Letter from the ACTING HEAD OF SCHOOL

Dear Friends,

This spring we lost a truly remarkable member of the Chatham Hall community. Rachel Avery Connell was not just a former Rector and colleague, but also a leader, mentor, and friend. She had the Herculean task of bringing Chatham Hall safely through the global COVID-19 pandemic, and she did so with flying colors, all the while advancing our institutional goals in areas like diversity, equity, and inclusion, entrepreneurship, branding, and community health and wellness. Her ability to keep us moving forward during the pandemic was exceptional. Rector Connell believed in the potential of Chatham Hall and knew that we are at a pivotal moment to become real leaders in girls’ education. She wholeheartedly believed Chatham Hall is poised for a future full of success, and to honor her unwavering commitment we are dedicating this issue of the Chat to her.

In the following pages you will read about Chatham Hall girls young and old, on campus and off, engaging in traditions and taking risks to create new paths. You’ll notice pictures and stories of their explorations in academics, athletics, and the arts. You’ll likely be overwhelmed by one of their most overwhelming traits: curiosity. For nearly 130 years Chatham Hall has equipped curious thinkers to lead lives of impact, and our community not only fully understands but fully supports that encouraging girls to be curious, to ask questions, to synthesize facts into informed opinions, and to be confident enough to act on them can truly illuminate their worlds.

In October, we launched our Boundless Potential campaign dedicated to funding the ambitious goals of our strategic plan, and we have made remarkable progress towards meeting them. This campaign is focused on our community, through investing in faculty housing, building a comprehensive facility for athletics, health, and wellness, and securing the School’s long-term financial health. Yet ultimately, like everything we do at Chatham Hall, it is about our girls. The world needs Chatham Hall girls, and through this campaign we hope to guarantee another 130 years — at least! — of alumnae ready to make an impact in their communities.

I invite you to read this issue with all of this in mind and have no doubt that, like Rector Connell, you will be convinced of the potential of Chatham Hall and the pivotal moment in which we find ourselves. And I have no doubt that you will want to act to help us secure the future of which we dream. To learn more about our Boundless Potential campaign, and how to become involved, visit www.chathamhall.org/campaign today.

Esto Perpetua, Christian J. Proctor, Ph.D. Acting Head of School