SENIOR PROFILE 2024: Hunter Stillwell

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When Hunter Stillwell and his family were unhappy with educational options in their Virginian hometown, they began to explore other avenues of learning. Previously homeschooled, Hunter was looking for a collaborative atmosphere, where he could learn to work in groups and expand his social skills through project-based learning. After attending a NuVu summer program three years ago, he says he immediately knew that this was the school environment he had been looking for.

“After the first few days of camp, I was like, wow, I need to go here,” he recalls. “So we basically just started working on moving while I started NuVu.”

Hunter says it was both the coaches and the students who influenced his move.  “The people here are really passionate about what they're working on. They are interested and engaged.” The structure of academics, with time to “really dig” into other subjects as needed, is what made NuVu a success for Hunter. “With most of the skills that you need fully integrated into each studio such as writing, engineering, art, and design, along with creative thinking,” he shares, “ it all came together for me.”

NuVu refined his interest in technology throughout his three years of exploration within their project-based structure. “During my first year of NuVu I learned how to code,” he recalls. “I had played around with it before, but I wasn't really good at it. And then working on lots of studios with (teacher/coach) Keenan Gray, he taught me all the foundational stuff and then I could take it from there and teach myself in an independent way. It enabled me to implement my ideas—this is the best way to explain it.”

One of the key things he says that a newcomer to NuVu should know is to look beyond the usual hype. “I think the first thing that somebody should know, after they get an overview of the curriculum, is that it's project based, as in they really mean it. It's not a marketing word. Tons of places say, oh, we do project-based stuff and then it's just one class shoved in somewhere. That’s NOT NuVu.”

When it comes time for applying to college, Hunter says that NuVu prepared him in ways he hadn’t expected. “Throughout my time in school I have been making project after project, and with the portfolio that these provided, I was able to show WPI how much learning I’ve achieved. It was obvious I was the type of student for them,” he says.

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