Fall 2014 Admissions Magazine

THE ADMISSIONS MAGAZINE OF EMMA WILLARD SCHOOL FALL 2014

CONTRIBUTORS

Katie Coakley

(page 16) Describe Emma in two words: Game changer. I’ll never be able to work in a “typical” office again!

If you were an Emma Girl, what would your Signature project be?

Media literacy. I’ve always been interested in how the media shapes our perceptions and thought processes, and think it’s more important than ever to be conscious of its influence.

The last thing that made you laugh out loud: The Mindy Project. Mindy Kaling really needs to be my BFF. Who is your favorite Revels character, and why? I’ve only seen one Revels so far, but I loved Sabra and her court this past year. Their bright colors and dancing are so captivating!

Gemma Halfi

(page 24) Describe Emma in two words: Opportunity, Inspiration If you were an Emma Girl, what would your Signature project be? A hula hoop program for children from low socioeconomic backgrounds. In my wildest dreams, hoop dance would be as inspirational to the kids as ballroom dancing was to the students in the documentary Mad Hot Ballroom. I suppose I could call my project, “Mad Hot Hooping!”

The last thing that made you laugh out loud: Aside from my 2-year-old daughter doing just about anything, the next closest thing would be an episode of 30 Rock.

Who is your favorite Revels character, and why? Baby Dragon—I’ve always loved the way she is adorable and spritely, yet also packs a punch with her fierce, sassy attitude.

Humans of Emma Willard Jeannette Pang ’14 used her Signature project to transform how the world saw the people of Emma with her community art project and social media phenomenon Humans of Emma Willard School. The project took an intimate look at the authentic individuals of Emma.

More images are at www.facebook.com/ humansofemmawillardschool. More on Signature on page 16.

T HE AD MI SS I O N S MAGAZI N E O F E MMA WI L LA RD SC H O O L FA L L 2 01 4 Gabrielle DeMarco

Director of Communications gdemarco@emmawillard.org

F E AT U R E S

Jamie Hicks-Furgang

16 Making Their Mark

Director of Enrollment Lilly Pereira

Designer www.lillypereira.com Trudy E. Hall

Head of School

Emma’s Signature program enables seniors to discover and unleash their personal passions.

24 A Century of Revels

Emma’s most sacred tradition turns 100. Let the great folk come!

32 I am the Real St. George Emma Willard School 285 Pawling Avenue Troy, NY 12180 518.833.1787 alumnae@emmawillard.org or www.emmawillard.org/alumnae

One Revels character shapes the lives of five very different women.

D E PA R T M E N T S Signature, the magazine of Emma Willard School is published by the Communications Office two times each year for alumnae, parents, grandparents, and friends of Emma Willard School. The mission of this magazine is to capture the school’s values and culture through accurate and objective stories about members of the Emma community, past and present, as they put Emma Willard’s mark on the world.

02 From the Triangle

14 The Classroom

The Bicentennial stuns, graduating the 200th class, a Fair Trade scholarship, a “sporty” donation, social media energy, Emma’s top team players, swinging from the top of the rainforest, and global journeys Away from Emma

A.P. Psychology introduces girls to the college classroom— in high school

12 Faculty Voices ON TH E COV ER This “signature” is brought to you by Lindsay Slaughter.

In the photograph, Signature student Natalie Cross ’14.

Photo by Kris Qua.

Q&A with Visual Arts Instructor Lindsay Slaughter

38 Admissions 40 Signing Off Head of School Trudy Hall reflects on the postBicentennial “glow,” and what it means for the future of Emma

Printed on 100% recycled paper manufactured entirely with non-polluting, wind-generated energy.

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√Bicentennial Celebration Stuns

May 9-11, 2014 will most certainly go down in the annals of Emma history. On that historic weekend, the community—crossing generations—united to celebrate 200 years of Emma Willard School.

From fireworks to friendships renewed and begun, the Bicentennial Celebration weekend brought together a community of empowered and bold Emma Girls, parents, former heads and teachers, political leaders, and friends who were united in their love for Emma Willard School.

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Away Programs Emma’s Away programs create transformative and perspective-changing experiences that allow a girl to increase her awareness and understanding of issues and opportunities beyond her normal radius of operation, and develop the confidence and skills to take action that serves and shapes the world. This past spring break, 46 students took part in Away programs that had them venturing around the globe: Nice, France—Girls journeyed to the south of France to enhance their French skills by attending daily classes at Emma’s partner school, Azurlingua, traveling through museums like le musée des beaux-arts, enjoying French cuisine and culture in quant cafés and with their host families, and exploring cosmopolitan Monaco and Cannes. “I came away from the program more fluent in French, more knowledgeable about French culture, and a more confident and independent person,” said Dana Fein-Shaffer ’15.

The girls visit St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Nice, France.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia— Adventurous Emma Girls undertook this cultural immersion program that had them enjoying the sights and sounds of Phnom Penh, volunteering at a refugee reflection center in Siem Reap, and reveling in the beauty of Kep Beach.

For Stephanie Waldman ’16, the experience stirred up a desire to share her learning with others. “After researching further, writing a paper, and making an art piece on the Cambodian genocide, I have been able to educate others on Cambodia’s important and scarcely mentioned history.”

Cuernavaca, Mexico—This language immersion program saw girls make substantial progress with their Spanish while attending classes at Emma’s partner school, UNINTER, and participating in cultural activities and excursions from shopping Acapulco street markets to salsa dance classes.

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Exploring the Rainforest Canopy Imagine being hundreds of feet above the loamy ground of the Amazonian rainforest.

The monkeys and birds chatter around you as you journey between the tops of trees to study the sophisticated and endangered treetop ecosystem with one of the world’s most famous rainforest biologists, Margaret (a.k.a.

“Canopy Meg”) Lowman. Two lucky Emma Girls and their teacher, Homer L. Dodge Chair in Science Linda Maier, experienced just that.

Called the “real-life Lorax” by National Geographic and the “Einstein of the treetops” by the Wall Street Journal, Meg was introduced to Emma at one of Emma’s Bicentennial events, EmmaTalks. Inspired by her EmmaTalk and warm personality, Linda reached out directly to Meg about a possible trip with some Emma Girls to see her in action. Ever ready to inspire new scientists and research partners, Meg encouraged them to join her on her very next trip. Just weeks later, Linda, Sasha Weilbaker ’15, and Cara DePan ’15 journeyed deep in the Amazon to travel amongst the trees to study the bugs, sloths, and other life high above the ground, fish for piranhas along the Amazon River, learn how to use a poison blow gun, perform community service with the Yagua people, and be blessed by a traditional shaman. Linda hopes she can make the lofty trip again with even more Emma Girls in the near future.

During a rush of spring cleaning, Emma athletics unearthed boxes upon boxes of unused or rarely used athletic clothing and gear. Inspired to do more than simply toss them out, Emma athletes thought bigger and donated hundreds of items to the Banda Bola Sports Foundation, a non-profit that provides after-school mentoring and sports activities for children in the Republic of Malawi, Africa.

Inspired by the school’s generosity, founder and coach Keni Banda retrieved the goods in person from Emma and spoke to the girls about the impact of their giving. For many Malawian girls, donations like Emma’s are the first time they will wear anything but a dress, giving them a freedom of movement they have never before experienced and allowing them to gain new appreciation for their bodies and skills, all while having fun doing activities traditionally reserved for boys.

Imagine all of those girls, halfway across the world, playing in the red and white!

Fair Trade Scholarship Named in Honor of Emma As students at the nation’s first Fair Trade High School, Emma Girls have been committed to making mindful choices and promoting Fair Trade groups and goods since 2010. In this time they’ve supported several organizations, including Mayan Hands, a group of women textile artists located across eight Guatemalan communities. This year, in gratitude for our school’s continued support, Mayan Hands named a scholarship in honor of Madame Willard and her legacy of educating intelligent girls. Emma Girls worked to review candidates, and together they selected Karen Lilly, a curious 12-year-old with a passion for learning, as the inaugural recipient! The typical Mayan girl is often required to Karen Lilly, inaugural recepient of leave school at Karen Lilly’s age to help support their the Emma Willard Scholarship household. This is the same age girls start their educational journey at Emma, making the support of Karen Lilly’s continued education particularly poignant.

DONATED ITEMS

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Athletes Donate Gear to Children of Malawi

340 19 51 20 157 15 11 15 2

short-sleeved jerseys

pairs of sneakers

slinglets

athletic skirts

pairs of shorts

long-sleeved jerseys

pinnies

soccer balls

pairs of cleats

17 t-shirts

1

sweatshirt, a hockey stick, and a pair of flip-flops

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Commencement On May 25, Emma Willard School held its 200th Commencement, seeing off the Class of 2014. Head of School Trudy Hall spoke proudly of the 89 graduates’ individual accomplishments before introducing guest speaker Jacqueline Novogratz, founder and CEO of the Acumen Fund.

“Could Emma Willard have imagined this 200 years later?”

Novogratz asked the crowd, imploring them to “stay open to life’s possibilities,” citing her own curcuitus route to using her career in finance in support of those in greatest need. This theme was echoed by senior speakers Annie Roome and Olivia Idris, who reminded underclasswomen that “spontaneity means creating a tale you never expected,” and encouraged them to make the most of their time at Emma.

