OHMS Spotlight 2023

Celebrating 25 extraordinary years.

2023 Spotlight

Welcome!

25 YEARS OF EDUCATING EXTRAORDINARY GIRLS

Head of School Laura Haskins It’s time to celebrate! As we begin the 23-24 school year, which marks our 25th anniversary, we remain keenly focused on our mission to help middle school girls discover who they are and be themselves in a rapidly evolving world. It’s remarkable to think about all that has changed in the past 25 years, and even more drastically, in the last three years. As we begin this school year, we welcome another change as we become known as Orchard House Middle School (OHMS) in a strategic move to claim our space as leaders in middle school education.

What has not changed at OHMS is our belief that adolescence is a critical time in a girl’s life and therefore a school dedicated to the needs of middle school girls is vitally important. We know that many of our students describe their time here as transformational or life-changing. I never get tired of meeting an alumna or her family as they share their fond memories of Orchard House. At OHMS, we encourage girls to be bold in pursuit of their dreams. As we celebrate our 25th, we are sharing the inspirational story of women who dreamed of and then made Orchard House a reality. We invite you to share in this story! Please be in touch if you have a memory, a photo, or an experience to share.

Orchard House has been made into a home by many incredibly talented and dedicated people - faculty and staff, board members, families, students, and community partners. We are grateful for the role that each person, past or present, has played in creating our warm, authentic, and vibrant school.

We look forward to reconnecting with everyone whose lives have been touched by Orchard House, and to share who we are with new friends and families. Mark you calendars for the Homecoming Block Party on October 21, 2023 and the 25th Anniversary Auction & Gala on March 16, 2024 to join in the celebrations!

With gratitude, Laura Haskins

Head of School Laura Haskins attended the Klingenstein Fellowship Program at Columbia University in New York City. The program is designed for heads of independent schools to engage in solution-focused academic research, discuss educational issues and philosophy, and participate in reflective practice.

Music teacher Stacie Brown (L) and Assistant Head of School & Director of Diversity LaMecca Coates (R) both attended the National Association of Independent School’s annual People of Color Conference in San Antonio, TX. This year’s theme was Reunited in Purpose: Elevating Our Worth, Our Agency, & Our Excellence.

What's Up? 25 YEARS OF ENGAGING PROGRAMS THAT BUILD CONFIDENCE Highlights from the 22-23 School Year During the first quarter in Visual Arts, the 6s went on a field trip to the Visual Arts Center to interact with the Community Build exhibition, which engaged art as a vehicle for social change through collaborative puppetry and sculptural storytelling primarily using cardboard as a transformative and recyclable material.

To cap off their science unit on sustainability, 8th graders designed sustainable cities of the future, outlining the public services that would shape the lives of the city’s inhabitants, as well as the processes by which the city would strive to be environmentally sustainable. The models, which were dotted with community gardens, hospitals, wind turbines, schools, community centers, and more, were built of recycled materials.

The response to our call for summer reading selfies was massive—OHMS students read over 400 books in the summer and sent in selfies to commemorate each one!

8th graders welcomed their Base Buddies to OHMS with the mentorship we're known for between our oldest and newest students.

One 8th grade student has organized an annual schoolwide Climate Walkout since her first year in 5th grade. Students who participated in the walkout wrote postcards to politicians, activists, and other influential people either thanking them for the work they have done to protect our planet or advocating for change. Our walkers delivered their postcards to the nearest post office to drop them in the mailbox, chanting about climate justice as they walked.

Game Time

25 YEARS OF ATHLETICS THAT PRIORITIZE JOY AND TEAMWORK GO GRYPHONS! From the beginning, OHMS has been all about the benefits of trying out new things, and that includes athletics. Our teams remain open to all students so that girls can take a healthy risk, acquire skills, and experience the power of teamwork.

We thank Doug Welch, who retired from his role as Athletic Director at the end of the 22-23 school year, for his years of mission-aligned sports leadership.

A New Look!

25 YEARS OF STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP

Sharon Maitland Moon P’15 & ‘18, Current Board Member, Board Chair 2021-2023

Extraordinary. Just Like Every Girl! Orchard House Middle School.

