Maharishi School Opens Boarding Dorm in Hildenbrand

by Jim Karpen

In recent years as many as 30 Maharishi School students were boarding students living with host parents and coming from around the world. Now the school hopes to host even more thanks to converting the rooms in the ground-level floor of Hildenbrand Hall into a boarding dorm – including a dining hall, kitchen, and an apartment for an adult supervisor.

Remodeling of the boarding dorm was completed in August, and nine students are currently living there.

According to Maharishi School Head of School, Richard Beall, the dorm can accommodate up to 30 students. The school hopes to have 80 boarding students in five years.

“We have a big interest in our boarding program, but many parents in other countries are reluctant to have their children live with host families,” Dr. Beall said. “They have a strong preference for a boarding dorm. Now that we have a dorm, we expect to enroll many more boarding students.”

Living with host parents will still be an option, and a number of the school’s international students who are continuing from last year chose to remain with their host families.

The [dorm] students eat breakfast in the dining hall in the dorm, lunch at Maharishi School, and dinner catered by HyVee in the dorm dining hall in the evening.
Supervising the students this year are teacher David Pohlman and MUM student Karen Ballinger.

Hildenbrand Hall is located on the west side of Highway 1, with the upper two floors housing MUM’s women students.

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In our last blog post, we mentioned that there are many exciting things happening around Maharishi School. In our last blog post, we mentioned that we had been ranked #1 Private School in Iowa. In that same blog, we hinted that there were many more new and exciting things to be announced. Well, the second item on that list is our new dormitory! 

  Maharishi School has opened the dormitory to further the boarding opportunities for students who would like to attend the school. In past years, we have utilized host parents in our boarding program. We still have that system in place, but having a dormitory opens many possibilities.

We are excited to have many of our boarding students in one building – boys at one end, girls at the other. Having students together helps create a deeper sense of community within our student population. In addition, we plan to make the common area in the dorms a hub for student activities, 

including non-boarding students. We are excited to utilize this space for group studying, projects, learning, building relationships, and hosting school community activities. Already, we have hosted a Welcome Party for new students where our student council members mingled with new students and answered many questions about school life and what to expect at Maharishi School.

So far, everyone is enjoying their new home-away-from-home. We have 10 boarding students who are settling in and preparing for the school year. They are making connections and building friendships we hope last a lifetime. We are thrilled to have these students here and to provide an opportunity for future students who wish to attend Maharishi School but are based out of town.

To learn more about our academics or to contact a member of our admissions staff, click here.

To learn more about school events and student life, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.