Before the Alma Mater rang out across Mount Ida to help close the ceremony, Emma Girls Rebecca Christopoulos and Annie Roome were honored with the Jameson Adkins Baxter Award and Clementine Miller Tangeman Award, respectfully.

PHOTOS BY M A R K VA N WOR M ER

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EMMA GIRLS ARE MAKING THEIR WAY IN THE WORLD

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We cannot wait to see how the Class of 2014 will impact the world. First stop on their paths to changing their world: college. Thanks to their personal dedication and the mentorship of the Emma College Counseling team of Kent Jones and Trudy Hanmer—with 60 years of experience in college admissions and counseling between them—Emma Girls’ college destinations are as unique as they are: big, small, technical, artistic, international, and Ivy League.

1 Amherst College Amherst, MA 2 Babson College Wellesley, MA 3 Bard College Annandale-On-Hudson, NY 4

Boston University (2) Boston, MA 5 Brown University (2) Providence, RI 6 University of California at Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA 7 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA 8 California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, CA 9

Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 10

University of Chicago Chicago, IL 11

Clemson University Clemson, SC 12

Cleveland Institute of Music Cleveland, OH 13

Colorado College Colorado Springs, CO 14

Columbia University New York, NY 15

University of Connecticut Storrs, CT

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16 Cornell University Ithaca, NY

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17 Davidson College Davidson, NC

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18

Dickinson College (2) Carlisle, PA 19 Drake University Des Moines, IA 20 Drexel University Philadelphia, PA 21

Earlham College Richmond, IN 22

Elon University Elon, NC 23

Emory University Atlanta, GA 24

Fairfield University Fairfield, CT 25 George Washington University (4) Washington, DC 26

Georgetown University (2) Washington, DC 27 Hampshire College Amherst, MA 28

Harvard University Cambridge, MA 29

University of Illinois Champaign, IL 30

Iowa State Ames, IA

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31 Johns Hopkins University (2) Baltimore, MD 32 Lafayette College Easton, PA 33 Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA

42 Oberlin College Oberlin, OH

34 Marist College Poughkeepsie, NY

43 Princeton University Princeton, NJ

35 Mass. College of Pharmacy Boston, MA

44 Queen’s University (Canada) Kingston, Ontario, Canada

36 McGill University (2) Montreal, Quebec, Canada

45 Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT

37 Mount Holyoke College South Hadley, MA

46 Reed College Portland, OR

38 New York University (3) New York, NY

47 Rhode Island School of Design Providence, RI

39 Northeastern University (2) Boston, MA 40 Northwestern University (2) Evanston, IL 41

University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN

48 Rice University Houston, TX 49 University of Richmond Richmond, VA 50 Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY

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CANADA

36 44 62

64

50

51

56 58 54

60 16

30

10

19

42

41

18

9

63 28 35 2 4 39 67

3 68 34 45 55 24 14 32 38 33 43

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40

1 27 57 37 15

5

47

20 31

29

25

21

26

52 13

49

66

65

22 17 70 11

23

SCOTLAND 53 59 48 61

51 University of Rochester Rochester, NY 52

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Terra Haute, IN 53

University of St. Andrews St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland 54

Sage College of Albany Albany, NY

55 Sarah Lawrence College (2) Bronxville, NY

61 University of Tampa Tampa, FL

56 Skidmore College (3) Saratoga Springs, NY

62 University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario, Canada

57 Smith College Northampton, MA

63 Tufts University (2) Medford, MA

58

State University of New York at Albany Albany, NY 59

Stetson University DeLand, FL 60

Syracuse University (2) Syracuse, NY

64

University of Vermont (2) Burlington, VT 65 Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 66

Washington University (2) St. Louis, MO

67 Wellesley College (3) Wellesley, MA 68 Wesleyan University Middletown, CT 69 Westmont College Santa Barbara, CA 70 Wofford College Spartanburg, SC

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FRO M TH E TRI A NGLE

O N T H E F I EL D

Emma’s Team Spirit

BY KATIE COAKLE Y

Girls grow up being told they can do “anything they put their minds to.” But, as Emma Girls Caroline Bennett ’14 and Maddie Conway ’14 exemplify, it’s often when girls work as part of a team that they explore their limits and discover untapped passions and abilities.

Team Player Caroline Bennett ’14

These girls took being a “team player” to another level, in both the traditional sense as multi-sport athletes, but also across campus in the arts, student government, leadership groups, and clubs.

A self-described “theater-y kid,” Caroline arrived on Mount Ida with a love for singing. She notes Emma’s “try anything” environment prompted her to not only join choir, but dive into the deep end with the swim team.

It was through her swim teammates she discovered crew.

“One snow day, one of my friends put me on an erg for fun and I totally fell in love,” she said.

“I thought to myself, if I like this, why not continue with it?”

Caroline recalled how that first year built her confidence, showing her that it was possible to balance the things she wanted to do, while

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benefitting for her wellbeing. She continued with swimming, crew, and choir, and would later reach even further to become a Peer Educator and Proctor.

Some may wonder how a girl has time to be so involved and still strive academically, but Caroline says being so active helped her focus.

“Having the diversity of things I’m doing has helped my academics because I’m not just focused on that one thing all the time,” she said. “It gives me ‘brain breaks’ and times throughout the day and year to focus on other things, which allows me to do well in my schoolwork.”

This sentiment was echoed by Maddie, who credits Emma for her ability to balance academics and her involvement in athletics, orchestra, clubs, and Student Council.

“Something Emma really helps foster is time management,” she said.

Time management is now a particular strength for Maddie who came to Emma her junior year and immediately stormed the soccer fields and brought rhythm to the orchestra and string ensemble with her string bass. She went on to join the Mock Trial team, Agonies, and Gargoyle, to which she was named co-editor-in-chief. She even took up lacrosse after hearing it was a good crossover sport for soccer players.

Maddie also decided to get involved with the Student Council by running for all-school representative. She won, earning a role that was aided by her active community involvement.

“It’s been really helpful to interact with so many different groups everyday, and it gives me a good idea how to go into the meetings and advocate for my constituents,” she said.

Both Caroline and Maddie agreed that being on “Team Emma”—in way more ways than one—shaped their Emma experience for the better. When asked what they would say to girls questioning whether they can also “do it all,” Caroline advised not to hold yourself back.

“Being conservative in your choices of extracurriculars is fine for some, but there are so many different things to take advantage of at Emma,” she said. “It’s important to recognize your limits, but not underestimate them.”

Maddie agreed, saying that success comes from taking risks.

“If you’re going down the cookiecutter path and thinking that doing X, Y, Z will get you into X, Y, Z college, you’re not going to be happy in life. But, if you just find what you love and follow those random paths, you’re probably going to be happier than if you follow the crowd.”

Meet the Superheroines: Tough, Crime-fighting Women Hollywood Ignores emmawillard.org/blog/ meet-the-superheroinestough-crime-fightingwomen-hollywood-ignores/

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SO CIA L ME D IA

Follow us @emmawillard

#WonderWoman

Read more about: She-Hulk, Wonder Woman, Ms. Marvel, Black Widow, Storm, Big Barda likes

#Choices #TedTalks

@emmawillard “Could it be that the demise of #liberalarts colleges has been exaggerated?”

Yes. http://bit.ly/1o9LFNl #college #highered #libarts

@emmawillard Each choice we make impacts our future.

Understand how and why we make the choices we do with these #TEDTalks: http://bit.ly/1okKgnc

facebook.com/emmawillardschool @emmawillard Listening to a lot of #music—particularly as a #teen—makes a tremendous impact later in life: http://bit. ly/1mGbRL9 #health #memory

This morning the Class of 2014 headed north for their Senior Retreat, and after bidding them adieu, the juniors took control of the Triangle!

Happy #ThrowbackThursday!

What’s the most unique class you’ve taken—or want to take—at Emma?

Nan Sohn Sumner: Human Sexuality with Liz Craiglow. Anyone remember that class? I do! The book we used was the first edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

#TriangleTakeover

You look confident

#EmpoweringPhrases

Donna Whitney: I took fencing in 1967. It was fun.

@emmawillard Don’t just compliment girls on their looks!

Try these empowering phrases instead: http://bit.ly/1iVGLUU #empowerment #inspirehermind

@emmawillard What does “having it all” mean anyway?

It’s time to reframe the discussion of women leaders: http://onforb.es/ VAeHvY #leadership #opportunity

Marcia Brooks: Auto mechanics (2week minicourse) and meteorology. #UniqueClass

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Faculty Voice!

INTERVIEW BY GABRIELLE DEMARCO

Lindsay Slaughter

Giving Young Artists a Voice In no place at Emma is personal growth so visually evident as the arts classroom. Watching Visual Arts Instructor Lindsay Slaughter teach, you see the unfolding of a young women’s capabilities as Lindsay points out crosshatched shading, notes the position of light dancing off a still life.

Lindsay believes there is emotional, truthful art in every girl. She believes art is more than a process. It is about the artist and her unique voice in the world.

