Career Counseling For Non-College Bound High School Seniors In: Fill & Download for Free

I was raised in a most unusual milieu—the American South during segregation. My political views were set quite early. I’ve added extensively to my outlook over the decades, but it’s all been of a piece and consistent with the original view.I was born in Seguin, Texas, in the summer of ’49, four years after the end of World War II. The town is significant, as it was the choice of my Tips forebears as a place to settle in 1849 when they arrived from Germany. They chose Seguin, a town roughly 30 miles east and slightly north of San Antonio, for another significant reason—the town was roughly equal parts Mexican (named for Juan Seguín’s father), Anglo and German—it had a reputation for being able to get along. The family felt they would benefit from exposure to Americans and Mexicans in ways unavailable had they moved to a strictly German community like Fredericksburg or New Braunfels.After the Civil War, Seguin was the first city in the South to open a trade school for former slaves. Apparently, my ancestors volunteered there, as blacks started taking family names in the years following Emancipation, and the (originally) Dutch name Tips is used by black families in Texas and New York.One of my fondest memories ages 4 to 6 was of walking (by myself, at least the last couple of years) the five blocks west across downtown from my grandmother’s house to the “Ranger Station,” a one-room smithy shop in a ramshackle wooden building easily close to a century old on a rocky bluff over Walnut Creek. The smith was a black man with a full, thick head of snowy white hair. I’m pretty sure my dad told me he was in his 80s and had been there “forever.” [I imagine his father learned blacksmithing at the trade school, and this man learned the trade working side-by-side with his dad.]He would not let me enter the shop. But I could stand in the doorway (big enough for a large wagon to enter). He’d show me everything he was doing and keep up a congenial dialogue of explanation. It was magical.My mother was a Lee, of the Lees of Virginia, with two signers of the Declaration of Independence and a famous Confederate general. Only she was a member of a branch that moved to Mississippi in the hopes of getting rich on cotton only to become sharecroppers during the Great Depression. They lost the farm when my mother was 8 or 9. From that point forward, she never had a store-bought toy nor store-bought outer clothes. From age 11, when not in school, she worked long days with a hoe in her hands or picking cotton.My earliest political memory was of mom dandling me on her knee and cooing, “God made each and every one of us, and He doesn’t play favorites.” Only, just before I started first grade, we moved to the Dallas suburb of South Oak Cliff.Ours was just about the first house finished on the block. One summer day before I started school, a lone carpenter showed up to work on the house across the street. In tow was his son about my age. I grabbed my next younger brother and we went over to play. At length my mother came out in the front yard and hurriedly called us home. Once inside, she told us we could not do that; we could not play with black children.“But, mom…” She would not address the objections I raised… refused to discuss the matter. It was my first major conundrum in life, made all the more perplexing by her subsequent behavior…My mother was a fun-loving, easy-going, exceptionally charming woman. Once I was in school, she headed up every canned-food drive (common in those days) for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’d help her distribute the goods. We’d walk up the sidewalk to a black apartment to usually a cool reception; only, soon, my mom and the lady of the house would be at the kitchen table hooting and hollering like old times, while I was out in the living room playing with the children of the family. I developed some suspicions about my mom, indeed, her whole family, that would not be confirmed for almost sixty years.My dad was Central Texas German, but with an Irish grandmother whose own grandfather had fought with Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto and with a mother who was French. We were Texans, by God, and don’t you forget it.He’d been a captain in the Army Air Corps during World War II after losing his deferment as the sole support of his mother, with two brothers already serving. My grandfather, a pursuit pilot in World War I, had died in a training accident in ’40 teaching RAF pilots combat maneuvers at nearby Randolph Air Field. He had to sell the family business.Because my dad was an excellent typist, he spent the war as head clerk to a colonel stationed at Hickham Field in Hawaii. After the war, like all of his peers, he stayed in the Reserves in order to collect the extra $35 a month. And like most of them, he was called up. My earliest memories are of Albuquerque, where he was billeted on some nuclear mission. He spent a year in Morocco. I don’t know if it was Albuquerque or Morocco, but he was commandant of a base with nuclear weapons.When he was called up for Korea, he had to sell the family business a second time, to the same gentleman, who this time insisted on a five-year non-compete clause to prevent losing all the customers he’d purchased as he had the first time. Not being able to live, after being released from service, in his home town irked my dad for decades. He tried working as an accountant, but soon we bopped to Houston and then Dallas.I loved my neighborhood in South Oak Cliff. I loved my friends. I focused on school work and play with my buds until sixth grade, when Kennedy ran against Nixon. My parents did not tip their mitts. (It was not until Johnson-Goldwater I discovered that both were dyed-in-the-wool Republicans, a rare thing in the South.)The funny thing was, with the great majority of my classmates being from Democratic families, they’d go down the school corridors between classes chanting in unison, “Nixon! Nixon! He’s our man. Kennedy belongs in the garbage can!” Southern Democrats had no use for Catholics, even from their own party. The funny thing was, the more I paid attention, the less I liked Nixon and the more I liked Kennedy… the Democrat!And that year, the first black family moved into our neighborhood. Before I knew it, I was white-flighted out of my neighborhood, but not to the other Dallas neighborhoods where my friends fled. No, dad spotted a little town an hour north, twenty minutes north once Interstate 35 was completed shortly after we moved, and that was the attraction. My dad had been in insurance and real estate, and he spotted Lewisville as the epicenter of a coming growth boom.The city limit sign, posted after the ’60 census, boasted something like 3586 souls. I soon found out that they were mostly related to each other and that their parents, often both, worked as furniture assemblers or grocery store butchers or owned a service station. My first day of 7th grade, first period, Jesse Peters had his switchblade confiscated for carving his initials into his desk, and Leland Davenport had his Zippo confiscated for setting his desk on fire.I went home and pleaded with my mother, “Please, please get me out of this place. I’m going to DIE!” She just chuckled and assured me I’d be fine. I was one bitter little bugger. I would wait out my sentence in hell—screw ALL these people—and bolt away to college as soon as I could.I was resentful as hell toward my father. It was his racism that had landed me in this purgatory. Why couldn’t we live side-by-side with black people? Go to school with black kids? God doesn’t play favorites!!! Remember?It was another fifty years before I had my suspicions about my dad disconfirmed.The two big political influences in my teen years were Martin Luther King, Jr—everything he said in those years went straight to a spot in my brain that instantly stamped it TRUTH—and Hugh Hefner—I never missed an installment of his Playboy Philosophy, which basically claimed the government had no business getting involved in personal morality or consensual sexual activity (of which I was yet to have any).At 14, a seminal and galvanizing event occurred. I was in freshman Spanish when a commotion could be heard in the hallway minutes before class was to be over. A senior who helped in the principal’s office scurried in with a worried mien, leaned and whispered to our teacher, an ardent Conservative Democrat. He beamed. “Oh, maybe nothing’s wrong,” I thought. Minutes later, when the bell rang, as we filed out, he chuckled, “By the way, kiddies, your president has been shot.”I had never experienced such depth of hatred. Oh, several times already, towns people had called me “nigger lover” to my face when they suspected my parents were Republican (back in those days, one dared not put any bumper stickers on the car or yard signs on the lawn—but then, if you didn’t put Democratic ones up, you were suspect).With the KKK also active in the Deep South and committing atrocities, it suddenly hit home why my mother had been so distraught at my brother and I playing with