The Colwell Center for Global Understanding is in the Mayo center. It was founded in 2003 as the gift of the family of Stephen B. Colwell. The center supports programs and activities intended to foster global education aimed not only at the school but at the surrounding community. Students involved with the center give presentations to teach other students about global issues. The center sponsors a number of international clubs such as Spanish, Japanese, German, Mandarin, French, International, and environmental Clubs, The Humans Rights Alliance, and Intaglio Society. It provides teachers with the opportunity to chaperone international student trips. Two of the Colwell Center's most popular programs are the Colwell Speakers Series and the International Programs. The Colwell Speakers Series sponsors talks and presentations from international speakers that are open to both students and the public. The Colwell Center supports language learning, cultural understanding, and travel opportunities for students and faculty. The Center has sponsored trips abroad and exchanges for students. One study abroad opportunity is the Intaglio Society's trip to
Florence, Italy. This trip allows students to study the traditional Italian art of intaglio printmaking. Students visit a number of classics in the museum and churches around Italy. Another program is the Kaijo Exchange. Every year since 1989, a group of Japanese boys from the
Kaijo Junior & Senior High School in
Tokyo, Japan have come to St. Johnsbury Academy for a 10-day stay with a student host family. The Japanese students go to class with their host students and spend time touring New England. The center formerly offered an exchange for students go to
Stuttgart, Germany for about 5 weeks over their summer break. This began in 2003. The students stay with host families and go to school at the Freie Waldorfschule am Kraeherwald with their host student. At school they take classes in both German language and German history and culture. In the fall the students from Stuttgart come to stay with the Americans who stayed with them earlier that year, going to school and traveling around New England for six weeks. ==Notable alumni== •
Dorothy Hansine Andersen (1918), American physician and researcher who first identified and named
cystic fibrosis •
John L. Bacon (1881),
Chelsea and
Hartford banker and
Vermont State Treasurer •
Albert W. Barney (1938), Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court •
Helen E. Burbank (1917),
Secretary of State of Vermont •
Calvin Coolidge (1891), 30th president of the
United States 1923-1929. A postgraduate student, he had previously failed the entrance exam for
Amherst College. He was given a certificate after one term at St. Johnsbury and was accepted at Amherst. •
Taylor Coppenrath (2000), professional basketball player •
Bruce Dalrymple (1983), basketball player •
Susan Dunklee (2004), U.S. team member for the 2014, 2018, and 2022 Winter Olympics •
Franklin Fairbanks, attendee; president of
E & T Fairbanks and Company, donated
Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium •
Frederick G. Fleetwood, U.S. Congressman •
Charles E. Gibson Jr.,
Vermont Attorney General •
Josiah Grout, Governor of Vermont 1896-1898; was attending Academy when the Civil War broke out and he enlisted •
Edwin Osgood Grover (1890), publisher and educator •
David Hale (1969), economist •
Charles Hosmer Morse (1850), founder of
Fairbanks-Morse •
Graham S. Newell (1933), member of the
Vermont State Senate and
Vermont House of Representatives •
Henry O'Malley (1895),
United States Commissioner of Fisheries 1922–1933 •
Edwin Wallace Parker (c. 1851), bishop of the
American Methodist Episcopal Mission •
George H. Prouty (c. 1880),
Governor of Vermont 1906-1908 •
Linda Richards (attended 1856-7), America's first trained nurse •
Jonathan Ross,
US Senator from Vermont •
Charles Edward Russell (1881), muckraking journalist,
NAACP co-founder, and 1927
Pulitzer Prize winner •
Robert Holbrook Smith (1898), co-founder,
Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935 •
Oliver M. W. Sprague, president of the
American Economic Association •
Hiram R. Steele,
Attorney General of Louisiana and
Brooklyn District Attorney •
Charles W. Waterman,
United States Senator from
Colorado, 1927-1932 •
Sterry R. Waterman (1918), Judge,
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1955–1970 •
Caroline S. Woodruff (1884), educator, president of
Castleton University, president of
National Education Association •
Charles Woodruff (1860s), fought in American Civil War; Brigadier General, US Army •
Mary Parker Woodworth (1849-1919), writer and speaker ==References==