After five years at Emma, her Southern-belle voice and brightly colored personal style are a constant within the community—from dorm to dining hall. She teaches visual arts, which includes painting and drawing from introductory to advanced levels. This past school year, she also became a Signature Mentor, helping girls extend their personal art beyond the classroom and develop their own artistic portfolios for college and art school applications.

We sat down to talk about visual arts at Emma in one of the main art studios.

Where were you before Emma? I was in graduate school for painting at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. I was a teacher’s assistant my last semester. I just loved waking up and having it be Friday!

It was a senior painting class, which is funny because it reminds me so much of Signature work because these were students who knew all the techniques for painting and they were doing their own projects for the class. I met with each student, and talked through their work. And it was all about the meaning, the purpose, the process. So when we

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started working on Signature, it reminded me so much of this artistic process I had just loved so much.

Tell me about your Emma Signature girls. Most of the [Signature] girls have already taken all levels of painting and drawing and want to continue. There is such a range [of projects] because there are students like Jeanette Pang ’14 who wanted to connect theatre, architecture, community-based art into a Signature project, which is very interdisciplinary work. Even the girls who have continued in painting

along the same vein as a traditional arts class are doing work that, for them, is so different and exploratory.

It is really cool to see.

Are any of them going to college for the arts? And if so, what will their Signature portfolio do for them in that process? Absolutely.

I think what the Signature process has allowed them to do is have a more significant portfolio. A typical [high school student’s] portfolio is going to have a self-portrait, a landscape, a figure drawing. And you need all of those things, but whenever I am working with a portfolio student, I like to find a couple of things that are completely unexpected. [College admissions officers] are looking through all of these applicants and the girls need to quickly stand out.

What is it about teaching high school girls that you enjoy most?

They come into class and they have this creativity that is just completely

PHOTO BY KRISTI N REHD ER

Anything particular you have noticed about Emma Girls? For Emma Girls, it is that work ethic that we ask them to have and it is the dedication. I really appreciate that I work at a school where art is considered an academic class because then it allows me to push the girls so much farther. I think another thing is that here girls are really encouraged to be themselves and to find themselves. That allows for really diverse and interesting work. Emma doesn’t promote a cookie-cutter student. There are so many ways you can be an Emma Girl, and then I see that manifest itself in their art.

When I see the works of your students, they are often surprisingly emotional and personal. What is the process to get to that point? In the beginning levels, we are learning the basic skills because they need to know the language before they can communicate. I wouldn’t say that the work is lacking emotion, but they haven’t developed all of their tools to fully express themselves.

When they get into the upper level classes, we talk about the roles that art can serve. And we are not always painting just a pretty picture.

Sometimes we are painting a political point of view, sometimes we are expressing ourselves, sometimes we are depicting a question without an answer. I try to make my classroom a place where the expectations are still high—we have concrete deadlines, a critiquing process, and set hours they have to work—but I also try to give them the room they need

FACU LTY VOICE S

untapped. For many of them, they come in and don’t even know they have this thing. And to be with them when they find it…is so…I guess…addicting. I have students who will come up to me at the end of the semester and say, “I just don’t see things the same way anymore in my day-to-day life.” And I think that is what we are trying to do as a school. That is what I love about high school.

to explore. And a lot of things come out in class. It is about letting them come into that space where they have permission to do that.

What do you think the visual arts bring to the girl? One thing I really like about Emma is that we don’t have a standard freshman art class.

So, students can come in and say, I want to do painting, or film, or photography. In that way, we are already encouraging them to create something that is unique to them. There is this attitude [at Emma] that the work should be personally driven, that it should come from them. We can, as teachers, provide a framework and structure for them, but we are not telling them exactly how they have to do it. So it shows them great problem-solving skills, independence, and the idea that there is pride in starting with a seed of an idea, watching it grow, and carrying it out to the end. I think that is a big boost to self-confidence.

What drew you to Emma? When I saw the job posting for Emma

Willard, I immediately felt like I could belong here and that I understood it. [My husband and I] love it here. We come to dinner all the time. Amazing things happen when you least expect it. That is what is so cool about a boarding school—those conversations in the dining hall, bumping into a parent after a sporting event…just to be here.

I am on dorm duty once a week, and there are so many conversations I have with the girls when they are out of the classroom. I am sitting there in my sweatpants and we just talk about life.

What brings you the most joy here? If a freshman wants to do painting and drawing throughout her time at Emma, I get to see the whole thing. Sometimes, during the last semester of her senior year, we can hang up the work and visually see the growth that she has experienced [at Emma].

Just seeing that growth in a visual format is so rewarding. You literally get to see it.

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Th! Classroom

BY GA BRIELLE DEMARCO

A.P. Psychology

Experiencing the College Classroom—in High School Famed psychologist Carl Jung once said, “One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.”

At no point is this connection of raw learning with the emotional intelligence of the instructor more apparent than in the successful teaching of an Advanced Placement or A.P. class, where effective and creative teaching methods can be easily overshadowed by the significant learning expectations required for students to ace A.P. exams.

History and Social Science Instructor Carol Bendall takes this challenge head on in her teaching of A.P. Psychology. She worked together with school and department leadership to develop a way for Emma Girls to have the opportunity to study psychology at the highest level available in high school, while expanding their Emma classroom experience into new and helpful territory—the traditional college lecture.

What Carol and the leadership understand is that while the standard small class size was vital to the deeply personal Emma experience and growth of each girls’ voice and comfort in the classroom, they also need the opportunity to gather exposure to the larger and more self-directed atmosphere of the university 101 courses that will greet each of them post-Emma.

To create a more university-centric, but still warm and authentic classroom, rather than split the A.P. Psychology course into several smaller sections, the new course is kept as one larger classroom. The class meets in Maguire Auditorium with its stadium seating and “sage-on-the-stage” lectern found in many a college lecture hall.

Carol also increases the expectations and weight of personal homework and studying responsibility each girl needs to reach success in the course.

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“Because of the larger class size and the traditional lectures at least one day a week, students really need to take responsibility for paying attention and asking questions when necessary,” Carol says. “I also offer something like traditional [professorial] office hours, and it is up to them to take advantage of the option.”

Student Anna Schroeder ’14 welcomed this. “[The class] really forces you to depend on yourself to learn,” Anna says, who is prepped and ready to start at George Washington University this fall.

“In college, no one is going to hold your hand and I think this classroom really [helps us experience] that.

This lecture-style doesn’t just require some adaptation for the girls; it also challenges Carol in new ways as a teacher.

“I have usually utilized guided discussion techniques more than traditional lecture styles in my teaching, so I need to put considerable preparation into the lectures,” she notes.

In addition to new learning and studying tools, the girls are also asked to

TH E CLASS RO O M

perform in a guiding role for each other. Similar to how successful university students are often called to act as teaching assistants or T.A.s at the university level, Carol also asks her girls to lead discussion groups every couple of weeks.

Like Introductory Psychology courses offered at the college level, the yearlong course leads the girl through the history of the field, as well as to its various approaches and sub-disciplines from Freud

to cognition, to genetics, and research techniques.

Carol believes the course to be a helpful way to gear girls up for college learning, but certainly not the only pathway Emma provides.

“Emma Willard does an excellent job with the transition,” she states.

“Many of the spring rituals like the Senior Retreat help the students prepare for the change. The full four-year [Emma] program, both

in the classrooms and in the dorms, involves graduated degrees of independence and initiative.”

Recent graduates acknowledge those larger preparation efforts.

“Most people feel overly prepared for college,” Anna says of her alumnae friends. “They have already studied most of what they are asked to do in their first year [post-Emma].”

With this course, she sees that preparation going even further.

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Mark MAKING THEIR

PHOTO BY KRIS QUA

The S I G N AT U R E P R O G R A M is transforming education through personalization

B Y K AT I E C O A K L E Y

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“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” —Benjamin Franklin The steel lab bench stretches out in front of her as she carefully pipettes the cell media in preparation for analysis. Getting the measurements off by just a milliliter could upset weeks of careful study. The thick plastic protective glasses inch down her nose as she concentrates.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” It’s a question all little kids are asked.

A doctor!

An astronaut!

A CEO! When you are eight, “I could do that someday” is eminently possible because someday is still a ways off.

When you’re a teenager—and particularly when you’re a senior in high school—the question takes on more weight. You start thinking about the college major you will declare, and consider the daunting question: What do I really want to do with my life?

What if there was the opportunity to “try on” your desired future at this critical time, before those hefty decisions needed to be made? What if you could find and experience your personal passion before you packed up for college?

To give girls the direction they and their future colleges seek, Emma Willard School envisioned the personalized capstone experience, Signature.

The inspiration for the program—like so many things at Emma—came from the girls themselves.

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Signature Director Jon Calos and Practicum Director Anne Mossop recognized early in their tenures at Emma that Emma Girls were uniquely driven to define themselves by customizing their educational experience both inside and outside the classroom.

“Years ago, Anne and I noticed girls were graduating from Emma having done some really interesting personal projects, so we knew that formalizing that made sense,” Jon said.