that black boy—harm might well have befallen him and his father. She did not want to discuss it because she did not want to tell us how ugly the world actually can be at such a tender age.It wasn’t getting any less ugly. My sophomore year, we learned we would be integrating the following year. Teachers were urging resistance. Taking a test in one class, I went to the window to sharpen my pencil. The teacher walked over, put his arm around my shoulder and pointed to a young black male coming into view down the street. “That’s the kind of nigger trash that’s going to be going to school next year. What do you think about that?” I ducked his embrace and went back to my seat, where I glowered at him.I was young, but there was no escaping taking a stand in those days. The most memorable instance had come a couple of years earlier visiting family in Mississippi. I went with a cousin quite a bit older into a Delta town, where he was joined by a friend. They chatted, when suddenly the friend blurted, “Look at that nigger buck walking down the sidewalk.” Then, right in my face, “I wouldn’t walk across the street to spit on a nigger…”I hoped my cousin would intercede, but I wasn’t sure of his politics. I knew I was being forced to declare. All at once I realized I had a clean way out, “neither would I,” I remarked perfectly honestly. It seemed good enough for that young tough, and he went back to chatting with my cousin. My heartbeat slowly returned to normal.And so my politics was formed at this time in this crucible. As a Lockean lover of liberty, I was a liberal, in the unambiguous usage of the time. Progressivism had not yet revitalized to renew its phony claim on that label, originally stolen by Franklin Roosevelt when he dared not run for the presidency truthfully after progressivism had taken a huge black eye over Prohibition.And so, I marched off to college, mere days after my graduation, a libertarian, radically liberal. It was the Summer of Love, 1967, and I couldn’t wait to wade into politics.But before we go there, I had two years of integration to go through to finish high school. I arrived fall of my junior year expecting to have to take a stand again. There was only one other classmate from a Republican family—all the rest, Southern Democrats, more properly known as Conservative Democrats. Instead, it all went seamlessly. My classmates openly welcomed our new students. Half a dozen were in our class, and the story was the same in the other classes. There was never an untoward event, and the teachers who’d been urging resistance kept their mouths shut. Obviously, there had been some considerable planning on the part of the student body, but I hadn’t heard of it. All of a sudden, my classmates didn’t seem like such clods to me.I had just ridden one of the great tidal waves in American history, but what exactly went on was a mystery to me for another 41 years.The day after graduation, someone casually mentioned that one classmate had been Catholic. “What! I know a Catholic!?” It was a shame I’d missed the chance to know him better. Once in Austin at the University of Texas, I wasted no time getting into the thick of things. Because I had a notion that publishing might one day be a good career field for me but wanting nothing to do with journalism school, I volunteered for the school paper and was accepted as an editorial page editor writing a weekly opinion column, which put me right in the thick of the political ferment of the times.At meetings to plan rallies and resistance, the “soshes” outnumbered us libertarians three or five to one. Indeed, it was a matter of years before I could reliably tell political stripes apart. I was shoulder-to-shoulder with individuals who could recite Gramsci or Guevara or Mao or Fanon. Half the professoriat was radicalized, and I was assigned Marcuse and Brown and Freud and Marx.At first, we were all brothers in arms. Then my take became “politics makes strange bedfellows.” Finally, it became, “you’ve got your politics; I’ve got mine.” Fortunately, that occurred before I had to read Derrida, Foucault or any of the other postmoderns.But I got restless early on. I had been raised WASP in a sea of other WASPS. While the three black girls in our class had readily socialized, the three boys had not. I felt I had not known anyone different. In typical Charles Tips “anything worth doing is worth overdoing” fashion, I hitchhiked to New Orleans, went to the Seafarer’s International Union hall and signed up for the Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship. Next thing you know, I’m flown to San Francisco and put aboard the S. S. Steel Executive bound for Pusan, Korea.I spent three years off and on hopping freight ships, and you could not get farther from WASP culture. I sailed with crews from Baltimore, Mobile, New Orleans, Houston, Long Beach, San Francisco and Seattle. Crews consisted of every race and nationality you could imagine. I spent good chunks of time in many countries and, in port, I palled around with Germans, Danes, Yugoslavs, Liberians, Spaniards, Chinese… you name it.It was a great education. But it was also more. It was confirmation that my mother had been thoroughly correct—there is no differentiating people by externalities. But moreover, it was eternally amazing how well the crews functioned in such a confined living arrangement. The crews could not have been more diverse, but it always worked… to the point I decided that the age-old suspicion of others is a mistake in need of correcting. We will reach our optimum as a species once we embrace our great diversity.But three years of bopping around the world put me graduating during the Watergate imbroglio. Slowly it dawned on me… hey, Nixon was the progressive back in ’60, Kennedy was, like me, the civil-rights loving, supply-side liberal [true sense of the word]… the only one ever elected president from the Democratic Party.By 2003, it was clear that California was headed in the toilet. I’d met my wife and raised three sons there. We decided it was time to move and Texas was the place. I wanted the glorious hills around Austin, but my wife insisted we be closer to her elderly parents in Kansas. So, we ended up in the same county where I went to high school, a place I thought I’d never return, a county that had been eighty percent Democrat in my youth and was now flipped to eighty percent Republican.We chose the school carefully, so that our middle son, going into his junior year, would have a top-notch baseball program. That put us here in Flower Mound, my old school district. And we were off to a baseball game in South Oak Cliff that next summer. I recognized that we were a mere five minutes from my old childhood house. I dragged my wife and son there.I knocked on the door. A black woman older than me answered. “Yes?”“My name is Charles Tips. I lived in…”“Come in,” she demanded.It was suddenly old-home week. She introduced me glowingly to her daughter and grandson (who had my old bedroom). At length, after asking about my father’s health, she inquired, “Do you know about your daddy?”“All I know is he moved us away in ’61 when blacks started moving in.”“You need to know. You see that dining room table right there? He sat there two nights a week for months. New people would bring their purchase contracts and home insurance contracts to him, and he would sit there with his ruler and his ballpoint pen [my dad alright] and strike through line after line and write new terms in the margin. His rewrites were never challenged. He saved every one of us a ton of money and a ton of grief, and he never asked for a nickel. When you see him next, tell him we all still think of him and wish him the best.”Well, I was dead wrong about dad. People in my parents’ generation were tight-lipped.My mother had passed away more than a decade earlier, but her youngest brother, Uncle Joe wanted a ride to Starkville to visit his brother John who was ill and didn’t seem like he would make it.That gave us eight hours there and eight hours back to talk, and Joe was the one talker in the family. What I learned was that on the farm they worked in the Mississippi Delta, they had been the only white family for miles around. All their hunting buddies and fishing buddies… black. All their “aunts” and “uncles”… black. Their “grandparents,” the elderly couple that lived on the backside of the farm with their “forty acres and a mule”… not just black but slaves in their youth.No wonder my mother had volunteered to head every canned-food drive. It was the only way she could socialize with blacks in the South of the ’50s! No wonder she had counseled my brothers and me over and over never to judge anyone on any basis other than their actions.In 2007, it was time for my 40th class reunion.Lo and behold, four-fifths of my classmates, the sons and daughters of racist Conservative Democrats, were now Republican!!! the same percentage as the county as a whole. The more I listened, the more I realized, the growth of the Republican Party in the South had been a generational thing. My Baby Boomer generation, in school at the time of integration, wholly rejected the old Democratic politics. In the South, you demonstrated your lack of animosity toward other races by joining the GOP, and that’s what they did.Afterward, my wife gave me holy hell. “How did you lose track of these people!? These are some of the greatest people I’ve ever met! Start inviting them over.” And I did. And she was right, and I had been wrong for four decades.But there’s your explanation for one the great schisms in US history as an entire generation broke with its parent generation.And there you have my personal political odyssey, still a hardcore libertarian after all these years.

