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Inside Léman Manhattan Preparatory School, the New York City boarding school that costs more than Harvard
Turning the corner, we found the Léman entrance on the quieter Morris Street. Léman opened its doors in 2005 starting with just 54 students. Twelve years later it has more than 700 students, about 100 of whom are boarders.
Rural it is not. The Financial District (FiDi) is a bustling part of the city, especially during work hours. Goldman Sachs, The New York Stock Exchange, and Deutsche Bank are just some of the financial companies with offices in FiDi.
Murphy said students and families attracted to Léman tend to be those who want an urban environment and access to business internships and the city's top arts programs, that the school can help provide.
"It's really competitive for university admissions. A lot of the top tier schools, the Ivy Leagues, are looking for squash players," Murphy continued. Léman currently has three students nationally ranked in the top 50 for junior squash players.
Before Battery Park was made, ships used to dock where the building is now located. It's part of the reason all students at Léman have a swimming requirement. "We're on an island, right?" athletic director Keith Sequeira said. "You should learn how to swim."
The school rents out some of its facilities after school hours. One of the qualities Léman most appreciates about its location in FiDi is the extent to which it's able to engage with the outside community.
As is a hallmark of life as a New Yorker, we noticed the school feels more vertical than horizontal. Léman has seven floors in the building.
Students were building a bridge and a chorus of a song due the following week, John, a classically trained music teacher who went to Westminster Choir College, explained. The irony that one of his classes is an app-based music course doesn't escape him. "That program makes all of the information I got degrees in less relevant," he laughed.
Administrators at Léman feel that classes like this digital music class is vital to preparing kids for future, and allowing them to be artists in a nontraditional ways, if they so choose.
"This is one of the places Léman feels it provides more options," Murphy said. "We don't have 150 years of history which we think is liberating because it allows us to push through a proposal with relative ease. It's good for kids."
There are certainly some perks to living in a city often called the cultural capital of America.
Léman has an artist in residence program, for example, which recruits a New York artist to live in the school's dorms and work with students to better connect students with a real-life artist.
The school has also had Broadway performers or choreographers provide lessons or give support to students in the musical.
We learned that boarding students are required to eat meals in the cafeteria on Wednesdays. Other days, they can eat elsewhere in the neighborhood, though many still choose to eat their meals in the cafeteria on those days too.
Atypical to most schools, starting in the second grade, students join parent-teacher conferences so they feel a sense of accountability in their education.
Instead, when teachers indicated it was time to switch classrooms, students left the room in an orderly manner. It felt much more civilized a process than our memories from high school, and Léman students' voices never raised above a low din.
Pava is in the 11th grade and it's his second year at the school. He knew he wanted to experience schooling outside of Colombia, and settled on Léman after considering schools in Miami and on the West Coast.
For Pava, the decision was easy.
"It's New York. It's the center of the contemporary world," he said. "I have so many things to do here; I go out to museums, Broadway shows, operas, the philharmonic, and the ballet."
Pava and his classmates were working quietly on their research projects. Pava's is on the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. When he finishes up with class he offers to show us his dorm room.
We walk by Federal Hall, passing Bobby Van's Steakhouse on the way. Curious as to where students like to dine when they don't want to eat at the cafeteria, I asked Pava his favorite restaurant in the area. "Oh, you'll see it," he said.
But Pava's favorite place to eat wasn't inside its walls. Instead, he pointed right next to it: Neapolitan Pizza. "I can wake up anytime, cross the street, and eat pizza," he said. Spoken like a true New Yorker.
We entered the luxury residential building where Léman boarding students live. These students live side-by-side with other New Yorkers. Murphy said this decision was intentional so that students learn life skills, like understanding how to be a good neighbor.
Living as a boarding student in Manhattan offers many advantages, but there are also unique challenges to 14- to 18-year-olds living in the city without parental supervision. The school says it takes very seriously the safety of its students, but still endeavors to give them a wide enough berth that they can discover the city on their own.
Students check in with a member of the residential life team everyday, who logs information about whether they are in dorms or off campus into an online system. Parents can remotely access this information so that they know where their children are at all times.
We learned that perks of boarding at Léman include laundry and cleaning services that take care of those chores for students. In addition, the concierge service helps set up appointments, flights, and travel from airports for students.
There are no singles, so students live in rooms of two, three, or four.
Even though these are luxury apartment buildings, it's still New York real estate, which means space is usually limited.
But Pava said this year he is much more used to the setup and likes living with his roommates, who are from Russia and Nigeria. "It's pretty cool," he said.
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