Personalizing the educational experience for each girl was simply part of the fabric of the school according to Jon, making support for growing the program easy to secure. In fact, some version of the school’s current Practicum program has existed since the early 1970s.

“There was no convincing that we needed to do,” said Jon of implementing the program. “We had to get permission for time to do it and to work together in new ways, but we never had to convince anyone it was a good idea.”

The head of school was right behind him.

“So much that stands out about an Emma education is how it provides our graduates the skills and

PHOTO BY KRI S QUA

This is no high school science project. This is government-funded research in a multi-million-dollar biotechnology laboratory delving into drug delivery for complex brain illnesses like Alzheimer’s. This could provide scientists with the clues they need to treat one of the most baffling diseases of our time. This is what Emma Willard School’s newest personalized study program, Signature, looks like.

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empowerment to go on to make a distinctive mark on their lives and communities,” asserted Head of School Trudy Hall. “We don’t create cookie-cutter graduates.

We have seen our alumnae put their ‘signature’ on their work and lives over and over again. The trick was to make this organic process a formal part of the educational experience.”

As Practicum became more popular over the years, other programs emerged focused on science, math, technology, and engineering (STEM) to expand opportunities in those fields for girls seeking a deeper dive. Through these programs, students were able to explore an area of interest through onand off-campus experiences.

To date, hundreds of girls have completed Practicums or STEM internships in everything from sword fighting to Russian literature to research on the cosmic origins of life, with projects as varied as the girls who attend Emma. In fact, nearly 80 percent of students complete at least one Practicum or internship experience before they graduate. By 2013, personalized study was a regular part of the Emma experience.

A formal personalized student graduation requirement was explored.

The launch of Signature was a natural fit. Through Signature, a senior delves deeper into a topic to produce a final project or presentation demonstrating her deeply personal expertise—her Signature.

With Signature, personalized study at Emma enters a new educational realm for Emma Girls, according to Trudy.

“We are now providing the opportunity to expand and solidify through her education each girl’s unique capabilities—the learning and skillset she brings to the table that no one else can,” she said. “The life lessons learned from immersing yourself in your passion are invaluable. We hope it will make Emma Willard School even more distinctive as the most deeply personalized educational experiences available to girls.”

A Signature pilot launched in the 2012–13 school year and girls were invited to identify a project worthy of their Signature. A promising pool of girls awaited the opportunity to make their mark, many of them looking to expand on their previous Practicum experiences.

Using Practicum as an incubator for Signature means students have ample time to hone their abilities and interests before their senior year, and often enables them to have a clearer sense of where to take their project, according to Jon. “One lesson we learned from [previous personalized study opportunities] was to try really hard to find the girls that have the right personality, are responsible, mature, and have the time to do it,” said Jon of the selection process.

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One such Signature girl is Kailin Baechle ’14.

Through Emma, Kailin has already spent two-and-ahalf years working alongside scientists in the worldclass biotechnology research laboratories at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Extending and deepening her earlier research through Signature was a natural fit for the budding scientist, who recalls growing up with an active interest in the sciences, and a love for lab work in particular.

“Being able to do things hands-on and seeing things happen in front of you instead of reading about other people doing them is really powerful,” she said.

Over the course of her Signature, Kailin worked with graduate students experimenting on opening the human blood-brain barrier to allow innovative biotherapies to pass through and potentially cure diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Kailin took on many roles in the lab, from working directly with chemicals to produce amino acids and other compounds, to running tests and analyzing data for deviations, the latter of which she describes as her favorite.

“It’s fun running the experiment, but it’s even better when you get the results back and it’s what you expected or something new,” she recounted.

The respect and responsibility of being an active participant in the experiments at Rensselaer had a huge impact on Kailin, who says she learned a lot about herself through her Signature.

“I never really expected that I’d be able to do all these different pipettings and calculations…I’ve been surprising myself,” she said.

Kailin’s not the only one impressed by her abilities. Thanks to her strong academics and commitment to research, she was awarded one of ten full-tuition Langsdorf Fellowships to study biomedical engineering at Washington University for the next four years, and an undergraduate research award that will fund her personal research projects in the university labs— exceptionally rare for an undergraduate.

Beyond STEM, Signature also now includes even more girls and disciplines on campus, including the arts department where girls can choose to take on an advanced art project for their Signature. These artistic Signatures can focus on a particular style of painting, videography, photography, ceramics, or other medium depending on the artist.

“The artists have been especially interesting because they really get what it means to do a project like this,” said Jon. “They have a lot of faith in their projects, an eye for what works, and know they’re going to have to figure out things as they go and roll with it. Artists are particularly good at that.”

“This is more than your run-of-the-mill internship.

Through Signature, we provide each girl with a professional head start on the hard work of figuring out her value added to the world while also preparing her for increasingly competitive college admissions and job markets.” —Trudy Hall Filmmaker Natalie Cross is an exemplary model of a self-motivated Signature artist. She spent the summer leading into her senior year creating Consider the Lilies, a documentary that captures the dynamics between family farms and natural gas mining companies, detailing some of her own family’s struggle with their farm. Inspired, Natalie purchased her own camera and equipment and set out to create her film.

She was given a unique audience for her film when she shared the final product at the Emma Willard Mini Maker Faire in October 2013, which was attended by well over 1,000 members of the community. She describes the experience as being slightly surreal.

“I had never shared anything with any kind of audience aside from the Internet, so it was really exhilarating and I really liked it.”

It’s not just the actual filmmaking process that inspires Natalie, but also the people making the decisions behind the cameras. She knew that for her Signature, she wanted to expand her film knowledge, and chose to study the films of director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer Stanley Kubrick.

Natalie describes his films as “ones you want to re-watch to see what you missed,” and her Signature allowed her to do just that. Though she cites The Shining as her favorite of Kubrick’s movies, for her culminating Signature thesis she chose to focus on three of his films relating to the human condition: 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, and Eyes Wide Shut.

Her intense Signature study of Kubrick’s works allowed Natalie to apply what she learned to her own filmmaking. At the time of this interview, she was finishing production on As Measured by its Absence, a feature-length documentary by filmmaker Jim de Séve

on which she acted as associate producer and editor.

Beginning this fall, Natalie brings her talents to Boston University where she will continue honing her filmmaking and videography skills.

“This is more than your run-of-the-mill internship,” said Trudy of Signature. “Through Signature, we provide each girl with a professional head start on the hard work of figuring out her value added to the world while also preparing her for increasingly competitive college admissions and job markets.”

By working closely with her Signature Mentor throughout a yearlong process of planning on and off campus work, research, and blogging, each girl works toward the creation of a culminating piece.

This work, which she showcases to the community at the end of the year, can take the form of a thesis paper, performance, artistic portfolio, speech, or scientific poster depending on the thrust of her unique Signature.

“This is her distinctive mark on Emma and her own education, and is profoundly satisfying to these girls,” Trudy said.

Jon noted having a dedicated mentor for each Signature has also allowed deeper and more personalized interaction between girls and members of the Emma faculty. Even more exciting for Jon is the increased involvement of members of the school staff and administration in the personalization process.

“I think a lot of people envisioned this as being kind of a ‘faculty thing,’ but right off the bat it’s included everybody—faculty and staff. It’s wonderful because it’s making connections between students and other adults on campus and the expertise here.”

He sights Crystal Chan ’14, who worked alongside Emma’s Chief Financial Officer, Ace Ellis, to

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“For me, the great glory in this is letting the girls shine and giving them the opportunity to show off all the cool things they’re doing.

The kinds of girls we attract [at Emma] tend to be doing tons of stuff and it’s very, very interesting.” —Jon Calos develop a business plan for her emerging Fair Trade hospitality business.

For the 2014–15 school year, Signature prospects were invited to apply to the program with a proposed topic and mentor. As a result, this year’s projects cover a vast range of topics, from architectural design and work with the local community gardens program to coaching middle school basketball and learning to play the lute.

Jon hopes to continue expanding the mentor possibilities beyond the campus and develop a “mentor marketplace” where interested alumnae, parents, and friends of the school could input their information for girls to browse and seek matches.

“I’m hoping to pull in more and more mentors of different types, and one group I’m really excited to get involved is the alums,” he exclaimed. “We could have alumnae fill out an application and what they’re interested in, so if [a girl] doesn’t have an idea per se, they can look around and be inspired.”

The potential for community interaction both on and off campus is unlimited for Jon. Students like Kailin and Natalie highlight how Signature allows girls to act as ambassadors for the school in the larger community, said Jon, who describes this as one of his favorite aspects of the Signature program.

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“For me, the great glory in this is letting the girls shine and giving them the opportunity to show off all the cool things they’re doing,” he said. “The kinds of girls we attract [at Emma] tend to be doing tons of stuff and it’s very, very interesting.”

One important audience that gets to see just how “cool” these girls are by the time they leave Emma is their future college or university. This was particularly apparent for Kailin, who largely credits Signature for equipping her so well for college life.

“It’s such a unique opportunity at Emma,” she remarked. “At a lot of other schools you might have the opportunity to experience a classroom lab, but to be able to go to a university [having already] participated in cutting-edge research has been really special.”