While there are many pros and cons to sending students to every type of school and there are also many factors that might impact the specific benefits provided by these “boarding schools” for each and every individual student, I can offer the following after teaching many students who have attended them:The are the 3 Top Reasons I would send my children to boarding schools:Feeder schools into top universitiesIf you look at a number of the answers to this post re: “feeder schools” to elite universities, you’ll notice a number of the top boarding schools in the lists: Mastering Boarding School Admissions Andover and Exeter, given their notoriety show up more than others, but frankly many boarding schools offer the following which might help students obtain admissions into the Top Universities:The academic rigor provided by the schools may be stronger than its peers.Why? First off, the Largest Endowments reported by Boarding School Review for the top 30 institutions total more than $100 million USD. Having those funds, these academic establishments can hire stronger instructors, develop or maintain challenging curricula, and maybe even have the best education leaders directing these schools in the “proper direction” for its constituents.Secondly, they have to simply survive by providing the best or they will fail to fund their schools with those annual $35,000–50,000+ tuition rates. Frankly, that added pressure forces them to provide students courses and electives that provide the “best” to their kids. Parents are always asking either out loud or at least in their minds, “Why am I paying so much for my child’s education?”St. Paul’s shows their recent matriculation numbers:COLLEGE MATRICULATIONCollege advisers work hard to find the best institutional match for students. Over the past four years, the colleges and universities most attended by our graduates are:Georgetown University - 31Brown University - 27Columbia University - 21Harvard University - 19Dartmouth College - 18Boston College - 15University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University - 14Stanford University, Williams College - 13Elite social networkParents (or the financiers of these kids) have to be on average wealthier than everyone else. It’s quite simple that going to school with “rich kids” means you’re hob nobbing with the elite in society. There is a reason why they are there and on top of that, they are most likely trying to maintain their positions. Having access to this network could open opportunities to internships, opportunities that may pad their resumes or many other avenues to being a part of the “upper class.”A little known story that many people don’t realize about Bill Gates beyond being a Harvard drop out is that he went to one of the best private schools in the Seattle area. His parents were a partner at a top law firm and a board member at the non-profit that helped him connect with the CEO of IBM. While it’s not a boarding school, it’s the same logic. If you want a boarding school example, just look to the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. You can also look at the long list of alumni at all the boarding schools and you’ll find many under the radar successes.The top “reason to go to Andover” adds more rhetoric to show this:1. Friendships that will last a lifetimeThe friends you meet at Andover will remain your friends forever. Whether you were friends from the start of Freshman Orientation week or you just met in the final days of Senior Spring, I am sure you will keep in touch after Commencement. Simply put, Andover students are nice. Everyone at Andover is friendly and looking for new friends. In my four years, I know I have met some of my best friends and even though we have only one more term left at Andover, I am confident that we will go on weekend trips together, connect at Alumni gatherings, and “tweet” at each other for years to come.Source: Phillips AcademyThe educationI’ll let Deerfield’s explanation of their didactic benefits:We offer small, discussion-based courses in a wide range of A Northeast College Prep Boarding School academic disciplines. Our faculty has designed a variety of interdepartmental courses, team-taught by two or more faculty members, to enable students to create new and innovative interdisciplinary skill sets. Individual research, off-campus study opportunities, advanced Alternate Study electives, and 19 AP courses provide students with exceptional academic opportunity.Source: Why DeerfieldMilton Academy gives even more details:What to expect from academics at MiltonBeing smart and interested is easy, fun and normal; everyone around you is motivated, too.Your classrooms will have about 14 students in them; everyone is part of the action.Learning is discussion-based not lecture-based; intense conversation in the classroom makes the class exciting. You make connections and discoveries you never imagined.Your teachers look for analysis, critical thinking, expressing ideas; they help you achieve these skills. You’ll develop your own point of view, and you’ll learn to respect others’ differing points of view.You will have your own faculty advisor. One advisor counsels you and a small group of other students throughout your Milton years, guides your course selection, keeps in touch with your academic and social progress, and acts as your resource and advocate.APs are not the only advanced coursework; you’ll be prepared to take AP tests, even if the course is not labeled AP. In fact, many upper level courses are more challenging and rewarding than AP curricula; take your talent, your interests and your passion as far as you can go.Teachers are ready and willing to help you outside of class; students visit faculty in the dorms and call faculty at home for help.Faculty get to know you well—who you are and what you care about; you’ll want to meet their high expectations of you.Teachers give your writing, projects and tests thorough commentary and respectful responses.You will feel proud of your work, and proud of your classmates’ work.Your homework is not repetitive, or busy work; it is valuable.Your courses are not limited to the texts; readings and discussions go beyond the textbooks and teachers respond to what students are interested in.When you get excited about a subject (and you will), you can follow up with a wide range of electives and learn from teachers who inspire you.Your art teachers are artists, in and outside of school; your music teachers are musicians; your English teachers are writers, your drama teachers are performers, set designers, and directors, and so forth. All your teachers are scholars in their fields.Source: Academics at MiltonAnd one other argument could be made that they help students learn to become mature even quicker than others who don’t board.One school explains:Self-relianceBoarding school students quickly learn how to perform many domestic chores and complete school assignments by themselves. They become experts at managing their time, money and resources. These students mature quickly and tend to be very independent and successful in college and life.Source: Benefits of Boarding SchoolThe schools also share their reasons:Andover:10. You’ll never go hungryThe best days at my house are always when somebody in my family has just gone grocery shopping—the once-barren refrigerator magically becomes a paradise of food. When I came to Andover, I was delighted to find that grocery days were everyday in Paresky Commons, the main dining hall on campus. Alongside the homestyle and grillworks stations upstairs, Paresky is home to made-to-order stir fry station, a pizza oven, an enormous salad bar, a pasta bar, and a deli bar. The best part is that Paresky is open to students (boarders and commuters), faculty, and staff every day of the school year for all three meals. If somehow you are left hungry after a meal in Paresky though, there are always burgers, chicken fingers, smoothies, and more available in Susie’s, the snack bar on the bottom floor of Paresky.9. Research is a breeze at the OWHLThe librarians at the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, affectionately dubbed the OWHL, are an amazing resource. Whether you are hunting for a scholarly article on one of the many online databases provided by the library, scouring the stacks for a book, or struggling to format your bibliography—the OWHL librarians have your back. And even if you are on track with your work, the OWHL is the perfect, and probably most popular place to study on campus. There are group study areas for