Refreshed new logo. Stunning new website. Inspiring videos. The Gryphon is back! Wait…how did this all happen?

Over the past two years, I had the honor of serving as Chair of the Orchard House Board of Trustees. As luck would have it during this time, the Board and our Head of School, Laura Haskins, decided to take a somewhat bold action to secure the school's future.

The journey began in 2021-2022 with a year-long strategic planning effort that resulted in four key priorities to guide the school as it headed toward the 25th Anniversary year and beyond. One of those priorities was Raising Our Profile or increasing our visibility in and around Richmond. Supporting the school on accomplishing that priority became a major focus of the Board. The Board thoughtfully approved a budget to support the effort and dedicated its annual retreat agenda to the marketing and branding initiative.

To fulfill that metric in our Strategic Plan, several Board members and Laura Haskins worked through the summer of 2022 to collect proposals from prospective marketing and branding consultants. We received several exciting proposals and narrowed the selection down to four extremely talented companies that pitched for our project.

We could not have been more fortunate to land on the team of Campfire & Co., and Evergib. The Board approved the retention of these professional services, and the next phase of our journey began!

It would be impossible to detail here what happened in the next year. Suffice it to say that we engaged in bigpicture brainstorming sessions to help us define our value proposition and tell our story to detailed discussions that covered everything from colors, logo designs, videos, to yes … even fonts! Although the commitment was substantial, the Orchard House Board, Laura Haskins, and Extended Branding Team went “all in” on the effort.

Campfire and Evergib were the perfect partners to lead us through a process with which most of us were unfamiliar.

With each step of the process, we kept front and center that our school has exceptional foundational elements, is financially sound, and does not rest on its laurels. The deeper we dived into the process, the more clearly we realized how important it was to do this work. We wanted to craft something that was fresh and exciting yet also remained true to the school. Without fail, the school’s mission served as a steady guide for both our Orchard House team and the consultants.

The end result was extraordinary! After relying for years on grass-roots and homegrown marketing efforts, we now have a comprehensive strategy and a wonderful menu of tools to increase the school's visibility to prospective students and parents, donors, and alumnae. And, as the former chair, I want to particularly thank the members of our incredibly committed and strategic Board for their hard work and contributions to make this happen.

LOGO Our logo has undergone a refresh—while keeping its classic charm, the logo sports clean, modern lines that remind us that the journey of a middle school girl is circuitous and nonlinear. Our tagline says all you need to know about our school and how we see girls.

MONOGRAM An updated name means a new abbreviation! With the arrival of OHMS in our lexicon comes a monogram with a divider that reminds us of knots in a friendship bracelet, that continued artifact of sisterhood, and stitches in a quilt, one for each grade 5 through 8.

OUR MASCOT The Gryphon was chosen as the OHMS mascot by the first-year students. Our new mascot is modern while acknowledging our history, powerful with a sense of grace, and always ready to take flight.

Thank you to our branding team members!

Faculty: Jennifer Brookman, Elizabeth Lafoon, Taylor Hollander P ’12, Maria Howard P ’15, Melody Imburg P ’00 & ’03, Anne Talley, Penn Ward Board Members: Taekia Glass P ’24, Shannon Grymes P ’18 & ’20, Sharon Maitland Moon P ’14 & ’18 Alumnae: Ari Calos ’13, Sarah Austen Holzgrefe ’09, Hannah Imburg ’03 Current Parents: Portia Chan P ’25, Shanza Isom P ’26, Chris LaCroix P ’26, Hina Shah P ’26 Former Board and Parents: Michelle Bair P ’12 & P ’17, Maggi Tinsley P ’15 & P ’19

How Did We Get Here?

25 YEARS OF EDUCATING AND INSPIRING MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRLS Maria Howard P’15, Board Member 2015-2017, Board Chair 2016-2017, Homeroom Teacher and High School Registrar 5 years Orchard House started with 17 students, nine teachers and a need to move all of the desks and teaching materials on Friday afternoons to accommodate weekend events at the Lewis Ginter Recreation Association. Nobody seemed to mind the inconveniences of leasing space in the charming, but cramped, Northside building.

