Harpeth Hall Viewbook 2019

INSPIRATION for GIRLS WHO

DREAM

BIG

10 WAYS

TO EXPERIENCE HARPETH HALL YOU ARE READING THIS BOOK BECAUSE You are looking for a school that is spirited and dynamic, yet unapologetically academic.

You love teachers who challenge you with probing questions and engaging assignments.

You crave a community that wants to see your true self and helps you be your best self.

You try new things, even if you make mistakes, because you know we all learn from mistakes.

You believe brave girls and purposeful women can change the world.

If you like this list, you will love the 10 lists that follow.

Welcome to Harpeth Hall, where girls come to learn, to lead, and to live their dreams.

5 THINGS

YOU MIGHT NOT EXPECT

You will join a diverse community.

Girls represent a variety of states, countries, and backgrounds. There are friends waiting here for you.

You will thrive in an inclusive environment.

Harpeth Hall embraces differences and values the uniqueness that each girl brings to the classroom.

We are a school where individuality is honored, and where each student’s voice is respected.

6

ACCOMPLISHMENTS THAT HAPPEN IN YOUR FIRST YEAR You will write, research, create, calculate, and collaborate.

You will present and speak in front of your classmates.

You will make lifelong friends.

You will discover a new talent.

You will be challenged, and you will challenge yourself.

You will connect with teachers who will become your mentors and advisors.

You will expand your knowledge with our progressive curriculum.

Our innovative faculty designs curriculum and instructional activities that are rigorous, engaging, and challenging for students with a wide variety of talents and interests.

You will master essential life-work skills.

In addition to our strong academics, you will gain knowledge of important skills, including collaboration, creativity, and communication.

You will be inspired.

The award-winning artists, authors, cutting-edge scientists, global experts, entrepreneurs, and business leaders who visit our campus will encourage you to dream big and go far.

6 TEACHERS

Ready To Challenge You

CHRISTÈLE ALBRIGHT Chair of Middle School World Languages Department, French Teacher Cool assignment: We had fun with the verb to be (être)!

As we embarked on our lesson, we first looked at French ads, headlines, and tweets to see its various forms in context.

We loved understanding its meaning online and in the French media.

Grew up: A village close to Versailles and Paris in France.

As a child, I remember celebrations around the Medieval castle in my little village and weekend outings to visit the castle of Versailles and exploring Paris.

Favorite place in Nashville: Hiking around Radnor Lake with my dog, Sunny. Early mornings are the best to witness nature as it awakens in all its beauty.

BARBARA BELL Director of Center for Girls’ STEM Education Cool assignment: I get to work across the entire school and participate in multiple projects. My favorite project this year was the 6th Grade Water Project. After reading A Long Walk to Water, the girls

were inspired to help solve the water shortage challenge in the South Sudan. We walked the girls through the engineering design process, and they built prototype water catchment systems.

They presented their projects to a group of STEM professionals and blew them away!

Grew up: Traverse City on the shores of Lake Michigan.

I left my small town and went to the U.S. Naval Academy to pursue the type of education my family could not afford.

Women in the military were more rare at that time.

I earned my engineering degree, and became a career Naval Officer and aviator.

Now I’m in my second career with this amazing opportunity to develop the next generation of girls in STEM. Favorite place in Tennessee: Radnor Lake.

I renew myself when I’m in nature and near, on, or under the water.

JOE CROKER Upper School English Teacher Cool assignment: Inspired by the “sorting hat” of the Harry Potter series, students reach into a magic goblet chock full of names of outsized personalities— both contemporary and historical. After studying the dramatic monologue as an art form, each student researches the person whose voice the goblet wants her to

inhabit. Top monologues often find their way into Hallmarks, the school’s award-winning literary magazine.

Grew up: Lake Quivira, Kansas Favorite place in Nashville: That’s tough. I have many.

Percy Warner Park, WingDing Recording Studios, The Salad Bar chez Sperry, and the Vanderbilt University tennis courts where Latin instructor, Ben Abraham, and I captain an MTTL tennis squad.

MICHELE O’BRIEN Middle School History Teacher Cool assignment: Students use design software to manipulate famous historic figures and place them into modern backgrounds to create a yearbook page. Also, eighth-graders participate in “Rosie the Riveter Rebellion Day” and handle all the power tools in the Design Den as part of a unit on “Only Change Stays the Same.”

Grew up: A town about 40 miles west of Chicago called Batavia, home of the particle physics laboratory and accelerator Fermilab.

Favorite place in Nashville: Equal parts Grimey’s Record Shop and Radnor Lake State Park.

JENNIFER WEBSTER Upper School Math Cool assignment: Students in Honors Precalculus create a short video explaining a complicated concept in math or science in a creative

way for the Breakthrough Junior Challenge for 13 to 18 year olds.

Grew up: Hermitage, Tennessee.

