School Traditions

All-School Convocation, begun in 2009, is celebrated on the Friday of the first week of school every year. Two of the students' favorite parts of All-School Convocation are the student body president's welcome address and the high fives given to first graders by the new senior class. Prior to 2009, each division held its own convocation ceremony.

Since 2009, the Upper School Student Council has presented distinguished graduates with its Alumni Hall of Fame Awards. This award honors alumni for their contributions to their former school community and the community at large.

The annual Baccalaureate Service is held in St. Margaret's Chapel on the Thursday evening before 12th-grade graduation ceremonies. This quiet and reflective service focuses on the growth and achievements of the senior class and features interfaith readings, an alumni speaker, and student music. Rowland Hall's Baccalaureate Service dates back to the 1890s.

The Upper School Student Council organizes an annual Battle of the Classes, a two-week period of spirited games and competitions between grades. Regardless of which grade wins, our spirits are raised by the frivolity of the week.

The annual Home & School Book Fair is an event our whole community looks forward to each fall. The Lower School librarian and Home & School volunteers have organized this three-day event for over 20 years, and proceeds from book sales benefit the school's libraries. The school's partnership with The King's English Bookshop guarantees that this is a successful fundraiser at which students and families find a variety of books and gifts in time for the holidays.

Since 2004, Rowland Hall Upper School students have come together to kick off a school-wide canned food drive with a concert called Canapalooza. Featuring an eclectic mix of student and teacher musicians, the concert raises funds to benefit Crossroads Urban Center's emergency food pantries. Students also collect food through October, which they contribute to a local food pantry and the state's food bank. 

The Christmas Dinner Giveaway has been conducted by Crossroads Urban Center and hundreds of Rowland Hall volunteers—students, faculty and staff, families, and alumni—every December since 1995. This important event provides holiday dinners for over 1,200 families in need each year. 

Beginning School and Lower School students celebrate the end of school with Color Day, an annual event that has each age group wearing a different brightly colored T-shirt to indicate their grade level. Featuring games, relays, water play, music, dancing, and lots of smiling faces, Color Day has been a tradition at Rowland Hall since 1982.

First graders spend part of the fall and winter learning about the beauty and importance of the world's rainforests. Since 1993, they have accompanied their study with a penny drive, raising money to purchase a section of rainforest to preserve.

On Grandparents Day, we enjoy welcoming grandparents, and other beloved adults, to our campuses. Visitors come from near and far to join us for a short program, tours, and classroom visits. Grandparents Day replaced Special Friends Day in 2011, which had been an annual event at the school for many years.

Since 1975, Upper School students have enjoyed Interim, a weeklong experiential program unique to Utah schools. Students can participate in both local and out-of-town experiences; past areas of Interim study have included film and videography, the world of public radio, cycling the Wasatch, hiking in Moab, river rafting, and exploring environmental issues.

Learn more about Interim

Throughout the school year, kindergartners and seniors get to know each other through gatherings that include art projects, outdoor play, and a tour of the Upper School. During Senior Week, seniors and kindergartners exchange gifts that include class flags and handmade bookmarks.

The first recorded Middle School class trip took place in 1995. Today, each sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade class takes a weeklong trip, where they bond, explore, and learn together.

Learn more about Middle School class trips

The inaugural ninth-grade class trip took place in 1995. Today, the grade travels to Camp Roger in the Uinta Mountains, where they learn, play, and get to know one another through rotations that may include studying the landscape, learning to navigate an alpine environment, writing poetry, and making art. 

Held at the final Lower School assembly of the year, Stepping Back allows each student to take a step back as they “graduate" to the next grade level. This tradition dates to Rowland Hall's boarding school days.

Each year, third graders research a historical figure, then execute their public-speaking skills, much to the delight of their classmates, teachers, and parents. Albert Einstein, Michelle Obama, Rosa Parks, Alexander Graham Bell, Eleanor Roosevelt, and more have all made appearances (in costume!). Third-grade biographies have been presented every May since 1986.