“The creativity was just off the charts,” Elizabeth Lafoon says of those early days.

“It was so much fun.” Together, the students and teachers were creating something special. “Everything was done by everybody,” The head’s office also served as the faculty lounge. Math and English shared a classroom, and that space was also the cafeteria and the library. Students put up the flag in the morning and swept the sidewalks. Teachers and their families built lockers out of plywood.

They all worked together to design a science classroom in the basement. They laid the foundation for an all-girls middle school that quickly outgrew that Ginter Park location.

The original 17 Orchard House girls stand outside the school’s first location at Lewis Ginter Recreation Association in Richmond’s Northside.

Six years later, in 2004, the school purchased its current building at 500 N. Allen Avenue. Even though it now had 80 students and a waitlist for all grades, Orchard House still operated as a grassroots organization. “We never even considered getting a moving company,” Lafoon says. “We got a bunch of parent volunteers and we all just schlepped everything downstairs [in the old building] and schlepped everything upstairs here.”

Nancy Davies, the founding Head of School, fondly remembers the easygoing, pioneering approach that everyone adopted in those early years at the rented space. “It was crazy,” she says, “a good kind of crazy.”

Founding Head of School Nancy Davies with students in the first years of OHMS.

She particularly remembers a time when the teachers took students to a nearby playground but no one took along a key to the building. When they returned, they were locked out. “We had to lift a student up to a window,” she says, laughing.

She’s still awed by “how fluid we were able to be and how amazing that made it.” The students, in particular, thrived in this atmosphere. “Kids are so creative,” Davies says. “They had the forum to show their stuff.”

She estimates that she worked an average of 120 hours a week in those first few years of Orchard House. Her daughters were in college and she feels fortunate that her husband was in full support. “It was such hard work,” she says. “It was such an adventure. … It was worth every minute of it.”

A celebratory conga line in the early days at 500 N. Allen Ave.

Today, 25 years after the opening of the school, the name has changed to Orchard House Middle School to better represent its focus. But the foundation remains the same. As Davies explains, “The school was built on trust in the sense that there are great things in every person. The intention of the school is to bring that forth, but not define it.”

The seed for creating Orchard House was planted by Davies in 1996 when she presented research at a symposium, Empowering Girls: Strategies for Parents and Teachers. A small group of intrigued parents, known as the “founding mothers,” started meeting regularly at a local coffee shop to brainstorm on how to create an independent middle school just for girls.

Eventually, they incorporated the school, applied for non-profit status, secured space, developed curriculum, raised money and promoted it to prospective students’ families.

In 1996, their vision became a reality when Orchard House opened. Davies was the head as well as a teacher. There was only one other full-time teacher; the other seven were part-time. Doug Welch was among the original staff, followed by Robin Arthur the next year. Parent volunteers and other members of the extended community pitched in to clean and organize classrooms at the recreation association building before students arrived for classes.

OHMS students have always been asked to practice unconventional creativity!

Janine Russo agrees with Nancy Davies that Orchard House has stayed true to its roots. “The kids feel safe here, they feel cared for, there are adults looking after them, they feel relaxed,” she says. “I have always loved that.”

Russo and Taylor Hollander joined Orchard House in 2000, just two years after the school had opened. Hollander also recalls moving furniture on Friday afternoons and working with the rented building’s tight spaces. “Janine’s office was in a closet,” he says with his signature grin.

Longtime OHMS teacher Cathy Pelnik with bucket in hand as she joined the cleanup crew in 1996 to prepare for the first year.

Welch says the Lewis Ginter Recreation Association “provided a beautiful and historic setting for the beginning of our journey,” but it presented plenty of challenges as well. “Dismantling our classrooms on Friday afternoons and setting them back up on Monday mornings epitomized the twists and turns of starting a new school and forged a sense of togetherness and shared purpose that remains today.”

Yes, faculty and staff still move furniture at Orchard House. But more importantly, they still care deeply about each and every student. That’s one of the characteristics that stood out to Laura Haskins as she considered the head position after Nancy Davies retired in 2015.