Favorite place in Nashville: The back porch of my house in Gladeville (Mt. Juliet).

Another area is the Two Rivers Park and Opryland area. It holds so many special memories for me from egg hunts in the park to swimming at the Wave Pool to rides on the General Jackson to dancing at the old Acuff Theater and the Opry House.

ADAM WILSMAN Assistant Dean for Academic Advising in the Upper School Cool assignment: Over the course of a year each freshman designs a Prezi, an infographic, a slide presentation, and a documentary — so, she hones her skills to present information in a variety of ways.

Grew up: Buffalo, New York.

Favorite place in Nashville: San Antonio Taco Company because it reminds me of all the good times I had there with my friends when I was a graduate student at Vanderbilt University.

Dance Rehearsal

8 WAYS

YOU KNOW YOU BELONG IN

HONEYBEAR NATION Advisors Each student is paired with a faculty advisor who is your advocate and mentor. Your advisory group is made up of eight to 10 students in your grade. You will meet at least once during the seven-day rotation.

This group is another way to build a network of friends.

celebrating our country’s first president’s birthday with costumes, music, and dance as part of a seventh-grade unit in American History.

This ceremony is distinctively Harpeth Hall.

Dedicated Faculty Every morning almost 100 teachers arrive at school 30 minutes early to help you with homework or to answer questions.

Lady of the Hall and Step Singing You share in a special ceremony that goes back to the 1900s.

Each year a senior is chosen as Lady of the Hall, representing the highest ideals of Harpeth Hall — integrity, kindness, loyalty, and service to others and to her school. She speaks at Step Singing, another tradition that goes back to the 1920s, in which classes sing on the steps of the Ann Scott Carell Library.

George Washington Celebration For more than 90 years, we have been

Senior House The small brick house on campus belongs to the senior class.

Each year, the seniors

Campbell Plaid While the uniform gives us a uniform look, we are all uniquely different.

And that is something we celebrate.

pick a theme, decorate the Senior House, and use it as a place to hang out.

Spirit Clubs You will be placed in one of four spirit clubs — Angkor, Ariston, Eccowasin, or Triad. This tradition is almost 100 years old. Wearing your club’s color and waving your club flag, you will compete for the annual Club Trophy earning points for quiz bowl, song competitions, and other Harpeth Hall activities.

5000 Friends Harpeth Hall graduates look out for each other. If you need an internship, career advice, or a place to stay, you will have Honeybears from around the globe to help you.

7COOL

ASSIGNMENTS OUR GIRLS ARE WORKING ON RIGHT NOW Freedom School Fifth-graders use laser cutters, 3-D printers, and technology to design and build a “freedom school� and to explain why all girls around the world deserve an education.

that light up, move, and make noise.

Classroom Cell Sixth-grade life science students convert their classroom into a giant working cell and film each section of the cell to demonstrate how the cell works.

Bridges Falling Down Seventh-grade science students build a new bridge for a fictional city.

They research the importance and function of bridges, collaborate with real engineers to design bridges using 3-D modeling software, and build Popsicle bridges capable of holding 70 pounds or more.

Tinkering with Toys Seventh-graders run a toy company and use the engineering design process to create and build toys

Illuminated Jellyfish In ninth-grade biology class, students participate in a genetic engineering unit that culminates in the heat shock of a luminous gene from a jellyfish

into the genome of an E. coli culture. The result is glowing bacteria.

The Fate of Jamestown AP U.S. History class uses Twitter and other social media platforms to explain and examine the causes of the high mortality rate in the Jamestown colony in the 1600s.

Digital Gaming In upper school computer science, students design a software program in which computers send messages back and forth to play a game in real time.

Varsity Rowing Team

Winterim, New Zealand

Winterim, Germany

Winterim, Panama

6 WAYS YOU CAN CONNECT WITH THE WORLD

Center for STEM Education for Girls Through on-campus courses and a threeweek summer institute, students receive hands-on experiences in science, technology, engineering, and math from innovative teachers, working professionals, and Vanderbilt researchers.

Global Scholars Program Upper school students gain deeper and broader knowledge of the world by taking additional global-based courses, participating in global-centered service learning and clubs, and completing a senior-year capstone project.

International Exchanges Students immerse themselves in another culture, living, and studying with girls in China, France, Germany, South Africa, and New Zealand.

SEEK Fellowship Seventh-graders and eighth-graders have opportunities to participate in independent research through SEEK (Scholars Engaged in Extending Knowledge). Past SEEK projects included Ebola research, social injustices during WWII, effects of El Nino, and Nashville’s electricity distribution network.

Service Learning Students participate locally, nationally, and globally in service projects. They knit scarves and mittens for area homeless, tutor elementary school-age children, and organize an annual sock hop to raise funds to end human trafficking.

