40 Years of Four Point Celebration

Junior Four Point 2017

Welcome home. Congratulations, you did it.

Get your hair braided and ready to go...

Junior Four Point 2019

2024 Junior Four Point

2022 Junior Four Point

Climbing Mountains for 40 years...

2020 Junior Four Point

Historical Document: Parent Information Letter for 1987 Junior Four Point trip.

Historical Document: Original Packing List for the First Four Point Trip

Historical Documents: Junior Four Point Story By Bonnie Pooley, pg. 1

Historical letter sent in 1986 to all Gould Alumni from the Director of Student Activities, Lorenzo Baker P'05, Retired Faculty member.

Jeff McCarthy'91, Chris Drake'91, Momoko Sakata'91, Harmon Stinson'91. Happy to complete their Junior Four Point!

Learning Winter Mountaineering. Class of 1985

Class of 1985

Doug Alford took this picture of our son Alec when he was out on Junior Four Point. It was a life-changing trip for Alec, and I think this picture captures that.

Junior Four Point 2017

Getting ready for adventure with Mrs. Alford.

Junior Four Point 2019

Shelter From The Storm...

Junior Four Point 2022

2023 Junior Four Point

2020 Junior Four Point

2021 Junior Four Point

Historical Document: Student Survey after the first Junior Point Experience. Despite descriptors like 'unbearable', 'grueling' and 'freezing', not a single student voted to end the program.

Historical Document: Junior Four Point Story by Bonnie Pooley, pg. 2

Historical Document: The Original Proposal for a new program at Gould Academy, Nov. 1984

Class of 1988 - Outward Bound

Wayne Carter '91 is all smiles with relief upon his completion of Junior Four Point.

"Mr. Clough always said take risks." Class of 1985

Historical letter sent in January 1988 to all Gould Alumni from the Director of Student Activities, Lorenzo Baker P'05, Retired Faculty member.

A Gould Memory: During the training part of the trip, the instructors teach the students skills required- shelter building, wood collection and fire building, cooking over a fire and working within the group. We had just reached camp for the day and tarps were being strung for shelter, a fire had started and wood had been gathered and a fire had been started. Suddenly a twenty minute downpour of rain and wind descended upon us, soaking everything, putting out the fire. Morale was low. The other instructor and I jumped in and started assigning jobs- fixing tarp shelters, gathering more firewood and rearranging the gear that had gotten wet. I directed one of the students, a young man who was popular with his peers, athletic and a top ten student in his class, to rebuild the fire. I selected him because the fire needed to be built quickly for heat, light, cooking, and for the spirits of the group. The other instructor and I continued making our rounds giving help and encouragement. I came back to the fire. No fire. The student was clearly struggling with wet wood. He looked up at me and said “if school was this hard, I wouldn’t do it.” I looked at him for a moment, and then said “that very well might be, but we need a fire and not doing it is not an option, so get that fire going, the group is depending on it.”