It was a historic weekend for the Bolles Resident Life program at The Bolles School.

On Saturday, August 21, female boarding students moved from their longtime dorm quarters on the Bolles Middle School Bartram Campus to recently renovated riverfront rooms in the new Llura “Lulie” Liggett Gund ’58 Residence Hall for Girls on the Upper School San Jose Campus — a history-making event! Their move marks the first time in school history Bolles Hall has become a home-away-from-home for both male and female boarding students.

The Bolles School originally was a military school for boys. While the School made its transformation to a college preparatory school before becoming coeducational in 1971, residence halls have been split between the Bartram and San Jose campuses for decades. With a consolidated boarding program – girls on the second floor and boys on the third floor of Bolles Hall – all Bolles Resident Life students can live on the campus where they attend classes, practices and events.

The move was made possible by a generous gift from American businessman, philanthropist and professional sports owner, Gordon Gund and sons Zack Gund and Grant Gund, who provided funding for the Llura “Lulie” Liggett Gund ’58 Residence Hall for Girls to honor wife and mother, Bartram alumnus, Lulie. Lulie Gund attended Bartram School for girls in the 1950s before it merged with The Bolles School in 1991. An avid supporter of both schools and a philanthropist who made tangible changes in the realms of blinding retinal diseases, conservation and renewable energy, Lulie Gund passed away in 2020.

“This gift fulfills our community’s longtime vision of locating our Girls Residential Life program on the Bolles Upper School San Jose Campus and allows the program to grow and expand in its experience,” said Bolles Chief Advancement Officer Carol Nimitz.

The new girls’ residential hall encompasses the entire second floor of Bolles Hall and doubles Bolles’ female boarding capacity from 30 to 60 students – positioning the program to meet increasing admission demand. The work includes notable environmental enhancements to the entire building, originally developed in the mid-1920s as a posh hotel before its founding as a school in 1933. Bolles Hall is now 100 percent solar energy dependent.

The female boarders are part of a culturally and internationally diverse resident community of students from 17 states and 18 countries.

Students in the 2021-22 Bolles Resident Life program are from Austria, Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Israel, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and Vietnam, in addition to the United States. These students are joining an already culturally and ethnically diverse community of learners, many bi-lingual. Bolles students in grades Pre-K through 12 come from many backgrounds and a total of 52 countries including the United Kingdom, Tanzania, Puerto Rico, Vietnam, Brazil, Nicaragua, Italy, Lebanon, Spain, Germany, Peru, Mexico, Israel, Canada, Japan, Jamaica, Romania, South Africa, Norway, Bahamas, Singapore, Mongolia, Japan, Nigeria, Australia, Austria, Cayman Islands, China, India, Egypt, Armenia, Pakistan, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Russia, New Zealand, Belarus, Czech Republic, Denmark, United Arab Emirates, Trinidad and Tobago, Thailand, France, Ukraine, Kenya, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Argentina, Sri Lanka, Turkey and South Korea.