collaborative work, a “comfy chair” room stocked with the most current periodicals, and a silent study room for those nights when you just have to get work done.8. You can do anything with a BlueCard!As an Andover student, you don’t just get an ID card—you get a BlueCard! And a BlueCard is no ordinary ID card, either. With your BlueCard, you can check out books from the OWHL, sign into the computer centers, gain access to campus events, and pay for things. That’s right, your BlueCard is also a quasi-debit card. Places all over campus, like Susie’s, the Athletic Stock Room and the Ice Rink Pro Shop, and even stores in in town like CVS and Bruggers will accept payments made with your BlueCard. Lastly, starting this year, some of the buildings on campus, like Borden & Memorial Gym, are only accessible by swiping your BlueCard at the door. The BlueCard is literally your key to success at Andover.7. Our Head of School tweetsTwitter has taken over Andover’s campus. Although your parents might think “tweeting” is something birds do, the faculty at Andover know that “tweeting” is actually an awesome way to communicate with students, share campus news, and engage within the community. In fact, Head of School John Palfrey is the king of “tweeting” around campus, and uses Twitter to interact with students at all hours of the day. Additionally, many teachers have incorporated Twitter into their classes. Last year, my English 300 class kept a running record of the thoughts and reactions we had during our readings by tweeting with a common hashtag. So, when you call home and your parents tell you to get off Twitter and study, you can tell them that you are actually doing both at the same time!6. Life is a Beach, We’re Just Playing in the SandUnfortunately, coming to Andover is not exactly beachfront living—although the pool is a nice compromise if you are feeling the need to take a quick dip. To handle our “beach withdrawals,” Andover students have gotten pretty creative. Meet, The Great Lawn. The Great Lawn is the huge green at the center of campus that nearly spans the lengths of the main quad. Most notably, the Great Lawn holds the annual Commencement ceremony every June, but during those warm New England spring months, the Great Lawn is Andover’s very own beach. Students spread out in lawn chairs across the grass, tanning, playing Ultimate frisbee, doing homework with friends, or even playing tenni-golf—an innovative mutation of tennis and golf. While campus might not be home to the next Miami Beach, the Great Lawn is a perfect destination for anybody looking to catch some rays, get some exercise, or capture a photo-op or two.5. The guest speakers are “Wilde”At your old school, all-school assemblies probably only consisted of the town fire chief making a visit to teach the tactics of stop-drop-and roll, or the town mayor stopping by to discuss the future of politics in your small town. At Andover, however, we like to go a little bigger, especially with choosing guest speakers. Recent guests have included actress and activist Olivia Wilde ’02; 2008 and 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist Caroline Lind ’02; and former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush ’71. Still not impressed? Do not worry, because other guests to recently stop by include David Eagleman, renowned neuroscientist, and Tom Mesereau ’69, who became famous for his law career that acquitted Michael Jackson. This spring, Chris Hughes ’02, co-founder of Facebook and publisher & editor in chief of The New Republic, will be the keynote speaker at All-School Meeting, which is a weekly community-wide gathering in Cochran Chapel. With so many options and so many feet constantly walking across campus, you are bound to come across someone that will strike your interest. I guarantee you will also learn a thing or two at the same time!4. We Bleed BlueOkay, not literally—but we like to think so (thanks, oxidation). If you have you ever wanted to be one those crazy sports fans wearing a block of cheese on your head and screaming so loudly your own ears begin to hurt? If so, then Andover is the place for you. At Andover,athletics are a huge source of community pride and closeness, and it is also something we are quite talented at. Our swim teams have won more medals than Michael Phelps; our hockey team has produced current NHL superstars Chris Kreider and Cory Schneider; and our crew team has produced 2008 and 2012 Olympic gold medalists. That said, not all of our athletes want to play at the varsity level—which is totally okay at Andover! In fact, some of the most popular sports are the intramural sports and life activities like yoga, spinning, and Zumba. Our biggest athletic tradition, however, is the legendary rivalry that we hold with our sister school up north, Phillips Exeter Academy. Every season closes with the Andover/Exeter contests—a weekend jampacked with school spirit and cheer. Andover students love A/E weekend so much that many alumni will return to campus just to cheer on the Big Blue as they “Wreck the Ex!”3. Do what you like, whatever that may beDo you have some sort of weird or far-fetched hobby that sometimes leaves you feeling like you are stranded alone in a corn maze? Then Andover is the perfect place for you because there are likely to be tons of other people lost in that same maze with you! If you have a peculiar interest or a hobby that most people have never heard of, then there is probably a place here for you to do it. If you like to play video games, then Andover Fifa Club is the place for you. If you like to study the dead Latin language, then Andover Classics Club is the place for you. If you like to be passive-aggressive, then Under the Bed (the student improv troupe) is the place for you. If you like to hear yourself talk, then WPAA is the place for you. If you like to build things and drive them around without a license, then Andover Robotic Cars Club is for you. If you like to argue with people, then Philomathean Society (the debate team) is perfect for you. Nothing sound good yet? If you find that your interest does not have a home on campus, go ahead and make one—with tons of faculty members here for support, any student has the ability to start his or her own club. So go out, find some friends, and get started with whatever it is you want to do!2. The Faculty Have Lives…And You Can be a Part of ThemThe typical high school teacher is just that—a teacher. At Andover, however, the faculty are so much more than just classroom teachers. For example, my JV Hockey coach was also my College Counselor and his wife was my math teacher. And this is totally normal! More than often, Andover students will find that their classroom teacher is also their coach and their club advisor and their music instructor. With a majority of the faculty living on campus, a unique sense of community is built at Andover. Faculty don’t just live on campus, though—they are also extremely dedicated to helping students. If you need some extra help studying for that Biology exam, it’s pretty typical to spend an hour reviewing the material with your teacher over dinner with his family or in the library during study hours. You can also ask teachers for advice, help with your laundry, suggestions for spring break, or just to talk. Andover is very much a family—a family in which students and faculty alike are caring, compassionate, and willing to help.The #1 reason was already shared above.Groton:Everyone MattersIn a school of 370 students, everyone matters. Those who attend Groton are united by a deep commitment of one to another and of each to the whole. Integrity and civility, qualities sometimes overlooked today, remain important at Groton. The School’s intimacy and ideals foster inclusion and inspire students to understand their strengths and capabilities.Exceptional ScholarshipA Groton education is thorough. Increasingly rare in secondary schools are opportunities to study two languages or take six courses, but Groton students can. Alongside traditional curricula are innovative approaches to instruction, such as the dynamic math and science classes in our STEM program. Superior performance on standardized tests, high rates of admission to selective colleges, and impressive performance in both undergraduate and graduate institutions demonstrate the advanced scholarship of Groton students.Cui Servire est RegnareGroton students are justifiably proud of the School’s heritage of service to the nation. Few institutions have had as much influence on the American Century, thanks to graduates including President Franklin D. Roosevelt and numerous policymakers. Currently, three Groton graduates hold seats in Congress, and Groton alumni work for the common good in a wide variety of fields, reflecting the impact of the School’s motto, “cui servire est regnare,” “to serve is to rule.” Students and graduates value service as an essential element of a life well lived.Depth and BreadthGroton believes that adolescents should expand their vision, not narrow it. Students develop the talents they know well, but also explore new arenas. The School offers an intimate