Even the most traditional independent schools have a starting point for expanding or integrating experiential education. Hawken was founded in 1915 as an alternative to existing traditional private education options for boys in Cleveland. James A. Hawken, a progressive New York educator, founded the school in a small house on the edge of University Circle in Cleveland. In those early years, Hawken and his band of innovative teachers taught children through hands-on experience, focusing on character and using the school's surroundings to enhance classroom learning. Throughout most of its first 80 years, the school remained progressive, with child-centered pedagogy and innovative experiential learning opportunities such as service, animal husbandry, and outdoor leadership. Slowly, however, the school drifted away from this core. By 2005, the board of trustees recognized the need for dramatic change, and hired a new head of school to turn things around. Hawken's story demonstrates that schools can successfully accomplish significant transformation in a short period of time, even and perhaps especially during tough times.