This school year, Waterford School greeted students through its “front door.”

Just days before the school year began, Waterford unveiled the Miller Student Commons, an 18,000-square-foot building located near 9400 South and welcomed its 1,100 students and the community. The Commons will serve as a 525-seat dining hall and gathering space on the
42-acre campus.

“We are thrilled now to have a place on campus that promotes connection and cohesion,” Waterford Head of School Andrew Menke said. “This student commons invites all of us to join together as a community, students, faculty and staff and practice our founding notion of communal and connected learning.”

Built with $16.2 million raised through its capital campaign, the building design and function was deliberate.

“This building, very importantly, as I look to Little Cottonwood Canyon in the east, anchors this end of the quad, preserving spectacular views, which are a key distinction of our campus. The placement of the Student Commons underscores the natural beauty of the Wasatch Front,”
Menke said.

Todd Winters, assistant head of school for enrollment and institutional advancement, said the glass windows provide an open feel and give a view of the Wasatch mountains.

“We have an elevated and aspirational educational mission,” he said. “Those mountain views remind us each day of looking up and holding those values. I like our outdoor patio because it brings the outdoors in, and it takes the students from the indoors out. It still places them in this view…which is important to our aspirational mission and invites us to stand a little taller and have a little more meaning and purpose in our lives.”

It’s not overlooked that this is the first time in years where students can eat together, having outgrown their former dining location. 

“We will enjoy lunch together each day as a full school community for the first time in a long time and for the first time for me ever sharing time, building connection and making memories resulting from frequent meaningful interactions and conversations,” Menke said.

Dean of Students Nancy Nebeker realizes the impact of the Miller
Student Commons.

“I often talk to students about how this community can thrive and flourish, and it is rare that I do not make the point that there must be room for everyone at the table,” she said metaphorically. “For the last several years, I have been mindful of the irony that we have been short on tables and chairs. But now, everyone has a place here, a place that is set for them, everything they will need to be successful, including nourishing learning, nourishing community of peers and adults and now a beautiful building with room for everyone at the table to be nourished at lunch.”

Daily pasta, salad bar and other selections are meal choices which are included in the school’s tuition at the Miller Student Commons.

“Our focus is very much on nutrition,” Winters said. “I think back to my own high school experience and the cafeteria was the gymnasium with roll-out tables. This is not a gymnasium in a multipurpose room. It is meant to be, both in its design and in its application, a place to come and commune, decompress for a moment of the day, share a meal together and make strong connections. Our vision is to inspire lives of meaning and purpose, and we wanted to build an inspirational space.”

Within the dining space, Waterford upheld its stewardship of the environment, using eco-friendly materials and having a fully electric kitchen, said Greg Miles, chief
financial officer.

“We’re excited that it’s all electric because it decreases the amount of pollution in the (Salt Lake) Valley. We were thoughtful about that,” he said, adding that the dining hall uses washable tableware to eliminate single-use Styrofoam plates and bowls, which are harmful to the
environment. 

In addition to the dining area, there is a school store, a living room with a fireplace that can serve as a meeting or gathering place, and administrators’ offices.

Steve Miller, who has served on Waterford’s Board of Trustees, headed the capital campaign; he and his wife, Jennifer, walked through the completed building for the first time at the unveiling.

“I love it,” he said. “I love these high transit windows. The light is great. I love this comfortable common area. The fireplace is something I was keen on. When they were soliciting info from the board, I said I wanted the student commons to have a collegiate feel. I wanted it to be warm
and inviting.”

Miller said donors were generous with their contributions.

“We did it one conversation at a time. We told a story that was impactful. When you can connect with people in a way that resonates with them, that’s the difference. We told them people before us built the buildings which their children benefitted from. We asked them to help us build something that’s lasting, like the bridge builder concept, and people responded in a big way,” he said.

His reference is to the poem, “The Bridge Builder,” by Will Allen Dromgoole, where a man, who had already crossed a chasm, paid it forward by spending his last hours of life building a bridge over it for others. That poem hangs in the Miller Student Commons.

Nebeker said it serves as a reminder of “the power of doing that will benefit others in years to come, that notion of stewardship, which is really important to the Miller family and to the founding philosophy of the educational values of Waterford.”

After 14 months, the Miller Student Commons was constructed, complete with a plaza dedicated to Nebeker, made possible with the generosity of an anony-
mous donor.

“I was surprised and have no idea to this day who the donor is,” said the dean of 15 years who also taught at and had children attend Waterford. “It fills me with gratitude and gives me a sense that I’m loved and appreciated. I’ve never experienced anything like this, nor have I ever considered what it meant to give something on behalf of to someone anonymously. It’s incredibly heartwarming. It’s a gracious and generous gift and a beautiful addition to this building.” λ