Winterim A hallmark of the upper school at Harpeth Hall, this three-week experiential program in January provides students with opportunities for cross-cultural experiences through academic travel, internships in Nashville, New York, and Washington, D.C., and on-campus courses that stretch their perspectives.

Winterim, Japan

5LEADERSHIP SKILLS

YOU WILL LEARN AT HARPETH HALL When you graduate from Harpeth Hall, you will be a different girl than when you began. You will be smarter, more confident, and more adept at facing change. Here are five skills you willl learn at Harpeth Hall that you will take with you to college and beyond: Speak so others listen.

From a fifth-grade classroom presentation on your summer reading assignment to an eighth-grade or senior speech given in front of the student body, you will be ready to face any size audience and let your voice be heard.

Write with force and precision.

From middle school research papers to upper school literary analysis and sophisticated essays, you will be armed with the ability to tackle any writing assignment.

Embrace ambiguity to figure it out.

Whether you are building submarine prototypes in your eighth-grade science class, redesigning the soda can in freshman algebra class or developing multimedia public service projects on infectious diseases in upper school biology, you will develop the skills needed to gather information, identify barriers, explore solutions, and make smart decisions.

Fall down so you get up stronger.

You will discover that mistakes are learning opportunities that help you get better and transform you into a stronger person.

Lead like you mean it.

You will have the confidence to lead in your own way because you will learn that every individual in a community has the responsibility to shape the community for the better.

8 WAYS

COLLEGE-AGE ALUMNAE ARE CHANGING THEIR WORLD They attend some of the country’s outstanding colleges and universities. Recent examples include Brown, Columbia, Davidson, Duke, Stanford, Tufts, Yale, and the University of Virginia.

Communications

Community Outreach

Education

Ellen Beahm University of Virginia

Obi Ananaba Columbia University

Major: Foreign Affairs

Major: Psychology with a minor in Urban Studies

Khadijah Naeem George Washington University

Serves as senior associate of the online section of the Cavalier Daily, UVA’s biggest independent newspaper.

Harpeth Hall Class of 2014

Works at a community outreach organization that tutors adults going back to school to get their GEDs. Harpeth Hall Class of 2015

Major: International Economics

Environmental Sustainability Kate Goldenring University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Major: Economics

Tutors inner-city middle and high school students in Washington, D.C. Harpeth Hall Class of 2014

Active in EcoReps, which spreads knowledge on how to be a sustainable student.

Harpeth Hall Class of 2015

Leadership

Performing Arts

Public Policy

Research

Stephanie Davis Case Western Reserve University

Erissa Irani Cornell University

Adelaide Morphett Johns Hopkins University

Brianna Bjordahl Bucknell University

Major: Electrical and Computer Engineering

Major: Applied Mathematics and Statistics

Major: Biology and Environmental Science

Performs in Sala Pa’Lante Dance Troupe and a Persian dance troupe at Cornell.

Harpeth Hall Class of 2013

Serves as secretary in Student Government and works to help create new student van routes by designing an Uber-like app; also conducted a student forum on the new Sexual Assault Policy on campus.

Harpeth Hall Class of 2013

Sequences genomes of unidentified cyanobacterial samples collected from the Susquehanna River.

Harpeth Hall Class of 2015

Major: Biomedical Engineering Participates in Emerging Leaders Program which provides students with knowledge and experiences needed for lifelong leadership engagement.

Harpeth Hall Class of 2015

Grand Ballroom, Music City Center, Nashville, TN

Shirley Li • Class of 2002 Head of product and regulatory affairs for Propel(x), an online investment platform for tech startups, San Francisco, California Katie Hill • Class of 2000 Assistant Press Secretary for the White House, President Barack Obama administration, Washington, D.C. Dr. Lola Blackwell Chambless • Class of 1997 Neurosurgeon and Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee Jacqueline Saturn • Class of 1986 General Manager of Harvest Records, a subsidiary of the Capitol Music Group, Hollywood, California Joanna McIntosh • Class of 1980 Executive Vice President for global policy and external affairs for the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Washington, D.C. Lisa Morrissey LaVange • Class of 1971 Director of Biostatistics for the Federal Drug Administration, Washington, D.C. } Reed Pankey • Class of 2007 Project Engineer at Clark Construction Group, Washington, D.C. Worked as intern with Clark Construction on the Music City Center, Nashville , Tennessee

6 WAYS

YOU KNOW HARPETH HALL IS FOR YOU

You work hard and think being smart is cool.

You learn best in interactive, engaging classrooms.

You want teachers who are experts in their fields, passionate about what they do, and care deeply about you.

You are undefined — still learning about who you are. For you, every day is an opportunity.

You want a place where you can burst into spontaneous laughter or enjoy quietly reading a good book.

You want friends who will know you, accept you, and push you to be better.

OFFICE OF ADMISSION 3801 Hobbs Road Nashville, TN 37215 (615) 297-9543 www.harpethhall.org/admission www.harpethhall.org