“I saw the opportunity to work at an all-girls school as a way to bridge my lifelong work as an educator and my passion for women’s rights and advancement,” Haskins says. “The size of the school appealed to me because I could see that each student is truly known and cared for. No one is falling through the cracks. And in terms of an innovative approach, the focus on process over product, project-based teaching, leadership opportunities, and giving girls ample time to explore their feelings and evolving social dynamics appealed to me.”

Orchard House is rare in that it’s just middle school and it’s just girls.

“Adolescence is such a critical time in a girl’s life, and our sole focus is providing an environment for girls to be supported and challenged in their growth by faculty and staff who are experts in their fields and truly care for their students,” Haskins says.

Ms. Pelnik works with students and computers in the Northside OHMS location (above). 5th Grade students use laptops in the 500 N. Allen Ave. library to plan and record podcasts. (below)

The atmosphere in the building conveys that approach. “I think one of the things that people notice first, even upon walking into the front door for the first time, is genuine warmth,” Haskins says. “I know that was true for me and people tell me that over and over again. The warmth radiates.”

Are you able to help ensure another 25 years of extraordinary history?

Visit us at orchardhouse.org/give to make your Gryphons Give gift for this year.

Curtains Up! 25 YEARS OF APPRECIATING THE FULL SPECTRUM OF CREATIVE EXPRESSION Janine Russo, Theatre Arts and Math Faculty 22 years For 25 years, the Arts Block program has inspired and encouraged students from different artistic backgrounds to dive into the vast world of creativity.

Our students explore visual arts, dance, music, and theater over the course of four years. With each grade, students are developmentally introduced to a wide range of artistic elements that provide a rich understanding and lifelong appreciation for the arts. We believe middle school students thrive when they have the opportunity to create alone and create collaboratively. Individual sketchbooks are turned into portraits, choreographed sequences become dances, original music becomes compositions, and monologues turn into plays. Teaching an appreciation of many art forms educates adolescent girls through doing, and challenges young minds to value the process of the arts as well as the finished product.

Our Arts Block philosophy is built on three areas of focus: the necessary influence of the arts on the individual, the individual’s community, and the individual’s connection to other communities. All these years, the Arts Block teachers have been committed to studying many versatile artists, art movements, dancers, choreographers, musicians, musical instruments, performers, and plays. Our OHMS community has seen girls take many creative risks through study, practice, and performance.

Robin Arthur with dance students at OHMS Northside.

It has always been important to the school that girls experience 4 disciplines of the arts for 4 years in lieu of choosing one discipline. When students are steered away from choosing a class that feels comfortable and familiar, they find growth by stretching, exploring, experiencing, evaluating, and absorbing an artmaking opportunity so they can look back one day and say - wow, I did that! The opportunity to grow confidence, appreciation, exploration, and class teamwork is valued over "specialized tracks" of study.

Art is integrated exceptionally well throughout all subjects—at any given time, every student is working on an artistic representation of knowledge from a core academic subject—but specific arts study gives students an opportunity to understand the creative art process and how intentional all artists are when it comes to their talents. We believe setting aside time for creative indulging feeds the middle school spirit and inner self. It allows for individual ideas to merge with creative outlets.

5th graders painting thrones for 8th graders remains a time-honored OHMS art tradition (and a top-secret endeavor every year!).

All of our students have an opportunity to be dancers, actors, artists, singers, and musicians. We value the arts here in our school, our homes, our local community, and globally. We believe that an understanding and appreciation of one’s own creative expression enriches all other aspects of one’s life. Let’s give our students and graduates a standing ovation for their talents, their aspirations, their expressions of creativity, and their commitment to believing that all forms of art truly do matter.

(Above) The Class of 2023 production of Our Town.

(Right) Allen Stewart, who taught history and theater during the early years of OHMS, posing with the set design of the stage – the steps at Lewis Ginter Recreation Association.

Remembering Suzi Horner This year, the Orchard House community lost a piece of its heart when we said goodbye to Suzi Horner after her battle with cancer. For 20 years as PE teacher, bus driver, high school coordinator, and 8th Grade homeroom teacher, Ms. Horner answered the tough questions with real answers, taught girls to seek out physical activity that brought them joy, refereed contentious faculty vs. 8th grade broomball matches fairly (mostly), kept “Eye of the Tiger” relevant for modern middle schoolers during PE warmups, and baked a cake for every staff member’s birthday.

Suzi was known for her love of dogs, be they her dogs, the dogs leading the sleds in the Iditarod, or the dogs on their morning walks who couldn’t wait to pass

by Suzi and her stockpile of treats. She was a compassionate listening ear for students and faculty, and she reminded families that girls will bloom where they’re planted if they keep an open mind and an open heart.

Suzi Horner flipping pancakes high in the air onto girls’ plates on the last day of school.

Suzi’s memorial encouraged loved ones to keep a memento, like this pin honoring her wild (but safe) motorcycle rides.

We will hear the reverberations of Ms. Horner’s voice in our building every time we take a break, try again, and celebrate a risk that paid off.

Our Alumnae

One Confession & Three Realizations 25 YEARS OF WATCHING THE SEEDS OF MIDDLE SCHOOL LESSONS GROW Taylor Hollander P’12, History Faculty 22 years I began teaching at Orchard House in the third year of the school. Not at the very beginning, but pretty close to it. Although I’m not sure how many students I’ve taught in total, it’s certainly quite a few. Some are now in their late thirties - almost the age I was when I began here. And I have to say that one of the real highlights of teaching at Orchard House for so long is that I often get to see alumnae. Sometimes I bump into them around town. Just the other day, I was looking out my dining room window and saw a woman pushing a stroller down the sidewalk. It took me a moment, but then I realized she was a former student. I ran out to say “hi” and really enjoyed catching up. It’s also wonderful when our alumnae come back to visit on election days or for special events. One of our graduates drove all the way from Atlanta to contribute to our Black History Month celebration! I love learning about all their accomplishments and aspirations. I also love hearing how they are often still in touch with their Orchard House classmates.

I do have a confession though. Seeing alumnae can be a bit … well, weird.

Not in a bad way, but in a way that plays with my sense of time and space. As I listen to graduates talk about what they have done and what they are doing, part of me is flashing back and part of me is recalibrating.

It’s a bit challenging to explain, but it’s like I’m anchored in a different reality. I taught our alumnae every day, sometimes for four years in a row, when they were ten-to-fourteen-year-olds, jumping up and down in their seats, trying to decipher my notes, diving into art projects, learning to write essays, and, most importantly, becoming more self-confident. I still remember (at least most times) where they sat in class, their friend groups, how they learned, their likes and dislikes. Now, I still see glimpses of their younger selves - parts of them that are changeless. But obviously they aren’t adolescents anymore. They have different ways of seeing the world, different sets of priorities, and different kinds of lived experiences.

So, as I remember who they were, I also have to shift my perspective to who they have become. It’s a strange feeling. And maybe it’s one that former students also have when they see us. Do we change in their eyes or do we just remain the same - or both?

My many wonderful encounters with alumnae have also helped me realize three things about teaching at Orchard House. First, skill development is more important than content accumulation - at least in my class. Although a few alumnae have actually become history teachers, I am well aware that the material I teach has a short shelf life. Graduates are not going to remember how we once talked about the Minoans, invention of the printing press, and Alice Paul. What they do recall is how I helped them become better organized, understand multiple perspectives, think in greater depth, expand on their writing, and conduct their own research. I do hope that students grasp the importance of historical knowledge - and that they want to gain more. But the content is really a vehicle for learning skills that can be carried with them to high school and beyond.

Second (and please forgive the cheesy metaphor), the seeds we plant as middle school teachers sometimes take a while to bloom.

Not all students respond right away when we encourage them to become more engaged or self-aware. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have an impact. I have experienced it many times where alumnae, who once seemed unaffected, return to school full of appreciation and gratitude for our efforts. And it can be amazing to see how they have matured and grown. Mischievous students are now teachers and community organizers, hesitant students are now nurses and doctors, inattentive students are now architects and financial advisors. We certainly can’t take all the credit for their intellectual and personal growth. But I am convinced that we have made a contribution.

Third, what we do really well at Orchard House is build relationships and establish trust. In different ways, all the teachers and staff embrace the accomplishments and challenges of our students, provide room for them to explore and discover, and encourage them to recognize the value of mistakes. We also don’t take ourselves too seriously, we don’t always have to be right, and we don’t mind being teased. Some people may find it disrespectful that students call me “Tay-Tay.” Within reason, though, I don’t have a problem with it. It makes me more approachable, creates a more comfortable classroom, and helps students become more engaged learners - more open to taking academic risks. These kinds of personal interactions, which enhance a sense of belonging and community, are what our graduates seem to remember the most about Orchard House.

As someone wise and humble once wrote, “our alumnae are the best measure of our success.” Well, okay, that was me, so the wise and humble part is questionable. But I stand by the rest.

There are many reasons why I think it’s great to be an Orchard House teacher. For one thing, sharing a classroom with eighty adolescent girls is never boring. When I walk into school each morning, I have no idea what mix of energy, curiosity, and emotions awaits me. Also, I have a lot of autonomy as a teacher.

Whether it’s my curricula, lesson plans, or pedagogy, I pretty much make all my own decisions about the the history program.

My colleagues are another big reason. They are not only dedicated, creative thinkers, but are always there for you when you need them. Besides these points, though, our alumnae make it especially gratifying. Whether pursuing careers, embracing parenthood, working on degrees, and/or giving back to their communities, our graduates are wonderful testaments to everything Orchard House has worked towards for the past twenty-five years. And when they return to school for a visit or when I run into them in the city, I almost always come away with a great feeling about who they have become - and are becoming. Sure, it may be a bit weird at times to see them. But there’s no other experience quite like it.

Alumnae, welove to see you and hear from you!

Give us a shout at ohms@orchardhouse.org if you’re interested in sharing your experience with students, volunteering at your middle school alma mater, or just catching up.

Alumnae Notes 25 YEARS OF TAKING THE ORCHARD HOUSE LIGHT ON THE ROAD Emily Cohen ’01 was married to her husband Adami Gordon in San Francisco last fall. She's currently the rabbi of West End Synagogue on the upper west side of Manhattan. You can read more about her work at rabbiemilycohen.com!

Amy Sproul ’03: I'm relieved (and excited) to report that I am now a licensed clinical psychologist. I received my doctorate in Psychology in August of 2022 and currently work at Georgetown University!

Hannah Imburg '03 closed on her home in 2021. She spends her weekdays working at the Martin Agency's SuperJoy Creative Content Lab and her weekends doing yard work, hiking, and hanging out with her family and her dogs, Dublin and Nora Kate.

From left to right: Kelsey (Butler) Fatsi ’04, Winston (Carr) Jobrack ’04, Casey (Kasko) Svanda ’04, Chloe (Seipel) Callahan ’04 and Emma (Bland) Butler ’04 attend Casey’s wedding in Duck, NC on November 5, 2022. The ’04 graduates of Orchard House have stayed close over the years celebrating marriages and kids along the way!

Caleigh (Reid) Barrett ’05 This past year my family and I have been renovating and adding on to our home. My husband and I bought a home in my parent’s neighborhood (Northside!) where I grew up — dream come true! Our forever home is almost done and we can’t wait. We also now belong to Lewis Ginter pool, where the OG Orchard House lived — it’s super special to be back there.

Annie (Deutsch) Saunders ’05: My husband and I moved back home to Richmond in January 2022, and then welcomed our son in March 2022. I’m currently coaching fitness classes and loving life with our toddler in our Northside neighborhood.

Eliza Moore ’05: I live in upstate New York after living in Brooklyn, NY for 7 years. I have a BFA in painting from VCU and an MFA from Brooklyn College.

My partner and I own a wood fired pizza food truck and have two dogs.

Jordan Reid ’05: I recently started as People Operations Associate at Ballast Consulting Group (located just a block away from Orchard House!), as well as teaching yoga at Taou in Carytown (little plug to come take a class!).

Melody (Harrison) Scott ’06: Melody is a Marketing Specialist at OneDigital. She lives in the East End of Richmond with her husband Brian and their son, Sky.

Charlotte Mitchell ’09: I moved back to Richmond after 7 years in different cities and am working as a Labor and Delivery RN at St. Mary’s Hospital!

Katie Henneke ’11 is a 3rd year law student at Georgetown Law. This summer, she interned at Paul Hastings in Washington, D.C.

Kia (Garrett) McKee ’11 recently graduated with an MBA in Social Impact from Boston University, with hopes to work in the nonprofit space specializing in impact evaluation or direct cash transfers. One month later, Kia also got married to Aidan McKee. After living in Boston since graduating college in 2019, Kia and Aidan moved back to Richmond and look forward to being back home close to Orchard House.

Channing (Brooks) Hruska ’12: I graduated from the College of William & Mary in Spring of 2022 with a Bachelors in History and a minor in Religious Studies. I am now working as the Legislative Aide to Virginia State Senator Monty Mason in the 1st District. newly married, (I am in the process of changing my name) making me Channing Hruska. I also started my MBA at William & Mary this past winter.

Meg Taylor ’14: I graduated from William & Mary last spring, and since then have been working on starting a career focusing on animal care and conservation. This spring, I interned at the Duke Lemur Center, where I got experience in animal husbandry and learned about the research, conservation, and education programs there. I got to meet and learn all about a handful of very special lemurs as well! I love working with animals, and now I’m back in North Carolina working as an animal care technician Coquerel’s sifakas Camilla at the NC State College (left) and Lupi (right) of Veterinary Medicine.

Meg with aye-ayes Binx (left) and Fady (right)

Jessica Thorne ’15 graduated from University of Mary Washington with a double major in Classical Studies and Historic Preservation in May. She spent her summer in Romania working on the excavation of an ancient Roman villa. Jessica started graduate school at Tufts University in September.

McKinley Howard ’15 graduated from the University of North Carolina in Wilmington this spring and is now working in Charleston, SC.

Audrey Ladd ’15: I am graduating from University of Vermont with a degree in Environmental Engineering this fall and in the summers I am a raft guide in Colorado at Echo Canyon River Expeditions. At school I am a leader for Chicks on Sticks which is a club for female identifying skiers and riders. We have a fundraiser in the spring where we skin up a local ski mountain at 5 am and ski down in time for class. We vote on which charities to donate to every year and it’s a great way to introduce people to a difficult sport.

Corinne Brager ’15: This August I started at The Juilliard School as the Administrative Apprentice in the Drama Division!

Caroline Tinsley ’15 graduated cum laude from VCU with a B.S. in psychology. She shares a house with OHMS classmates.

Betsy Tinsley ’19 graduated from MLWGS and is headed to the University of Pittsburgh’s Frederick Honors College to major in biological sciences, likely with minors in chemistry and neuroscience on a pre-med track!

Dropping In 25 YEARS OF EXTENDING INVITATIONS TO EXPERTS AND COMMUNITY Visits from the 22-23 School Year

OB/Gyn Dr. Nicole Rankins visited students to talk about her HBCU experiences.

Students had too many questions to answer in one session: How do you think academics and social life differed from predominantly white universities? What made you choose your school? Was it better to be at a school where more people looked like you? How did your school change you?

Hannah Wittwer, Director of Volunteer and Education Services at Shalom Farms visited students to talk about food insecurity. She addressed the systems that create it, what barriers to access can look like, and what work local organizations do to reduce those barriers. The OHMS crew showed up at the farm the next morning ready to put in work for their community!

Our hearts were full welcoming our current and past families to celebrate fall with us at our annual OHMS Homecoming Block Party. We have so much fun hanging out with our students outside of school hours, and we’re always so thrilled to hear how our alums are flourishing once they start forging their paths in their new school communities. Join us for this year's 25th Anniversary Homecoming Block Party on Saturday, October 21!

Alumna LaTrea Price ’06 came all the way from Atlanta to talk to students about her experience attending Spelman College.

Spelman was the first choice for LaTrea, who wanted to return to an all-girls environment after high school, but also specifically wanted a school where more students looked like her.

Alumnae, we always love a visit—email us at ohms@orchardhouse.org if you're in town and want to share your path with our students!

To help us celebrate Women's History Month and this year's focus on Women in Sports, Richmond Black Widows players Mel Rouse (#21, linebacker), Sha Maclin (#35, linebacker), and Mary Allison (#7, quarterback) talked to our girls about Richmond's first allfemale tackle football team, what led them to football, what you discover about yourself when playing a team sport, and how the game of football has a role for every type of girl.

Pulitzer-Prize Winning journalist Michael Paul Williams spoke to students about his career at the Richmond Times-Dispatch and why he chose to attend HBCU Virginia Union University. He fielded student questions frankly and with a marvelous sense of humor, reminding the girls of the importance of listening to the little voice in your head that tells you what you like doing.

THINGS THAT MAKE ORCHARD HOUSE OUR HOME AWAY FROM HOME 25 YEARS OF MIDDLE SCHOOL MEMORIES AND EVERYDAY MOMENTS

Platform shoes were banned at the old building for safety reasons. A group of students made a giant platform shoe in protest. It stayed in the middle hallway for a couple of years as a sculpture.

Playing Laurie in the 8th grade play of Little Women. Orchard House allowed me to be the best and most confident version of myself. I loved getting on stage during studio performances, whether I was singing, dancing, or acting.

The crane mobile hanging down the main staircase.

The volume of the cheering and clapping during the Talent Show.

It’s the loudest I’ve ever heard a crowd get, and it happens every time.

Racing leaf boats outside every time it rained during our free time.

Reading on the stairs, Shakespeare in the lobby, Cow meetings, getting recess instated because we demanded it as students.

I fondly remember my throne plastered with pictures of Rupert Grint!

Base group meetings helping us make friends in every grade.

Spontaneous bus and staircase singalongs.

I remember that once when we ate inside the Ginter Room, we made a mess and were forced to clean up. We ran back and forth gathering up the trash and started sweeping, but it had just begun…Out came the boom box, and the entire school (17) put on an Orchard House production of Grease.

King talks in 8th grade home room with Ms. Horner and Mr. Hollander.

Mr. Hollander — “Do Not Mock the Toe” and skits in history class.

Whole-class lock-ins as an auction item!

Our entire class had a food fight in the 8th grade hallway.

Keeping student ideas going, like the R.U.L.E. program, which was a student plan for incorporating recycling into everyday OHMS activities and still continues to this day.

All the laughter in the stairwells, and tears sometimes, too.

Our beautiful building with the most gorgeous windows, and a library of books to see first thing every morning.

Getting to use the back staircase during The Quiltmaker’s Gift. Looking forward to the next quarter’s arts block.

Working on group projects in the stairwells.

Going on walks around Richmond for PE in lines of 2. My class. Cats performance for our music studio and our Popcorn performance for our dance studio.

When girls come back to visit years and years later.

Trying to keep everything calm when it starts snowing—the many windows in the building provide this beautiful natural light all day, but when it snows, students know immediately!

The freedom to try new things in the classroom and be supported in doing so.

Pancakes on the last day of school.

When we took a whole school field trip to Swift Creek Mill Playhouse to see a production of Little Women. We were the majority of the audience. When the Director announced our school name in the curtain speech, the girls all squealed in delight with the loudest response.

Where do I begin…our home on Hawthorne has so many lifelong memories. Riding bikes through the neighborhood. Our meetings in the great room upstairs.

Science class with Ms. Kiesler, learning to love reading because of Mrs. Simpson. Trips with Mr. Hollander, plays with Ms. Russo.

Our secret class meetings in the stairways. My love for Orchard House will go on forever. It was truly a special place.

500 N. Allen Ave. | Richmond, VA 23220 804.228.2436 | orchardhouse.org

25th Anniversary Homecoming Block Party

Winter Ceremony

SAT, OCT 21 4-7:00PM

FRI, DEC 15 9:00AM

Election Day Alumnae Lunch

2023

25th Anniversary Auction & Gala

Spotlight

TUES, NOV 5 12-1:30PM

SATURDAY MARCH 16, 2024