The ultimate goal is for every Emma senior to have the ability to create a Signature. To provide all seniors such a meaningful personalized experience is no small task, according to Trudy. Together with the support of dedicated donors, the school is seeking to create the facilities, faculty development, and transportation infrastructure required to continue to expand Signature opportunities.

“We don’t yet know all the places a girl’s Signature will take her, but we want those opportunities to be global,” said Trudy. “By creating classrooms, research, and learning spaces that are wired, wireless, and multimedia, we can allow for Signature work that crosses educational and cultural borders.”

The school also plans to purchase new vehicles that will move girls around the region in hot pursuit of their Practicum or Signature learning experience—from New York City, to area universities, to the State Capitol.

And because not all Emma Girls arrive at Emma with the family resources to support all of her offcampus Signature work, the school will also create, with donor assistance, a Signature Opportunities Fund.

“We want all our girls, including those with strong financial need, to experience the most personally meaningful Signature possible. This donor-supported fund will help make a Signature experience dream a reality for all of our girls,” she added.

For Trudy, Jon, and the girls who have completed their Signatures, the possibilities are endless.

“I think every girl has a Signature inside them somewhere,” mused Jon. What is yours?

Katie Coakley manages social media and news coverage for Emma Willard School. This year she will also be a Signature Mentor for Courtney Breiner ’15 and her project on understanding the positive role feminism can play for teenage girls.

PRACTICUM PRODIGY

Tea Mottolese

PHOTO BY KRI S QUA

WANT TO BE A PART OF IT? Emma encourages alumnae and parents interested in becoming Signature Mentors to contact Jon Calos at jcalos@emmawillard.org.

You do not have to be a senior Emma Girl to benefit from Emma’s unique personalized study programs. For competitive figure skater Tea Mottolese ’16, Practicum is an opportunity to cultivate her skills on the ice while in school.

Competitive skating is a year-round sport, with training taking place during the summer and competitions throughout the winter.

When Tea decided to come to Emma, there was some concern as to whether she’d have time to keep up with her training.

“My coach thought I wouldn’t be able to skate as much, but she’s been very proud of what I’ve done,” she says.

Practicum was key to her ability to continue with her skating while keeping up with the rigor of Emma, giving her academic credit and school support for pursuing her personal passion.

Achieving this balance was critical and has been ultimately rewarding for Tea, as skating provides her an essential outlet from academic life at Emma.

“Skating is all muscle memory and feeling so I don’t feel like I have to think as much. I just let the muscles do it and relax.”

Tea also credits the sport for preparing her for life at Emma. “[Skating] helps you learn to rebound quicker from downfalls in life,” she notes.

“It has taught me that nothing is ever perfect.”

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emma’s mo s t s ac red t r a dit io n t u r ns

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100.

BY ROBYN PFORR RYAN

R

evels A CE N T U RY O F

A scrap of linen cloth fell from the shelf as retired English teacher Chris Carroll whizzed by on her scooter, talking about the costumes she has altered, mended, designed, sewn, and stewarded for almost 40 years. The Revels costume collection that fills a basement room in Sage holds within it hundreds upon hundreds of crystalline memories of the Emma Girls who wore them.

One of these girls, now a woman, her hair shot with gray, leaned down to pick up the fallen linen. Mary Nelson ’73, a potter after a long corporate career, carefully unfolded the cloth and laid it out on the work table in the room, leaning forward to examine pencil marks on it. Another alumna brought over an additional scrap found tucked back on the shelf.

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D

ozens of alumnae

were crowded into the costume room that afternoon during the Bicentennial Celebration weekend to listen to Carroll talk about the silk, velvet, satin, brocaded, green and gold, purple and red costumes hanging from wooden clothing racks. Lords and Ladies of the Manor, Jesters, Devils, Herald, Marshalls and Morris dancers, Beelzebub, the Hobby Horse. A green and shiny dragon with vacant eyes that sometimes flame red takes up a corner of the room. Silent, empty now, these costumes hold within them a piece of who these women were at 17, 18, working with their entire class on the brief and intense adventure that is Revels, just before leaving Emma to start the rest of life.

Deborah Dodds ’79, whose mother and daughter had their own Revels, darted about the room taking photos, her tall frame adorned in a custom skirt fashioned from two commemorative Bicentennial silk scarves. Alumnae gathered around the work table as Nelson and others pieced together scraps of cloth: Noel Nowicki Knowles ’88, and her sister, Karen Nowicki-Jacobs ’82, who wore the same Blue Lady costume (a costume also worn by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand ’84 in the intervening years), stood by Carol Hillman Van Dyke ’74, the Herald her year.

Deedra Neitzel Bowman ’63 recalled how, as a first grader, she was a Sprite in the 1951 Revels, riding a snow-covered yule log with fellow Sprite Sandra Bibbs, ringed with Attendants. As a senior, she was a Caroler.

“It was the most magical thing a first grader could be,” Bowman said of her turn as a Sprite, her eyes alive with the memory. “It (Revels) stayed with you. It was [set in] the age of gallantry and chivalry, all those high ideals and the magic of it.”

Carroll explained how she viewed the collection as a “working collection,” always trying, if she could, to work with a costume’s aging fabric so Emma Girls could wear a costume that had been part of the school’s history. Sometimes costumes link generations and families of Emma Girls: daughter-mother-aunt-sister-grandmother.

As Carroll talked, someone found another piece, laying it out on the work table, finding its corner’s match. Together, talking to each other now, nodding, smiling, several alumnae pieced together the scraps to form part of a Country Woman’s dress pattern.

Several stood back, smiling, pleased with the result of their work.

This is the beauty of Revels—a tradition of music and theatre and, many say, magic that, for almost 100 years, has knit together community. The community of the performers, getting to know classmates in new ways, exploring a new side of themselves.

The community on Mount Ida, teachers and parents traveling in from far away, and those from Troy. And the community of generations of Emma Girls, now women, living different lives in all parts of the country and the world who have had their own Revels.

“Revels is all Emma Girls think about from the moment they first step on campus. I feel like I was part of something so much bigger than myself,” wrote Pascale Stain ’14.

Stain played the Manor House Baker in a billowy gown with a lace trim. “Your Revels part connects you with Emma Girls all around the world.”

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300 guests into the hall which was adorned for the occasion After the very first Revels performance, in 1915, the with Christmas trees, ropes of laurel and scarlet flowers, and cast and audience followed the yule log procession into wreaths set against woodwork panels. the library, dark but for a fire in the fireplace. Someone The Lord of Misrule (the early Jester), the Morris Dancers, tossed the yule log onto the fire, adding more rosy warmth a slow-moving procession of the Lord and Lady of the for the gathering. The black, cold December night remained Manor and their guests and attendants entertained visitors outside the library’s lead-paned windows as those gathered with antics. The Kings and Shepherds with their Pages and sang carols, ending with the Alma Mater.

Torchbearers sang carols and circled about the room until “Tonight, something has been started, which will, I settling at their long table to watch the “merry-making of the believe, become a school tradition,” Principal Eliza Kellas country girls and boys.” The Mummers, a 1918 addition, “in is recorded as saying in words that foretold a century. the rich garments and strange headgear,” presenting a comic Well, a century, just so far. play and the play of St. George—the valiant St. George who Arriving on campus in 1911, Eliza Kellas was able slays the Turkish Knight to win the hand of the King of to build on the school’s strong academic foundation of Egypt’s daughter (the infamous Dragon would not appear almost 100 years, and add, well, a bit of fun in the form on campus until 1947). All the while, Miss Effie Hogben, of Field Day, senior class ownership of the Triangle, Senior the school seamstress, a 1914 graduate of Emma Willard Dance, Prize Day, and Revels. If Emma Hart Willard was Conservatory of Music, played piano accompaniments. Then, the dignified founder, wearing black clothes and her big the finale scene: a yule log fastened upon a sled covered with grey bonnet, Eliza Kellas (still with her own trunkful of glittering frost; the sled pulled by six dancing and singing aphorisms on the proper comportment of young women) Pages dressed in golden satin. was the head of school who led the students in a snake The size of the celebration postdance through the school every year on her performance involved intense preparations. founding forbearer’s birthday.

The school baker prepared 60 pounds of In 1915, Kellas asked Ellen Manchester, fruit cake, “ripening since the first of head of the English department, to creNovember,” 50 pounds of plum pudding, ate “a Christmas fete in the old English is all emma later set aflame thanks to the essential manner.” Manchester later wrote that the contribution of “Miss Weaver and her gothic assembly hall and library were the girls think bottle of alcohol,” and 400 each of lady“perfect setting” for her hopes to create “that about from fingers and macaroons. And, not to worry, blend of the secular and religious which the moment “Miss Jones of the school presided over was the essence of the ancient celebration.” they first step the coffee urn,” the Troy Record reported.

It is possible, probable even, that she was “Revels, beloved Revels,” wrote Katharine familiar with the boar’s head and yule log on campus.

Knowlton McLane ’23 in an April 2, 1926 Christmastime celebration at nearby Hoosac i feel like i letter. She played Father Christmas in the School in Hoosick, New York. was part of 1922 Revels. Her passion for Revels prompted The first Emma Willard Revels almost something so her and two classmates, one being Clementine didn’t happen. A blizzard in December Miller Tangeman ’23, to shut her Smith 1915 stranded the eagerly awaited trunk much bigger College dorm room door and “put on the of costumes ordered from Tam and Co. of than myself. whole works—Mummers, Morris Dancers, New York City. boar’s head and all just by and for ourselves!”

“Miss Kellas and I remember only too As a tradition, Revels can be difficult to vividly our hurried trip to the Troy station describe. “A weirdly wonderful thing” and “bizarre, but (by trolley!) in the late afternoon to find but one trunk magical” are how two alumnae tried. Revels is not just about holding crowns and silk hats for the Morris Dancers; the script, the processions, the pageants, the winter holiday thence a fruitless journey to Albany in an effort to persuade season, or even its ingredients: roles like the Jester or the a costumer to outfit the cast for that evening,” Manchester Alchemist, St. George, music and carols composed wrote in 1933 in The Triangle. Since no invitaby teachers, a costume collection unusually large tions had gone out for this performance, Kellas for a school of this size. Revels lives in its live delayed the show until after the holidays. performances and in being passed down Revels quickly grew into a tradition from generation to generation. Revels lives beloved by the greater community. In in the caring of students like Bina Williams 1917, Kellas began sending invitations to ’71, who wears her Revels pin each holiday, the performer’s parents, many traveling to Drusilla Escher Malavase ’54, who sings the the school from far away states in the days Revels carol “On This Day” to herself each when interstate travel was an arduous underChristmas, Joshunda Sanders ’96, who carries taking. Soon, Miss Kellas was receiving up to

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reveal of a senior’s part to the Emma community is an with her—from move to move—the VHS tape of her Revels, essential element of the electricity of the Friday night Revels despite not owning a VCR. performance each year. Thumping. Thunderous. Ear-piercing Since 1915, Revels has undergone some changes. Today, screaming. “Tribal” is another word used to describe the Revels is very decidedly a senior tradition. But, originally, noise of the underclasswomen and recent alumnae as they Revels parts were played by underclasswomen and seniors, recognize each senior transformed in her Revels role. seniors even came back to reprise their parts. Also, for “I still wonder when the floors of Kiggins are going to many years, Revels was a performance given by boarders fail,” wrote Dodds, whose class was only allowed to stomp for the school’s boarding community and their parents. at the beginning when the doors were first opened, but It was not until after World War II that day students not during the show. were full participants.

Arriving as a new junior, Jane Giammattei White ’79, The boar’s head, now a painted stage prop, once was felt outside of the Revels experience as she sat among real. The school’s chef baked a 12-pound pig’s head butchered her classmates, suddenly stomping on the floor with for the school, decorating it with mashed potatoes, cranberall they had. ries for eyes and, according to ancient tradition, an apple in “I so wanted to have that feeling like I belonged,” said its mouth—all in the days before refrigeration. The plum White, who played “a really slurry drunk” in her Revels. pudding, decorated with holly and ground pine, was made “The moment I came through that door in Kiggins, I did. by the school baker from an old English recipe.

That was the moment of belonging.”

Changes in the size of the graduating class Revels is a giant ensemble production built have necessitated flexibility and creativity around a core of roles in the original script. on the part of the directors and costumer.

One of these roles, the Jester, bringing antics In 1973, an unusually large class of 120 and play to the English manor scene, later girls led to the Revels appearance of 10 is not merely became the school’s mascot in the 1970s, as Monks. Another year, there were four Jesters. a production a sign of the importance of the Revels tradi“Really,” sighed one alumna, trying in vain tion. Susan Decker Hendricks ’60, who sang to withhold judgment. Carroll would agree. of one age, a duet, “No John, No,” with Peggy Brown, “Okay, girls we’re not going to have endbut rather an pointed out, with evident pride, how the less Jesters. We’ve gotten up to four. We’ve accumulation Jester her year, Kendra Stearns O’Donnell had more Devils than we ever thought we of time’60, went on to become, in 1987 at age 44, would,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. the first female principal at Exeter in the Originally, Revels was overtly Christian honored school’s then 206 years. with a nativity scene, or “the Episode of the traditions, “I loved being the Jester. I felt it was a Adoration,” reflecting the far different role gathered great honor,” said O’Donnell, who had played by religion in society until the late and blended been the head of Campus Players. “I still 21st century. The scene was later removed, remember what it felt like to wear that probably as part of efforts to make the school through costume. It was all satin. It felt terrific. It more inclusive. the ages. was a great moment. Revels is just astonishToday, Revels’ casting is cloaked in secrecy. ing. Every single role is critical to the whole.

“Do Not Enter Under Threat of Death” was And you can see it. Everyone knows that her a sign warning underclasswomen to stay role is so important so they give it so much heart.” away from top-secret rehearsals, after the director and senior At audition time, the roles are quickly divided into singclass commandeered Kiggins Hall, recalls Deb Geraghty ’88. ing roles, dancing roles, and acting roles. Bina Williams ’71, This past year, Eugene Lee ’17, without intending to, saw who had been involved in all the singing groups was cast as part of the Dragon costume on a visit to the Assistant Head one of the Waits who sang a capella. Dodds didn’t try out for Academic Affairs’ office. “I didn’t mean to see it! Really,” for the Lord, the part played by her mother, Polly Parker she said, laughing.

Dodds ’54, because she had no acting experience, as her Originally, the cast list was not a secret. Newspapers mother had had. in Winnetka, Illinois; Buffalo, New York; and Detroit, “I was not a dancer. That narrows down the roles rather Michigan, published notices of a hometown Emma Girls’ fast. I was a Marshal,” she wrote. Her daughter, Katie roles in the Emma Willard School “traditional Christmas Smith ’14, was Tom and a Bearer of the Boar's Head this pageant.” Secrecy, with its attendant mystique and weeks past year. of guessing, was added to the Revels tradition sometime Mary Nelson had tried out to be the Jester, but was cast between 1946 and 1952; by 1953 the casting was comas a Lantern Bearer. pletely secret, reports Drusilla Escher Malavese ’54.

“When it was announced, I was ecstatic and quickly realThis past year, the entire senior class held hands in ized it was a much better ‘fit’ for me than the Jester. I was a Maguire as the directors ran through the cast list. The big

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100 years

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class clown, a little immature. We had such a great time, the other Lantern Bearer, Marilyn [Beachum Wilson ’73], and I.” Paige Hill Starzinger ’76, who had not done theatre, was cast as a Lady, a fitting role given that she later worked for Vogue for 12 years.

Joshunda Sanders ’96 was cast as the Alchemist, a role she viewed as “perfect for a person difficult to categorize; sort of funky and one of a kind (not that all Emma women aren’t in their own way!),” she wrote. She relished the role because one of the upperclasswomen she loved, Qiana Mestrich ’95, also had been the Alchemist.

Twins Deborah Geraghty and Wendy Jenkins ’88, were both Devils. “Some things never change,” joked classmate Noel Nowicki Knowles ’88.

For at least two years, Carol Russell Collier ’69, told the director she wanted to be the Dragon.“I loved people trying to guess who it was,” she said, smiling.

Drusilla Escher Malavase ’54 also wanted the Dragon role, but for mostly practical reasons. She had to get on a train to Ohio right after the performance and didn’t want a role with a lot of make-up to take off before her trip.

As parts go, very few people try out to be, well, the Dragon’s Butt.

“I was the Country Woman carrying the eggs. Then at an assembly, Mr. [Kevin] Bradley [then the director] announced, ‘We have a problem, girls. We need an ass,’” Kelly McDonald ’05 recounted. “Well, I have a policy in which I will try anything once.” And so, a star, or dragon’s butt, was born.

The Revels tradition is a dynamic one, the script expanding and changing from year to year to include new features. In the early days, these additions were still in keeping with the festive Elizabethan tenor of the show. For example, in the late 1950s, new additions included a scene from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and a dramatized version of the English ballad “The DarkEyed Sailor.”

“We can see that Revels is not merely a production of one age, but rather an accumulation of time-honored traditions, gathered and blended through the ages,” wrote Sally Paige Hooker ’31 in The Triangle.

Some performances have blended in the individual talents of members of the class. Meredith Hunter ’05 and Kathryn Prout ’14 performed Scottish dances; Yuan-Ti “Annette” Ho ’14 played the cello. In 2001, sisters Branca and Gabriela Ferraz ’02, skilled in acrobatics, did their entrance as Jesters over the Lords and Ladies’ tables from the catwalks, rolling down on aerial silks.

“The truth is that Revels is constantly shifting and changing and that is part of its wonder and joy,” said Mark Van Wormer, who has photographed 34 years of Revels performances.

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In recent years, Revels has included cameo appearances from pop culture and other literary characters chosen by individual classes, reflecting today’s far less formal society.

Recent performances have included Harry Potter, Gollum and Bilbo Baggins, a gargoyle, the young royal couple— Will and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Even Justin Bieber and the Grinch have visited the English manor house.

Gemma Halfi will be directing this year’s Revels— the 100th production. Halfi calls Revels one of her very favorite things in the world. She has been at Emma Willard for the past ten years as a resident faulty member, and, for the last four, as the assistant director of Revels.