setting and an array of opportunities found more typically at much larger institutions. At Groton, we avoid the contemporary emphasis on specialization. Groton scholars, athletes, actors, and musicians leave the School prepared to excel at the highest levels in college, but do so with heightened self-awareness of their abilities and interests in multiple areas—including many they would not have dreamed of discovering before Groton.A Personal TouchGroton offers Upper School students a full slate of electives, but students also may design tutorials, which are concentrated scholarship in subjects of special interest, under the guidance of a faculty member. The afternoon program can be individualized as well: a Faculty-Sponsored Activity or FSA allows students in-depth study of anything from extended research in a chemistry lab to the formation of a rugby team. The entire faculty serves as a resource to each student, a hallmark characteristic of founder Endicott Peabody’s emphasis on a School modeled after a family.Prefect YearGroton entrusts every senior with the responsibility to lead. Every Sixth Former leads a dorm of younger students, and many also take on other leadership—or prefect—roles throughout the School. Younger students benefit from their prefects’ guidance—they look up to prefects as they might big brothers or sisters—and they look forward to mentoring as prefects themselves one day. Groton believes it is essential that students understand their leadership style and capabilities.SpiritualityIn an era when it can be difficult to understand one’s role in a complicated world, Groton offers students a valuable component of a contemporary education: religious literacy. The School day begins with a Chapel service, which includes prayers or words of wisdom from many spiritual traditions, a traditional hymn, and a Chapel Talk delivered by a Sixth Former, teacher, or visitor. Classroom study of world religions and weekly services for students in their own religion of choice reflect the inclusivity embraced by the Episcopal schools.The CircleOn a plateau one mile from a New England village and 35 miles northwest of Boston, renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted designed a beautiful campus, focusing on a motif that he loved, the circle. The Groton Circle, a vast expanse of green ringed by buildings designed by the architectural firm of Peabody & Stearns, opens to the West, its vista toward the mountains of southern New Hampshire suggesting infinite possibility. While Groton’s property stretches across more than 400 acres of woodlands and down to the Nashua River, the central campus is conveniently contained around the Circle, which also serves as a symbol of the wholeness we seek to instill in each graduate.TraditionsGroton students love their traditions, and there are a lot of them to love. These are not empty rituals, but practices that support our sense of community. Perhaps most important is the structured routine at the beginning and end of each day. We begin together listening to a Chapel Talk and hearing announcements at Roll Call. We end the day with check-in, when members of each dormitory talk about the day’s events and shake hands with the teacher on duty before turning in. At the end of each School year, every student lines up to shake the hand of every teacher. Surprise Holidays, St. Mark’s Days, the school birthday dinner, Lessons and Carols, and many other traditions are eagerly anticipated and give each year a comfortable sense of familiarity.The FoodGroton benefits greatly from many nearby farms, which allow our Dining Hall to serve fresh, farm-to-table meals throughout the year. Experienced chefs prepare delicious, healthy food, and the director of our dining service is the parent of a recent Groton graduate!Resources and OpportunityGroton benefits from having a higher endowment per student than all but a handful of independent schools or colleges. The School's resources support teachers' professional development; a generous financial aid budget; a global education program that stretches into Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America; and facilities with more square footage per student than at any comparable school. All of this means opportunity for students, and experiences rarely found at the high school level. The Groton experience has succeeded for generations, inspiring our graduates to lead lives of meaning and purpose.Choate:Choate's Statement on Character identifies timeless qualities–integrity, respect and compassion–that are at the heart of what it is to be a good person. Working from this foundation, a Choate education strengthens in its students the capacity for productive learning and meaningful action. At Choate as in life, constructive leaders demonstrate self-motivation, curiosity and creativity, and effective communication skills.Choate students cultivate self-motivation and self-awareness. In a supportive and caring context, our students discover that their future success lies in effort, determination, and an understanding of how they learn. Intrinsic motivation combines with honest, reflective self-assessment to develop individuals who take responsibility for their actions, have the courage to stand up for their beliefs, and set goals for lifelong growth.Choate students develop creativity and a willingness to explore. The School encourages students to formulate their own ideas with originality and inventiveness. Choate's extensive resources inspire curiosity and allow the pursuit of interests in almost any direction. In this process of exploration, our students come to appreciate the value of taking intellectual chances and realize that learning is fun, often a source of joy. They identify interests and passions that form the intellectual playground where they will be active for the rest of their lives.Choate students learn to express themselves effectively in a variety of media and languages. Because a true education cannot be forged in isolation, communication is an essential component of that process. In all areas, effective communication requires attentive listening, gathering and assessing relevant information, and the ability to formulate and express a meaningful statement or argument. Our digital age demands facility with changing technologies, while also reminding us of the continued importance of human connections. Communication is essential for growth and understanding and also as a catalyst for action.While certain qualities are constant in providing a foundation for success, circumstances sometimes bring competing values into tension. Choate students are distinguished by their ability, enhanced through experience, to balance those tensions.Perseverance and resilience are balanced with humor and joy. All in our community enjoy learning, but experience teaches that some challenges are not resolved quickly or easily. Often, extended engagement, repeated effort, and adaptability may be necessary to achieve a goal. Students come to appreciate that determination combined with a positive sense of humor offers a productive approach. They discover that the path to success often includes prudent risks that might lead to occasional failures. They come to know that neither success nor failure is an ending, but rather the beginning of the next step forward. Balance in this regard is key to lifelong physical and emotional wellbeing.Mastery of established knowledge is balanced with the independent development of ideas. Choate students are trained to take full advantage of available information through research skills tailored for different disciplines. They have experience in the analysis of language and art, historical and social scientific evidence, and scientific and mathematical data. At the same time, they are given freedom to experiment with novel approaches through brainstorming, modeling, and trial and error. By studying how others have answered questions, our students consider a variety of ways to analyze, frame and synthesize information. They then adjust their approach to the specific circumstances of each challenge.Individual effort is balanced with productive collaboration. It is essential for students to develop the capacity for sustained, intense individual effort. Such independent, reflective engagement teaches self-discipline while also building skills and confidence. At the same time, the ability to be a constructive member of a collaborative team is essential. This requires students to lead as well as partner in efforts to contribute meaningfully and responsibly within the group. Students practice the skills of trusting, listening, persuading, and compromising that are central to productive group work. By working together, students come to understand other perspectives in ways that prepare them to engage in a global community.Self-advocacy is balanced with a commitment to serve others. While pursuit of personal goals and interests is desirable, empathy is essential in developing long-term, successful solutions to problems. Our students learn to understand their own perspective on an issue and also the perspectives of others. This includes understanding other languages and cultures, past and present, as well as learning to live in a vibrant and diverse community. This experience nurtures in students both a sense of gratitude for the gifts they have and a sense of humility that comes from recognizing their individual limitations. Students recognize the importance of dedicated engagement in service to others, including but not limited to efforts toward social justice and environmental sustainability.**Do note, much of what was said reflects the “top schools” identified in lists like this: Top 25 U.S. Boarding Schools in 2015

