A seat at the academic table

How a new Nova Nine position strengthens the sense of agency for students at Porter’s

For the 2024-25 academic year, Miss Porter’s School introduced a new Nova Nine leadership position: Head of Academics. The role gives students a formal voice in shaping curricula, assessments and academic culture at Farmington.

The inaugural student to serve in the role was Hannah Satran ’25, who gathered and provided students’ feedback on academic matters to the Academic office, helped develop and implement new academic initiatives and led multiple celebrations of students’ academic achievements.

Here, we present an excerpt of Satran’s speech at Porter’s 2025 Spring Awards Ceremony, in which she reflected on the meaning of academic success.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about sixth grade, which was a very exciting time for me. I was sworn in as an official middle schooler. I got braces. I learned the equation for a line. I was a truffula tree in my school’s production of Seussical. I had my own locker that I kept in tip top shape with a plethora of magnets and color-coded binders.

Sixth grade was also the first time in my academic career where I received letter grades. Before that, my achievements were measured in “muy bien!” stickers from my Spanish teacher, and popcorn parties for successfully completing a deck of math flashcards. Academic competition with my classmates was a foreign concept.

That was until the first geography quiz. I studied hard, learned the material and felt confident in my performance. When the grades were released, my best friend and I were sitting together with our laptops open to the results. I got a 96. I was thrilled. She got a 97, and suddenly, I was not so thrilled.

But why? I had worked hard, I got a great result. That one-point difference should not have undermined those positive feelings. I never even left space for two friends to celebrate their success.

Today, I can see that my disappointment was a waste of time. That tiny difference in our scores had nothing to do with my effort, ability or what I had learned. I was basing my entire self-worth on an extra character typed into the gradebook.

While competitive instincts may drive us to learn, learning itself is not a competition. Although sometimes it may feel like it, school is not an arena. It’s an open space to explore, grow and collaborate. There are no time limits, referees or scoreboards.

You did not come to Miss Porter’s to win an award. You came here to lie out on the Newell Harris patio on sunny spring days, scream hello to people from across the dining hall, knock on your friends’ doors at random hours of the night without texting first. You came here to learn, you came here to grow and you came to fail, and fail again, and then succeed. If any of that feels relevant to you, then you already won, and you don’t need an award to know that.”

To watch Hannah’s full speech: