Women Lead the Way... The History of Female Leadership at Bolles Amber Bansal Contributing Writer
W
omen in leadership is a recurring theme on the Upper School campus. It started with the first female principal, Mrs. Julie Babcock, a former Bolles teacher and staff member who served as principal for over 10 years. And now, she is joined by Mrs. Marks, a former teacher, international coordinator, department chair, and now the head of Upper School.
“[Mrs. Babcock] exemplified her leadership through her relationships with colleagues and students...” — Mrs. Erin DuChanois Babcock started working at Bolles in 1970. “I worked there for 42 years, I said I would do it until I got tired of it.” During her time here,
she held a variety of positions. “I was never part of admissions and alumni raising money efforts: — those were the only 2 roles I never had,” Babcock said. Babcock started as a part-time typing teacher and went on to work for the headmaster. She created her own curriculum for a class called Business Survey and became an advisor, and then went into Mrs. Marks preparing a lesson for her ESL class. college counseling for Credit: Bansal researched past volumes of Turris about 5 years. She moved to the academic office, where she was Bolles, commented on her time at incharge of academic records and Bolles, “Mrs. Babcock cared deeply testing. about Bolles and about students and that is what motivated She became principal twice over her work. She exemplified the course of about 20 years, her leadership through her alternating between her registrar relationships with colleagues and role and principal. During most of students,” she said. these roles, she continued to teach typing and Business Survey. Mrs. DuChanois, who knew Babcock while she worked at
“I worked there for 42 years, I said I would do it until I got tired of it.” — Mrs. Julie Babcock Mrs. Marks started at Bolles in 1989. First, she was an ESL and Spanish teacher. “I saw that we really had a need for an international student advisor, so I recommended that we start an international student advisor program, and we did,” Marks said. Along with those positions, a “new language lab was added, and I became the coordinator of that.” She also proposed that one person
Mrs. Babcock with the senior advisors in college counseling.
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