1.Delhi Janlokpal Bill: Aam Aadmi Party resolves to legislate the Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill after coming to power. This will ensure a time-bound investigation in matters of corruption. The Delhi Lokpal will have the power to initiate investigations and prosecution against those charged with corruption. A Citizens’ Charter shall be introduced in all government offices in Delhi. Whistleblowers will be provided protection and awarded for their contribution toward creating a just system.2.Swaraj Bill: Aam Aadmi Party will legislate the Swaraj Act to devolve power directly to the people. Decisions affecting the local community will be taken by citizens and implemented by their Secretariat. A Citizen Local Area Development (C-LAD) Fund will be given to every Mohalla Sabha and Resident Welfare Association, ensuring funds and functions in the hands of the community.3.Full Statehood for Delhi: Acting within the constitutional framework our government will use its moral and political authority to push for full statehood for Delhi. This will ensure that institutions such as the DDA, MCD and Delhi Police will be accountable to the elected government of Delhi. This way land will be made available for the common man, there will be greater synchronization and shared purpose among civic services with regard to service delivery and the law and order machinery will be accountable to the citizens.4.Electricity Bills to be reduced by half: An Aam Aadmi Party government will keep its promise of reducing electricity bills by half. A more efficient, transparent and accountable system to regulate and audit the power generation and distribution companies is the need of the hour and AAP will do everything within its command to achieve that. Discoms should purchase power from economical sources and wriggle out of expensive and unsustainable Power Purchase Agreements. AAP will take measures to provide relief from rising power bills, namely generating cheaper electricity, improving transmission efficiency, fixing billing defects and correcting meter defects.5.CAG Audit of Power Discoms: We will conduct a comprehensive performance audit of discoms by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Discoms shall also be brought within the ambit of the RTI act. We will ensure that the citizens of Delhi do not have to bear the burden of soaring power tariffs. Initially we will provide subsidy that would go not to the power discoms but to Delhi Transco, a state-owned transmission company which has unpaid bills of Rs 3,500 crore to be paid by the discoms. This money will help Delhi Transco upgrade and augment its transmission capacity, which is in a bad state at present. The lack of funds at Transco’s disposal is one of the main reasons for the frequent power outages in the state. After the audit results are tabled in the assembly, power tariffs will be restructured.6.Delhi’s Own Power Station: We will put up Delhi's own power station at the pithead and comprehensively solve Delhi's electricity problem in the long run by being able to meet peak power consumption of 6200MW. We will also ensure that the Rajghat and Bawana plant are efficiently utilized.7.Introduce Competition Amongst Discoms: AAP reiterates the promise made in its December 2013 Delhi manifesto of providing consumers the right to choose between electricity providers. We will introduce competitive distribution, which will provide better services and lead to lower tariffs.8.Delhi To Be Made A Solar City: AAP will facilitate a phased shift to renewable and alternate sources of energy. Incentives will be given to households, housing societies, enterprise and industry to gradually switch over to renewable energy. We are committed to ensuring that 20 percent of Delhi’s energy needs are met through solar energy by 2025.9.Water As A Right: AAP will provide Water as a Right. It will provide universal access to clean drinking water to all citizens of Delhi at an affordable price. The Delhi Jal Board Act will be amended to make clean drinking water a right of the people. AAP will make a time bound plan of action for covering all residents of Delhi with piped water and sewage network in all parts irrespective of their legal status. There will be no discrimination between planned/non-planned; authorized/ non-authorized; regularized/ non-regularized; city or village. Within five years piped water connections will be made available to as many as 14 lakh households (50 lakh people) in Delhi that do not have a piped water connection at present.10.Free Lifeline Water: AAP will ensure free lifeline water of up to 20 kiloliters (20,000 liters) to every household per month through a Delhi Jal Board’s (DJB) metered water connection. This scheme will be extended to group-housing societies.11.Fair and Transparent Water Pricing: AAP will provide universal access to potable water to all its citizens of Delhi at a sustainable and affordable price. The mandatory annual 10 percent hike in water tariffs will be abolished and any further hike will be made only after due consideration. The AAP government will abolish the C-1A (B) category to provide relief to households that run small shops from their residence (less than 100 square feet) for their livelihood for which they are charge commercial rates in spite of the fact that they are not using water for commercial purposes.12.Water From Munak Canal: AAP will ensure the firm implementation of the High Court order that says Delhi is entitled to extra raw water from Haryana in the Munak canal, an issue on which the BJP government in Haryana and at the Centre have been dithering.13.Augmenting Water Resources: Our government will preserve and replenish local and decentralized water resources, will initiate schemes for rainwater harvesting, recharge of wells, watershed development and soil-water conservation. AAP will revive Delhi’s water bodies like lakes, ponds and baolis, among others, by rainwater recharging and maintaining them in partnership with Mohalla Sabhas.14.Crackdown On Water Mafia: AAP is committed to clamping down on Delhi’s powerful water mafia working under the patronage of political leaders. AAP will put in place a transparent tanker water distribution system by implementing state-of-the-art techniques. The schedule of tankers operating in different localities would be made available online and on mobile phone. Private tankers will be allowed to operate under the guidelines framed by our government. This will protect the consumers from exorbitant pricing and illegal practices of private tanker operators.15.Revive The Yamuna: The Yamuna River has been part of the collective memory of Delhi for a long time but this lifeline is dying. We will ensure 100 percent collection and treatment of Delhi’s sewage through an extensive sewer network and construction of new functional sewage treatment plants. Discharge of untreated water and industrial effluents into the river Yamuna will be strictly prohibited.16.Promote Rainwater Harvesting: The AAP government will throw its weight behind rainwater harvesting and strongly push it in a top-down manner. Families that adopt rainwater harvesting shall be termed water- friendly families. The government will provide incentives to families who do so.17.Build 2,00,000 Public Toilets: AAP will build two lakh toilets across Delhi: about 1.5 lakh toilets in slums and JJ clusters and 50,000 toilets in public spaces, of which 1 lakh toilets will be for women. These toilets will be concentrated in public spaces and slum areas. We will construct eco-toilets to save water.18.Better Waste Management: AAP will adopt and encourage the use of good practices in waste management techniques from across the world. We will encourage recycling by segregation of biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste at the household level. Littering or disposal of construction debris in public places will attract a heavy fine. We will enforce the ban on plastic bags in the city.19.Five Hundred New Government Schools: AAP will build 500 new schools with a special focus on secondary and senior secondary schools to ensure that every Delhi child has easy access to quality education.20.Higher Education Guarantee Scheme: Students who wish to pursue any diploma or degree course after finishing Class 12 from any school in Delhi will be given bank loans with the government standing as a guarantor. Students will not be required to furnish any collateral and the scheme will be universal in nature regardless of a student’s financial background. The loan will