SEM’s Board work includes growing residential program

By Kate Bowen Smith ’92, P’23, Chair of the Board of Trustees

is the board’s North Star. It, along with the school’s values and vision, drives and guides us.

One of SEM’s values and core beliefs is that a global perspective creates empathetic and informed citizens ready to engage in the realities of today’s world. Over the past year and in COVID’s wake, Helen and the board re-committed to the residential program.

The program is both missionaligned and fiscally important. COVID took a particular toll on the program, creating both logistical and political barriers to enrollment.

Afghanistan, Argentina, Bahamas, China, Germany, Guatemala, Kenya, Korea, Spain, and Taiwan. Throughout the year there are also visiting exchange students from countries including Australia, Italy, and France.

These students from all over the world sit at the same Harkness and lunch tables, lead and participate in clubs and sports together, act and produce plays together, and enjoy the same SEM traditions that have endured for decades. Their shared experiences broaden and deepen their personal perspectives.

Anyindependent school’s board of trustees grapples with similar priorities and challenges: enrollment, supporting school leadership and faculty, fundraising, planning for the future, and more. Former and current trustees at SEM— one of the country’s oldest schools for girls—have consistently met and embraced the school’s unique challenges and opportunities.

As a small, independent school that has been authentically empowering girls for almost one and three-quarters centuries, SEM has needed strength, grit, determination, and dedication along the way. Those qualities are imbued in SEM’s culture.

A hallmark of SEM’s board is, and probably has been since 1851, a shared and deep affection for the school combined with an unwavering commitment to girls’ education and leadership. This board is very much a working one, and I suspect each and every board along the way has been similar. While the pressing issues of the day have varied, at the core of a board’s work is always its mission.

SEM’s mission, revised with the current strategic plan in 2020 but not foundationally different from its predecessor, is to “prepare a diverse group of young women to be engaged scholars and citizens, proud to shape society rather than be controlled by it, and ready to live and lead with honor, courage, and confidence.” This

At the same time, a program like SEM’s is more important than ever. In parts of the world, girls’ education is neither guaranteed nor valued.

The world needs more SEM girls. Your gifts to the annual fund and endowment help support all elements of the school, including the residential program. They are as critical as ever. If you are in a position to help fund an international student to come to SEM, please consider doing so by contacting Director of Development, Leah Kimmet at (716) 885-6780 or lkimmet@buffaloseminary.org.

Today’s SEM students come from the immediate Buffalo area and across New York State as well as from

On behalf of the board of trustees, thank you for supporting SEM in ways big and small year after year. Our collective reward comes every June as new graduates from all over the world leave 205 Bidwell ready to contribute to the world in their own unique ways. I believe that the world is stronger and full of promise because of them.

And, let’s get ready to celebrate! With Helen’s retirement in June 2024, a transition in leadership, and the school’s 175th year approaching (which, apparently, is called a demisemi-centennial), the SEM community has much to be grateful for and to commemorate! •

Imagineyou just woke up in your beautiful Elmwood Village home on your first day at SEM, you get ready for the day and make your way over to the Atrium for breakfast. As you sit down to enjoy your meal, you take a look around you only to realize you’re surrounded by a group of people that are close to, if not your age, all here for the same reason, but look, sound, act, and think differently from you. How does that make you feel? What are you thinking right now?

As a residential student at SEM, your first encounter of the day is having a meal that may not be something you’re used to eating, and sharing this moment with folks from over 10 different countries. You might be feeling scared, nervous, anxious, maybe a little lonely. You might also be feeling excited, motivated, and eager. You and your family have taken a big leap towards an opportunity to not only go to a school in the United States, but to live at school! And while living in there, you’re immersed in a global community of students from different countries and cultures, all with different stories to tell.

After breakfast ends, the rest of the student community has arrived at SEM in time for Morning Meeting. You line up along the staircase, filing into the Chapel to yet another unfamiliar moment. The whole school is standing and singing together in a language that may not be your first.

After you’re dismissed with a “Have a great day and get to class,” you