Our School

George Stevens Academy is a town academy on the coast of Maine. Founded in 1852, we are the high school for nearly all students from the seven towns in our rural community. We also enroll private-pay day and boarding students from around the world. Our students’ interests, talents, and aspirations reflect the diversity of the communities from which they come.

GSA provides a comprehensive and challenging education for all students, for those who will build futures in surrounding communities and for those who will make lives elsewhere in the world. Our many academic and experiential programs foster a love of knowledge, inspire creativity, instill self-confidence, encourage good character, and prepare each graduate for a purposeful life in a changing world.

CLICK HERE for the vision for GSA's future approved by trustees in September.

We will be a vibrant learning community that proudly reflects the diversity of students from our surrounding towns, as well as those from elsewhere in the world, enabling them to thrive now and in the future.

We will provide all GSA students with an education that helps them pursue whatever jobs and career paths they choose, so that when they succeed, they and their communities will be the better for it. 

We recognize that a GSA education is not just a matter of cultivating intellectual and creative strengths but also requires caring for students’ physical and emotional needs. Everything we do will be stamped with this conviction.

We will be seen as a community resource, in the belief that schools and their communities make each other stronger. We will expand school-community partnerships and real-world learning opportunities that engage students and community members in shared activities and projects for the benefit of both.

We will have a safe, attractive, functional, and cost-efficient facility that supports our current programing well and has the flexibility to adapt to changing needs in the future.

We will be financially sustainable, with the resources we need to maintain GSA’s facilities and provide for every GSA student’s needs. We will grow our endowment, meet more ambitious annual GSA Fund goals, and benefit from the support of sending towns that recognize the indispensable value of a strong high school in their community.

George Stevens Academy is dedicated to providing a safe, equitable environment for all community members, one free from discrimination and all forms of bullying and harassment.

We strive to create programs and services which result in an environment that welcomes and celebrates every member of our community, provides opportunities for all to contribute, and provides for the civil rights of all.

Here is a poster of our Statement of Community and community values.

The GSA campus is in the historic center of Blue Hill, Maine, within sight of Blue Hill Mountain, from which the town takes its name. Our classrooms, performance spaces, library, offices, dormitories, dining facilities, and tennis courts are all within a few minutes' walk of each other. We also have soccer, baseball, and softball fields a short walk or drive from campus.

Picturesque Blue Hill Bay, dotted with small evergreen-topped islands, is a short walk to the south-southeast, with the cold Atlantic Ocean beyond it. Onshore breezes bring the smell of salt air. Gulls call as they soar overhead.

The Blue Hill Peninsula’s fields, forests, and waters have long provided the people here with the resources needed to make a living as fishermen, farmers, boatbuilders, and woodsmen, but in recent decades, the rugged beauty of this place has inspired artists and attracted visitors interested in relaxing and recreating where the forests and fields meet the sea.

Countless opportunities for sailing, swimming, canoeing, and kayaking, and more than 30 miles of trails for hiking, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing strengthen our bodies. Many dozens of farms, specialty food producers, cafés, and restaurants nourish us. Art studios and galleries; a music-lending library; a chamber music school; award-winning musicians; classical, jazz, steel drum, and choral concerts; best-selling authors; public libraries; and strong schools, like GSA, nurture our spirits and minds.

Our programs draw substantially from our community's natural, historic, and cultural resources, but we also are a resource for the community. We enrich our local communities with our athletic competitions, visual and performing arts events, summer programming, and through Cooperative Education, our Independent Study and Internship Program, and other real-world learning opportunities.

Not only do the peninsula's tremendous resources strengthen us and our programming, they also create an ideal of active, interconnected, engaged community that we keep with us while we are here and carry with us wherever we go in Maine, across the United States, and around the world. 

For more on the towns of the Blue Hill Peninsula and the lodging, dining, shopping, agriculture, and arts here, visit the Blue Hill Peninsula Chamber of Commerce website.

Beyond the peninsula, there are many more options for shopping, dining, and entertainment.

Ellsworth, the commercial center of Hancock County, is a 20-minute drive from Blue Hill.

Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, voted “America’s Favorite Place” by viewers of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” are an hour away.

Bangor, with its international airport (BGR) and more dining and shopping options, is an hour away.

Portland, Maine’s largest city, and its international airport (PWM) are 3 hours away.

Boston, Massachusetts, the birthplace of the American Revolution and home of Logan International Airport (BOS), is 5 hours away.