“Each individual class is able to add their ideas and talents to leave their mark. I think that’s important. They need to own that Revels,” said Halfi. “The beauty of Revels is that we combine the magic of a century-old tradition with each particular senior class' own personality and flair.

Once they enter Kiggins Hall the playing field is leveled.

Everybody is connected through this beautiful magical thread of people who have experienced Revels. The result is a generous gift given to the community, from the senior class, of their own, special, Revels.”

Traditions that endure rely on guardians who care and put the work in from year to year in order to pass down their ritual and their meaning to the next generation. Effie Hogben, the campus seamstress who designed and sewed most of the original Revels costumes on her old-fashioned Singer sewing machine is surely one of these guardians.

“Getting a fitting with her in this Harry Potter-like basement room was part of the magic of it,” recalled Carol Hillman Van Dyke ’74. Chris Carroll, as a new English teacher, was asked to assist Hogben in 1976. Sadly, Hogben, then walking with the assistance of two canes, died the next year. Ever since, Carroll has put time and skill and patience and heart into her role as keeper of the costumes as only the second head Revels seamstress in a full century. Carroll is surely another guardian who has kept Revels alive for so many Emma Girls.

“As I work on the pieces through the generations, I invite her spirit,” said Carroll, who began working on Revels at age 24 and has recently become a grandmother.

“Okay Miss Hogben, what would you do here? Should we consider doing something new? Is it time to retire this piece? I have such a sadness that I didn’t have these conversations with her that first year.

But there just wasn’t time.”

Directors have left their passionate imprint on the tradition. Revels’ author Ellen Manchester directed the productions for more than 30 years. Over the years, there have been a handful of other directors, including Dorothy Kirkland in the 1950s and early ’60s, and Brian

Davidson, who began developing a history of the play in the 1980s through mid-’90s. Several Revels’ carols were composed by William Glover, the director of the music conservatory.

So many faculty members have put time and heart into the production.

In 1986, Associate Head Emerita Trudy Hanmer, then acting head of school after the death of beloved principal Bob Parker, in September, faced an emergency when a storm knocked out power at the school only hours before Revels. No generator.

The idea of the underclasswomen walking down stairs in the annual tradition, many wearing high heels they were not used to walking in, prompted her to consider cancelling Revels.

“You’ve ruined my life,” one upset student exclaimed.

Hanmer quickly enlisted faculty to go out and buy as many flashlights as they could. Van Wormer recalls ducttaping flashlight after flashlight on the woodwork in Kiggins; others lined the first floor of Slocum. Of course, the power came on in time.

This Revels will be Halfi’s first as director. This Revels will be Chris Carroll’s 40th. This Revels will be the 100th production after its first performance on a cold night in December 1915.

This Revels will be the Class of 2015’s first, and only.

This Revels will be two nights in December that will link these Emma Girls to the voices and spirit and laughter and toil of so many Emma Girls before them, and so many more who will follow in the Revels tradition.

Robyn Pforr Ryan is an award-winning writer and journalist based outside Albany, New York. In addition to working on her first novel, she is also the proud parent to Emma Girl Chandler Ryan ’15 who will grace the 100th Revels stage as…shhhhh.

THE

T H AT WA S N ’ T

The “Show Must Go On” is one of the oldest adages in theater. But one year, 1945, Revels did not.

The world was at war. The school sponsored a transport ship, the S.S. Emma Willard, with war bonds. The students knit socks for the soldiers overseas. Their letters from home included news of older brothers, uncles, fighting overseas as soldiers. But it was the specter of death from the flu, and not wartime exigencies, that forced Anne Wellington to shut down the school early that December.

“Flu Epidemic Sweeps State, Many Schools Closed Down” was the December 10, 1945, United Press headline. As best as she can recall, Nina Pattison ’46, said there was no mention of Revels at all. Very quickly, the students were ordered home. “We were just outraged. We were so furious. We could not believe this could happen. We had been practicing so hard,” said Pattison. “We had all looked forward to Revels forever and ever. Some of us day girls had been there since first grade.”

The cast list for the two Revels productions had already been printed in the Troy papers. Pattison had been picked for the role of Mary in the Adoration, which began Revels in those years. Jeanne Papy Dixon ’46 wrote her mother, back home in Savannah, Georgia, that she got a part as a Morris Dancer, “a pretty good part and I’m lucky to have gotten it.”

The disappointment at Revels’ being cancelled was acute for the seniors, who had been looking forward to their turn at Revels for so many years.

These wounds healed slowly. Alumnae Relations reached out to the Class of ’46 for their 25th Reunion, asking if they wanted to recreate the Revels that wasn’t. The answer: no. “We maintained our mad,” said Pattison, some mischief in her eyes. Pattison, who had been a Sprite in an earlier Revels, is now a mother of three, grandmother of seven.

It was not until she read Associate Head Emerita Trudy Hanmer’s book, Wrought With Steadfast Will: A History of Emma Willard School, that Pattison realized that Wellington had had a serious situation on her hands.

This past winter, Pattison, as her class reporter, wrote in her class’ notes, “Those of us who have held that grudge for all these years might have to consider giving it up! Hmmm,” noting that she herself was preparing to attend the 99th Revels to see her grandniece perform.

On an early evening this summer, Pattison and Hanmer drank iced tea and lemonade flavored by mint from Pattison’s garden on the back patio of Pattison’s Troy brownstone. They reminisced about events at Emma so long ago, laughing and talking and laughing again. It was apparent to this reporter that, for Pattison at least, the grudge was history.

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I AM THE REAL

St. George ONE REVELS CHARACTER SHAPES THE LIVES OF FIVE VERY DIFFERENT WOMEN

B Y M E G A N TA D Y 32

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“

I’m not an actress in any way, shape or form; I’m just a ham, so St. George was the perfect character for that.

PHOTO BY D ON HAMERMAN

—SAMANTHA JONES ’92

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The

thunderous stomping began thirty minutes before the show. Girls sat on the floor, on chairs, on risers, clapping and hollering reverberating off the velvet curtains and heavy wood modeling of the theatre.

Below, in the basement, seniors stepped into their costumes to the sound of the growing fervor. The ceiling trembled from the stomping, and some hands trembled, too. Kalisse Anderson ’97 passed classmates lanterns and drums. She steadied hats on bobbing heads. She dabbed make-up on beaming faces and on her own. Her character didn’t go on stage until the middle of the play. She had to wait. She heard the chanting for what felt like forever.

“

I was very proud to play a part that my mother had also played.

—KALISSE ANDERSON ’97

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“You feel the build-up as you’re downstairs getting dressed,” Kalisse says.

“It’s so raucous. There must be some un-ladylike behavior happening in that room.”

Finally, it was her curtain call. She barged through the main entrance clad in armor and mesh, a 13th-century knight in full regalia. She carried a large, gleaming sword and shield with a bright red cross. She bellowed: “Here I am, St. George, the valiant man, With naked sword and shield in hand.”

The crowd went wild, but no audience member would herald Kalisse’s ironclad entrance more than Kalisse’s mother, Parker Mabry ’71. Twentysix years before Kalisse emerged as St. George, Parker had declared the exact same line. In customary furtive fashion, Kalisse had kept her character a secret from all—including her own mother—revealing the shared, saintly lineage only when she took the stage.

“I was very proud to play a part that my mother had also played,” Kalisse says. “I was very determined to carry on the legacy, and at the same time, to add some of my personality to it.”

This is the essence of Emma Willard’s 100-year-old tradition of Revels: girls

carry on the legacy while simultaneously making it their own. But what does it mean to share a character, from St. George to the Jester to the Lady of the Manor? How does it feel to echo the same lines as someone a century prior? How does one carve out an identity while maintaining tradition?

To find out, Emma interviewed five women spanning half a century who played a single character—St. George. Some women portrayed the dragon-slaying St. George as a bumbling klutz; others played a powerful, save-the-day hero or a kiss-stealing charmer. The constant: whether stumbling around on stage or deftly blocking a jab, there is a palpable thread of connection and sacredness.

“There’s this piece of fabric that you take with you when you leave Mount Ida,” Kalisse says. “If we all took our fabrics and put it back together, it would be Revels. We all have a story about what Revels is and means to us.”

Making St. George her own In recent decades, St. George’s main mission is to slay the dragon. Just how he does it is up for interpretation.

Sometimes he drinks a Red Bull first, or woos the Lady of the Manor, or

PHOTOS BY E RIN SCHAF F ’07

dances to Michael Jackson, or is forced to also slay the Dragon’s baby. Some years the crowd is laughing; some years they’re gasping.

In the confines of uttering nearly the same lines as the knight before her, the actor has incredible freedom.

Just how a girl makes St. George her own often reflects how she views herself. Many have gravitated to the role because it was a natural fit.

The inherent power in the St. George role was perfect for Parker Mabry.

“The first line St. George says is a declaration of what’s so,” she says.

“I am a person who, even now, speaks the daring truth. So way back then I was like, ‘I am St. George.’ I burst through those doors and my little sword went up in the air.”

