800 CHATHAM HALL CIRCLE campus

G.I.R.L.S. Day Ignites the Light for All

Growth, independence, relationships, leadership, and service. These are the foundations of Chatham Hall’s annual G.I.R.L.S. Day that sees students teach the entire School community about their personal interests.

This year, workshops ranged from scientific illustration to embroidery and sustainability to athletic training and more. Those leading sessions truly were able to ignite the light for others in not just their topics, but in numerous interactive activities as well.

“Journaling consistently has brought a number of benefits to my own life. It helped give me an outlet to write and have a safe space to be creative,” said Lily Shaheen ’23, who offered her first workshop this year on bullet journaling, complete with time to write and draw. “Since I’m a senior, I’ll be leaving Chatham Hall soon and I wanted to offer a workshop this year as a way to give back to the community before I go.”

This year the School also hosted the Chatham Fire Department to provide a hands-on experience for students to learn more about containing and extinguishing fires. Students were able to use a fire extinguisher under the direction of fire department professionals, a life skill that they will be able to take with them anywhere they go.

Winter Sports a Season of Firsts

The 2022-2023 winter season will go down as a season of firsts for Chatham Hall Athletics.

“We had a lot of firsts this winter season and it was great to see the progress we have made in our winter programs,” said Director of Athletics Jeremy Eubank. “Our teams started strong and ended strong, and we look to continue to build for the years to come.”

Eighty-five percent of the Varsity Swimming team qualified for the VISAA State Championships and saw all swimmers lower their times throughout the season. Taylor Xu ’23 earned All-Blue Ridge Athletic Conference (BRAC) honors with a third in 100m backstroke and 50m freestyle events, and the 200m free relay also placed third. Faye Souza ’23 captured the first-ever BRAC Diving Invitational Championship win, and continued her streak of qualifying for the VISAA State Diving Championships. She will compete in the U.S. Dive Regional Championships this spring.

The Varsity Basketball team started its season strong with back-to-back wins and finished with two All-BRAC honors for Priscilla Bennsion ’25 (2nd team) and Hadley Busbee ’24 (honorable mention). The campus community showed great support for our teams throughout the season through participation in several theme nights and spirit contests hosted by the Chatham Athletic Council (CAC).

Cousteau Discusses Interconnectivity, Natural World

Céline Cousteau, environmental activist, international speaker, and documentary filmmaker, was on campus in April to visit with students and speak about the interconnectivity between humans and the natural world, as well as her more recent work on identity.

“The ripple effect of what we do positively has a much greater impact than what we do negatively,” Cousteau told students and faculty of human impact on the natural world.

“Good humans, good guardians of nature, is when nature actually thrives. If you don’t live in balance with your environment, and sustainably, then you don’t survive. There is no other way. We have created amazing worlds around us, and we must now reconnect. We must go back to a root understanding, we must adapt as a way to survive even further into the future.”

Cousteau, daughter of ocean explorer and filmmaker Jean-Michel Cousteau and granddaughter of the renowned oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, is the founder of CauseCentric Productions which produces multimedia highlighting those working on environmental issues. She will soon launch Interconnected, a podcast bringing together leaders in a diverse range of fields to focus on answering some of today’s most pressing questions. She is also set to join a 2024 expedition to map the length of the Amazon River to the Atlantic Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean from a newly discovered spring in Peru.

During her time on campus, Cousteau was able to tour the

School, enjoy meals with students, and attend a Chapel service. Judy Carter ‘63, a member of the Board of Trustees, arranged the visit and traveled to campus with her.

Students Flourish in Little Shop of Horrors

For three days in February, the Van Voorhis Lecture Hall was transformed into Skid Row for Chatham Hall’s production of Little Shop of Horrors.

In addition to creating a new world for the audience, the cast and crew were tasked with bringing to life Audrey II or “Twoey,” a sentient, blood thirsty plant voiced by Sophia Taylor ’24 with puppeteering by Mia Swanson ’24. Twoey feeds on human blood, was created (and fed) by Seymour, played by Sarah Leineweber ’23 who was joined on stage by Lily Shaheen ’23 as the original (human) Audrey, Meaghan Kress ’24 as Mushnick, and Stella Snider ’23 as Orin, as well as Kayla Charway ’23, V. Edwards ’23, Annie Wells ’25, Anaiah Charway ’26, Sara Hunter Bryan ’25, and Autumn Johnson ’26. Together they told the story of Twoey and Seymour becoming local celebrities, leading to some more concerning adventures.

Behind the scenes, a dedicated crew led by stage manager Ginny Hopkins ’23 supported the production through lights, sound, and props, including making Twoey larger than life through a shadow show. The students were led by directors Dr. Francis Yun, Kay Dillard, and John Kingery.

Little Shop of Horrors was originally produced as a film by the same name in 1960 and later adapted into a musical with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman.