crew Is

Crew is a required course, but it doesn't look like a typical class. Every student belongs to a small Crew group led by the same faculty advisor, and they stay with that Crew throughout their time at Greene — across all four grades. It's often where the hardest, most honest conversations happen: about goals, setbacks, friendships, and what it means to show up for the people around you.

Crew blends academic support with social-emotional learning. It's where students build the habits of respect, cultural competence, resilience, and collaboration that carry them through everything else at Greene — including the more difficult academic and personal challenges that come with high school. More than an advisory period, Crew is a culture: one of teamwork, service, and mutual care, built through open dialogue, shared experience, and real reflection.

Wilderness

Every school year at Greene begins the same way it always has since our founding: outside, together, and a little outside our comfort zones.

The Wilderness program is a required part of the Greene School experience — a shared outdoor adventure that might mean camping, hiking, or working through a group challenge as a team. It's designed to build community, foster environmental stewardship, and push students mentally, physically, and socially in ways a classroom can't. Wilderness serves as both an orientation and a foundation: students walk away from it more confident, more connected to their new classmates, and ready to contribute to the community they've just joined.

Student-Led Conferences

Twice a year, students step into the driver's seat of their own progress. During Student-Led Conferences, students — not teachers or parents — lead the conversation about their accomplishments, needs, and goals as learners.

These conferences are anchored by three questions: Where am I? Where do I want to go? How do I meet those goals? Rather than simply receiving a report on how they're doing, students take ownership of their own learning journey — reflecting not just on their grades, but on who they're becoming as students, citizens, and members of their community.

Why It Matters

Crew is where character development happens alongside academics — not instead of it. In the EL Education model, all learning is character-based: students grow as effective learners, ethical people, and contributors to a better world, and all three matter equally. Crew is the structure that makes that possible, giving every student a place to belong, a group that holds them accountable, and an advisor who knows them well beyond their transcript.