December 2019 As I sit beneath glowing lights and enjoy the scent of fresh greenery around campus, I can’t begin to summarize what the first few months of our time together have meant to me. Each moment with you has been spirited, generous, and refreshing—you all help me to know Chatham Hall, her history, her present, her endless potential. Thank you for the warmest welcome, not just in our grand Investiture celebrations, but in each conversation, each meal shared, and each idea sparked together. During our first semester together, I am witnessing firsthand how academic curiosity and achievement abounds. In addition to the curated classroom atmosphere that is a hallmark of the Chatham Hall experience, students like Whitney Byington ’22 are diving into topics they are passionate about and formulating deep, meaningful conclusions. Under the guidance of beloved faculty, Whitney interviewed watershed conservation groups about the steps being taken to protect the resources in her beloved hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. In other words, these Discovery Challenges allow our girls to design projects that have them seeking answers to their own essential questions, often related to critical topics of the day. Under the leadership of our new Director of Athletics, Laura Clay, all of our fall athletic teams competed in more games than in recent years, and our Field Hockey team won the 2019 conference championship! Sarah Miller-Richards ’20, who will play collegiately next fall, and the Field Hockey team are shining examples of a pipeline of strong teams and players gaining traction and buzz. Likewise, we continue to celebrate elite riders both individually and as a team. And, our winter and spring sports are proving to be just as compelling.
Fall dance and theater performances were breathtaking. The girls took on the complex darkness of Dracula and Lord of the Flies with maturity and skill. To see these girls excel in arenas outside the classroom broadens my understanding of each of them and reminds me that excellence—and, more important, learning—has many faces and happens in many places. And yes, Catherine Malone ’22, our Dracula en pointe in a sweeping red cape, was more than a little spooky! Life on campus is friendly and robust. Our dorms are places striving to create relationship and community, where girls have the space they need to build competencies that will take them far as neighbors, family members, friends, and coworkers in the future. Being a teenage girl has never been simple, and perhaps in 2019-2020 it is more complicated than ever. I am astounded by the dedication of our Honor Council to shape and enrich campus life. And, of course, none of this would be happening without the web of support that our faculty, counselors, tutors, administrators, coaches, and other adults create to make this possible each and every day. Your involvement with Chatham Hall rings true and clear. Our current families devote their efforts to welcome new Chatham Hall families and serve as proponents for the school among prospective families. We have dedicated alumnae who serve, volunteer, host, and connect with one another and back to Chatham Hall. Plus, dozens of legacy connections among current students speak to the strength of your interconnectedness. And, we have a wise, hard-working Board of Trustees that is doing the work to ensure that Chatham Hall will have all she needs now and in the future.
Until next time,
Rachel Avery Connell
1 chat
letter from the rector
In my travels and visits this fall, many of you asked what you can do for Chatham Hall. And, simply put, you can be our champions! What we need most is for you to continue to advocate for and support our mission to empower each girl to be her best self for the world. We have always been a girls school, not just a school that happens to have girls in it. This means, by our very design, we must evolve for girls and their families. As champions for the school, I ask you to consider these specific ways to help. Connect a potential student and her family to our Office of Admission. I find myself wondering if we have been a “best kept secret” for too long. We simply have too much to offer a girl for that to continue. Demonstrate the value of your Chatham Hall experience in your personal and digital communities: generate positive buzz for us on social media, add us to your bio, share our good news. And, most foundationally, give to the Annual Fund. It is essential as we go well beyond tuition dollars to create an extraordinary experience for our girls and to support the adults that make that experience possible. Just before Thanksgiving, we welcomed Doris Kearns Goodwin, renowned historian and author, to campus for the 2019-2020 Polly Wheeler Guth ’44 Leader in Residence Program. She glowed in each session, and so did the girls. Although much of her research and writing is about American presidents, I was most struck by her anecdotes about Eleanor Roosevelt (Kearns Goodwin was tickled that she stayed in the Rectory where Roosevelt herself stayed when visiting campus decades ago). “Eleanor Roosevelt would be very proud of all of you,” she said to the girls. “She blossomed at a boarding school like yours and developed her sense of self. Life is not going to be an easy path, but continue to seek the things that make you feel accomplished and do things to ensure that you are contributing to the world around you.” In the pages that follow, you’ll see the groups and the individuals like you who care for and invest in this special place. Friends, we are realizing what is possible together. As Eleanor Roosevelt so aptly said, “We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time.” Thank you.
WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A GIRLS SCHOOL, NOT JUST A SCHOOL THAT HAPPENS TO HAVE GIRLS IN IT. THIS MEANS, BY OUR VERY DESIGN, WE MUST EVOLVE FOR GIRLS AND THEIR FAMILIES.