cover both tuition fees and living expenses. The loan repayment schedule will carry a moratorium period covering the years required to finish the course and one year thereafter to find a job. Under this scheme no loan request will be rejected.21.Twenty New Degree Colleges: AAP will open 20 new colleges under Delhi administration on the outskirts of the city in partnership with the villages of Delhi. Further we will double the existing seat capacity of the Delhi government administered colleges including Delhi’s flagship university, the Ambedkar University.22.Regulate Private School Fees: We will regulate private school fees by publishing the fee structures and accounts online. Capitation fee will be abolished.23.Transparency in Schools Admissions: AAP will bring in complete transparency in Nursery and KG admissions. To streamline the admission process, we will use a centralized online system for nursery admissions, removing avenues for corruption.24.Ramp Up Government Schools to Provide Quality Education: AAP is committed to improving the standard of government schools so that all citizens of Delhi have access to high quality of education. Every school will have sufficient functional toilets built, especially for girls. A sufficient budget will be given at the discretion of the principal for lights, fans, blackboards and other essential infrastructure. Teaching and learning infrastructure including computers and high-speed Internet connectivity will be made fully functional in every school. Number of DTC buses will be increased in order to service private schools so that it cuts down on the wait times at regular DTC bus stops. Seventeen thousand new teachers will be hired to maintain full staff strength at government schools.25.Increased Spending on Education and Healthcare: Education and Health will be AAP's top priority. The total budgetary allocation will be increased accordingly.26.Expand Healthcare Infrastructure: We will create 900 new Primary Health Centers (PHCs) and 30,000 more beds in Delhi hospitals, out of which 4,000 will be in maternity wards. We will ensure that Delhi conforms to the international norm of five beds for every 1000 people.27.Quality Drugs For All At Affordable Price: Pharmaceutical drug and equipment procurement will be centralized to ensure zero corruption. Generic, affordable and high quality drugs will be made available to the public.28.Adequate Street Lighting: Seventy percent of Delhi’s streetlights do not work. Unlit streets become scenes of crimes particularly against women. AAP will ensure a100 percent lighting of streets across the city so that no miscreant or anti-social activity goes unnoticed.29.Effective Last Mile Connectivity: AAP will provide effective last mile connectivity in Delhi’s public transit system, which will play a role in reducing the number of crimes against women. An effective combination of shared autos, metro feeder services and e-rickshaws will be used to provide efficient last mile connectivity by fixing and delimiting routes. This will be synced with metro and bus timings so that there is a working connection to each neighborhood from nodal points.30.CCTVs in Public Spaces and Buses: AAP plans to install CCTV cameras in DTC buses, bus stands and in crowded places as a deterrent against crime. AAP will ensure that women can go about their jobs in the city free of stress while travelling by public transport.31.Speedy Justice through 47 Fast-Track Courts: AAP will strongly push for the creation and completion of fast-track courts, which are dedicated to handling cases of sexual assault and other crimes against women. AAP will operationalize 47 new courts that it had commissioned in January 2014 to ensure speedy justice. If required, the courts will be run in two shifts so that the cases involving crimes against women are heard and trials completed within six months.32.Empower Delhi Lawyers and Judiciary: New judges will be appointed. We will make provisions for affordable housing for government counsels and lawyers practising in lower courts. The government will streamline existing government medical schemes to ensure maximum coverage of legal functionaries.33.Women’s Security Force: AAP will set up Mahila Suraksha Dal or Women’s Security Force made up of a 10,000 strong Home Guard who are currently forced to work as servants, drivers and cooks at the residences of senior officers and ministers. AAP will also use 5,000 bus marshals to prevent and deter crime on public transport.34.Suraksha Button: Our government will provide a Suraksha/SOS button on every mobile phone. We will work towards its connectivity to the police, nearest PCR van, relatives and volunteer community.35.Governance On The Mobile Phone: All government services and forms will be made available online and on the phone. Data on government projects, performance, accounts and personnel will be posted online. This will bring transparency and accountability in governance.36.Delhi’s Villages To Receive Special Attention: Decisions regarding the development of Delhi’s villages will be taken by Gram Sabhas, which will be granted special untied Village Development Funds to be utilized according to their priorities. Those engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry will receive incentives and infrastructural support as is done in neighbouring states. We will provide sports facilities in villages to encourage young adults to pursue sports. Connectivity to rural Delhi will be enhanced through increased bus and metro services.37.Farmer Land Reform: Section 33 and 81 of the Delhi Land Reform Act, which put unjust restrictions on farmers’ rights over their land, will be removed. No land will be acquired in Delhi’s villages without the consent of the Gram Sabha. Strong pressure would be exerted on the Central government to remove unnecessary restrictions regarding land use in villages.38.Wi-Fi Delhi: We will make Wi-Fi freely available in public spaces across Delhi. Citywide Wi-Fi can help in bridging the digital divide. It will also provide an impetus to education, entrepreneurship, business, employment, and also tie in with women’s safety initiatives.39.Delhi To Be Made A Trade And Retail Hub: AAP will formulate trader-friendly policies and streamline rules and regulations for setting up and running businesses. We will simplify compliance and licensing for traders and put in place a system of single window clearance. We will also ensure that starting a trade or business in Delhi takes a maximum time of one week. As vital stakeholders the participation of traders in the framing of trade policies will be encouraged.40.FDI In Retail: Our government will continue with its decision of not allowing FDI in retail in Delhi.41.Lowest VAT Regime: Delhi will have the lowest VAT regime in India. We will simplify VAT and other tax structures. One portion of the VAT collected from every locality and market will be used for the maintenance and upgradation of that market to foster business and trade.42.End of VAT Raids And Inspector Raj: We will put an end to raid culture and inspector raj. Only under exceptional circumstances will a raid be permitted with the prior approval of senior officials.43.Simplifying VAT Rules: AAP will simplify VAT rules, processes and forms. The 30 page long VAT form will be crunched into one page for traders. All communication with the concerned department will be online. Licenses will be applied for and received at home.44.Delhi Skill Mission: AAP will promote vocational education and skill development of Delhi's youth in schools and colleges, to bridge the real skill gap in Delhi. We will create the first ever Delhi Skill Mission to train and enable one lakh youth per year for the first 2 years, ramping up to five lakh youth per year for the next 3 years.45.Create 8 Lakh Jobs: AAP will create eight lakh new jobs in the next five years. AAP will facilitate innovative and private startup accelerators to provide support to entrepreneurs. We will create an ecosystem that enables private industry to create more jobs.46.Delhi To Be Startup Hub: The government will encourage startups by setting up business and technology incubators in universities and colleges. As a pilot project, we will also create three million square feet of affordable business incubation space.47.Contractual Posts To Be Regularized: AAP will fill 55,000 vacancies in the Delhi government and autonomous bodies of the Delhi Government on an immediate basis. 4,000 doctors and 15,000 nurses and paramedics will be made permanent.48.Emphasis On Social Security: AAP will implement a flexible and fair labour policy. Our policy will ensure social security for workers in the unorganized sector; regulate wages, services and working hours of domestic workers and improve work conditions of rag pickers. Local Mohalla Sabhas will provide licences to street vendors and hawkers in designated spaces.49.Reducing Pollution: Delhi Ridge, the lung of the city, will be protected from encroachment and deforestation. Environmentally appropriate afforestation would be carried out in all parts of Delhi in collaboration with the local Mohalla Sabhas. We will acquire mechanized vacuum cleaning vehicles to clean the city. Public transport will be improved to reduce the number of cars on the road. Additionally, incentives will be provided for low emission fuels like CNG and electricity. Government will encourage car-pooling and will crackdown on fuel adulteration to reduce pollution.50.Unified Transport Authority: AAP will formulate holistic transport policies for all forms of transport including the metro, buses, auto rickshaws, rickshaws and e-rickshaws. A ‘Unified Transport Authority’ will be established for this purpose.51.Large Scale Expansion in Bus Services: We will expand bus services in the city on a massive scale, adding at least 5,000 new buses to the city fleet in five years. This will reduce the cost of transportation and pollution in the city.52.Just And Fair Policy For E-Rickshaws: E-rickshaw drivers of Delhi spent many months mired in confusion. They lost their livelihood for months due to the BJP’s policy paralysis. AAP will formulate a clear policy and standards for the ownership and operation of e-rickshaws, keeping safety aspects in mind.53.Metro Rail 2.0: We will collaborate with the Indian Railways to extend and develop the Ring Rail service in Delhi. AAP will also work towards large-scale expansion of the Delhi metro, especially in rural areas. Senior citizens, students and persons with disability will be provided concessional passes on buses and in the metro.54.Fair Arrangement for Auto Drivers: The number of auto rickshaw stands will be increased. We will facilitate fast bank loans for the purchase of auto-rickshaws. Special trainings will be conducted for auto drivers to improve their overall conduct. The interests of commuters will be protected by taking strict action against auto drivers in case of violation of laws or misbehaviour. At the same time, we will prevent harassment of auto rickshaw drivers by the police.55.Freehold Of Resettlement Colonies: The Aam Aadmi Party proposes a simple solution of conferring freehold rights to resettlement colonies. Original allottees will receive ownership of their plots for just Rs. 10,000. Those who are not original allottees will get the ownership rights of their plots for less than Rs. 50,000 depending on their plot size. The cumbersome multi-page form will be simplifiedand condensed into a single page form.56.Regularization And Transformation Of Unauthorized Colonies: We will provide registration rights with regard to property and sales deeds in resettlement colonies. Further, we will provide water and sewer lines, electricity, schools and hospitals in a systematic and phased manner. Multi-pronged action to make available these basic necessities is the only way of empowering unauthorized colonies, which is something that has never been attempted by the BJP or the Congress. Within one year of our government formation, these unauthorized colonies will be regularized and residents will be given ownership rights.57.Affordable Housing For All: We will construct affordable housing for lower income groups. Over 200 acres of land is currently lying vacant with the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board that can be used for affordable housing.58.Situ Development of Slums: Slum dwellers will be provided plots or flats in the same location as the existing slums. If that is not possible, they will be rehabilitated in the closest possible location. The Mohalla Sabha will plan the rehabilitation process and monitor its implementation. Until such rehabilitation is completed, the slums will not be demolished under any circumstances. Facilities for drinking water, sanitation and cleaning of sewage canals will be provided in all slums. Streets and lanes in slums will be repaired and converted into pucca roads.59.Taking Care Of Our Senior Citizens: The government will initiate a universal and non-contributory old age pension system immediately. A minimum dignified amount indexed to inflation will be provided. Delays in disbursement and arbitrary decisions regarding pensions will be eliminated.60.Controlling Price Rise: In the retail and wholesale business, stringent measures will be taken to prevent hoarding and profiteering. Our government will use the its full strength to stop black market operations, hoarding and speculative trading to curb the rising prices of vegetables, fruits and other essential commodities. Ration shops and the public distribution system will be corruption-free and shield the Aam Aadmi from rising costs.61.Drug-Free Delhi: AAP wishes to make Delhi a completely drug-free state. We will prevent drug trafficking by means of tight monitoring and ensuring strict punishment for the guilty. The number of de-addiction centers shall be increased and mental and psychiatric support for rehabilitation purposes will be provided. We will also ensure that effective counseling is easily available in schools for adolescents.62.Empowering The Disabled: We are committed to protecting the rights of Persons with Disability (PwD), and hope to make Delhi an exemplar for the rest of India. AAP will ensure implementation of the 3 percent reservation for persons with disability. We will strive to make education truly inclusive by hiring special educators in government schools. AAP will help children with disability get admission into schools and colleges and ensure financial support to institutions working especially for their needs.63.Justice For Victims Of Anti-Sikh 1984 Carnage: The 1984 anti-Sikh carnage was one of the lowest points in the history of Delhi. Those responsible continue to roam scot-free. The Aam Aadmi Party understands the feeling widespread in the Sikh community that they have been denied justice. Further, the fact that the BJP-led government at the Centre still feels the need to constitute a committee to decide whether an SIT is needed or not on this issue is mystifying. We promise to notify the SIT that we had ordered in January 2014 to reinvestigate the 1984 anti-Sikh killings, particularly the involvement of high profile Congress leaders. Cases where investigations were not carried out properly or witness testimonies not recorded will be reopened.64.Respecting Our Ex-Servicemen: Delhi is home to a large number of ex-servicemen and women from the Armed Forces. AAP will stand by the nation’s ex-servicemen in their fight for “One Rank, One Pension”. We will ensure the existing quota in government jobs for ex-servicemen is filled up.65.Development And Equality For All Minorities: The recent communal tension witnessed in Delhi is totally out of sync with the social fabric of the city. We stand firmly against attacks on places of worship and inflammatory speeches across Delhi. Upholding the spirit of Swaraj, Mohalla Sabhas will set up peace committees to ensure harmony in their respective neighborhoods. We will bring transparency in the functioning of Delhi Waqf Board and ensure that encroachments on Waqf property by private parties as well as the government are removed.66.Dignity To The Safai Karamchari: AAP will end contractualisation in “safai karamchari” posts and will regularize existing employees. Workers who enter sewers will be provided with protective gear, masks and appropriate equipment. Like fire fighters, they will receive medical insurance. To help in their career advancement, safai karamcharis will be provided assistance in education and training. On the death of a “safai karamchari” on duty, Rs. 50 lakh will be given to the bereaved family.67.Ensuring The Rights Of The Marginalized: We will ensure that policies of reservation concerning the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Caste sections are enforced in Delhi government jobs. Entrepreneurs from Scheduled Castes will be provided zero or low-interest loans to set up businesses. Procedures for obtaining caste certificates will be simplified. We will take steps to end the discrimination against and harassment of denotified and nomadic communities in Delhi. The long neglected transgender community will be provided access to health, education and appropriate identity cards that will ease their engagement with institutions.68.Promote Sports Culture: We will create new sports facilities, improve the existing infrastructure and provide coaching assistance to sportspersons. We will open for the youth Delhi’s sports stadiums and complexes that at present are lying underutilized. More than 3000 government school playgrounds will also be made available to the local community after school hours.69.Promoting Punjabi, Sanskrit And Urdu: We will provide second-language status to Urdu and Punjabi. An adequate number of teachers will be employed for teaching Urdu and Punjabi. Research in Urdu and Punjabi shall be encouraged in various Delhi state universities. Study and research in Sanskrit will also be encouraged.70.Preserving Our Heritage and Literature: The Delhi Public Library Network, which presented a vibrant public space accessible to all and encouraged a culture of reading and curiosity about one’s social context, will be enhanced. A public library or community-reading space will be created in every constituency of Delhi.