While Kalisse wasn’t there to see her mother’s performance, she can imagine it. “My mother is a queen,” she says. “I’m sure a silence fell over the crowd when she walked in because she just commands that type of presence. She has a smile that could light up the moon.”

Kalisse was also drawn to St. George because she saw the character as similar to herself. At Emma, Kalisse was exuberant, involved, and confident, and she tried to make St. George match her personality.

“The character of St. George just really fit who I was, coming in to save the day,” she says. “I’m an attorney now, so I guess I still have that fearless, dive-into-the-fire, save-the-day personality.”

Besides tailoring the characters, there are other forces that make Revels new every year. Whatever’s happening culturally and politically on a national level—and what’s happening at the school itself—influences the play and its characters.

The year 1971 was a socially contentious time. Parker says

her senior class was comprised of “free spirits.” Like the rest of the nation, many students were protesting the Vietnam War and other social and political causes. As people clamored for change, along came Revels—a tradition if there ever was one.

“There was this juxtaposition of how crazy our world was with this Revels,” Parker says. “We were growing up really fast. Our friends were dying.

We had cousins and uncles either going [to Vietnam] or trying to avoid the draft. We were singing protest songs. It was a really fascinating time.”

Would the students uphold the tradition, or see it as another moment for resistance?

“We embraced [the tradition],” Parker says. “Somehow we came together and looked for the legacy, the ritual, the continuity of the play.”

Two decades later, and under calmer circumstances, Kalisse’s senior class put their own spin on Revels.

Her class included many international students, which added new dimension to the play. She remembers that a group of students from Southeast Asia were dancers and some students wore traditional saris.

“I think the nice part about the performance is that it’s flexible and fluid, and there is room for each class to make it their signature performance.”

Opposites attract Quiet Gia Recco ’10. No one expected her to try out for hotheaded St. George. But there she was in the audition, owning it. Rather than playing someone like herself, Gia found that St. George allowed her to be the opposite—loud and a little “nutzo.”

“I remember in the audition thinking he’s kind of got this sort of English flair,” she says. “He’s a bit of a wild guy and kind of a wild card and that’s how I played him.

“

Somehow we came together and looked for the legacy, the ritual, the continuity of the play.

—PARKER MABRY ’71

He was this pretty saucy, kind of sassy, very outrageous character.”

For her costume, Gia wore a large mustache and drew on stubble.

She spent long hours perfecting St. George’s voice. “It was gravelly, low, but kind of a very robust [voice], and he had this very off English accent,” she says. “Someone described it to me once that, ‘You sound like Gimli from Lord of the Rings.’”

Fifty-four years earlier, Anne Collins ’56 was also drawn to St. George

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“

I surprised myself with how bold of a character I could inhabit and I think that translated to how I tackled my life post-Emma.

—GIA RECCO ’10

because it allowed her to play something she didn’t necessarily feel—powerful.

“I think the thing that I really relished about that part was that, up until that point, I had never really been sure of myself,” Anne says. “I could, in that role, step out and step forward and sort of claim my own self.”

Like Gia, Anne practiced her lines and her choreography for hours in her dorm room.

“I just would end up talking to myself saying, ‘Here I come, here come I, St. George! And under my cloak, I carry a club.’ Until I perfected it,” Anne says. “And then I was ready to sweep away the whole room, the poor dragon never had a chance.”

Anne bounded around the stage wearing a facemask that she could peek out of or hide behind. Her fight scenes thrilled her.

“I was speaking victorious,” she says.

“I just loved coming in and having the ability to swipe down that dragon, leaving him flat on the floor.”

Samantha Jones ’92 bounded around the stage, too—or rather, she stumbled.

Her St. George was a plain old klutz.

Having watched a few performances with serious St. Georges, she decided to shake things up.

“I just thought it would be hysterical if he was a bumbling idiot,” she says.

She babbled her lines, tripped over her sword and fought with a hat that perpetually slid down her face, momentarily blinding her.

“I was a ham,” Jones says. “I’m not an actress in any way, shape or form; I’m just a ham, so St. George was the perfect character for that.”

St. George lives on After Emma, Gia hung up her St. George sword and now works in Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s ’84 Albany office as a regional assistant.

She recently graduated from Williams College, and she hasn’t been fighting any real dragons lately.

The impact of playing a character so utterly removed from herself, however, has had a lasting impact.

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“I surprised myself with how bold of a character I could inhabit and I think that translated to how I tackled my life post-Emma,” Gia says. “I think the experience helped me learn that being bold was a good thing. I’ve taken risks and chances that have ultimately paid off that I wouldn’t have necessarily pushed myself to take. I guess it sort of reflects my evolution as a person.”

Anne was also surprised at how the role gave her strength. She is a retired physician who lives in Hanover, New Hampshire, who journeyed from rural New Hampshire to underdeveloped countries around the world during her career to build clinics and provide free medical care at a time when there were very few women to work beside her.

One of those trips left her extremely ill and fighting for her life from a dangerous tropical disease, leading to a recovery process that revealed to her an entirely new way of being St. George strong.

“

Maybe sometimes we step into roles and they help define us. I think the role I played, in the long run, helped me become more independent, more straightforward, and more certain.

PHOTO (LEFT) BY MARK VA N WORMER. PHOTO (TOP) BY ©MI CHAEL SEAMANS

—ANNE COLLINS ’56

“Maybe sometimes we step into roles and they help define us,” Anne says. “Instead of redefining the roles, the roles define us. I think that’s what really happened to me.

I think the role I played, in the long run, helped me become more independent, more straightforward, and more certain. And that sounds totally strange; I mean how could that be?

I have never heard myself say that before, but I think I was a stronger person, after.”

Like Anne, Parker has felt George’s reverberations, too. She certainly hasn’t forgotten her first line of the play, her declaration of truth. And the act of uttering such a statement of “here I am” stuck with Parker when she forged her career as an executive leadership coach and founded her own company, the Anderson Advantage Group.

“I just declared it: ‘Who I am is a coach. Who I am was St. George,’” she says.

Parker remarried a few years ago, and she took her husband to visit Emma to relive the traditions. She’s regaled him with tales of Revels, of her striking down the dragon.

“Sometimes he’ll tease me and say, ‘Uh oh, you are being St. George,’” she says. “You know, all in good fun.”

A continuity of stories There’s no one type of girl drawn to play St. George, just as the typical class clown does not always play the Jester.

In the role, and in all of the Revels roles, girls find license to be someone else or the grace to except themselves.

“It feels wonderful to know that many others played the same role for many different reasons,” Anne says.

Sharing the Revels experience, along with sharing a character, can create an instant bond.

“What I find so funny is the immediate connection I feel with someone if they have played St. George,” Samantha

says. “You’re just like, ‘Well, how did you do it?’ Because you can do anything.”

This question—How did you play St. George?—highlights again that unique tension between individuality and tradition, between forging a new path and displaying reverence for the past.

“There is a moment of giddiness when you find out your character, and it’s easy to get swept up into making it your own,” Gia says. “In retrospect, I think about how meaningful it is that I’m part of a larger history when it comes to playing St George.

It makes the experience all the more special and important.”

Next year, for the 100th performance of Revels, the crowd will stomp again.

The floors will shake, the walls will echo. In the din of a basement, a senior will help others into their costumes before gripping her sword, her shield.

“The legacy is that you are now stepping into something that others have done and others will do, and so it commands a sense of responsibility and knowledge,” Parker says. “The legacy is really about you recognizing that you were part of that continuity of stories.”

And then, beyond legacy, beyond ritual and rite of passage, there’s the sheer joy of the play.

“I stepped into this role and I just had a blast playing it,” Anne says.

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Admi!sion!

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How to Apply

Applying to a new school can be overwhelming. The admissions team at Emma is here to help make the application process as easy as possible. The Emma application process includes the following: APPLICATION This can be completed online at www.emmawillard.org/admissions.

The application includes: Application Form Essay Parent Statement Application Fee TRANSCRIPTS Should be completed by a school official and contain a minimum of two years of credits as well as the first semester or trimester of the current academic year.

RECOMMENDATIONS English Teacher Math Teacher Teacher of Choice

TESTING While we look at much more than test scores when selecting our future Emma Girls, standardized tests help us learn more about each girl’s academic background. More information on the tests we use in our admissions process can be found at www.emmawillard.org/ admissions.

INTERVIEW Please contact the admissions office at 518.833.1320 or admissions@emma willard.org to schedule your interview.

IMPORTANT DATES Application deadline: February 1 Financial aid application deadline: February 1 Admissions decision: March 10 Enrollment contract and deposit due: April 10 EXPERIENCE EMMA Open Houses: October 13 November 14 “Emma 101” Information Sessions: October 24 November 21 December 12 wwww.emmawillard.org

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Signing Off HEAD OF SCHOOL TRUDY HALL

“There are no words.”

That is what those who experienced the Bicentennial have said. However, there was a “glow.” In the days following the Bicentennial Celebration, I have contemplated its “glow,” wondering what lay at the heart of the emotionally satisfying high that thrilled our school community this past year.

The first part of the contemplation was the easy part: the execution was flawless. The activities were in turns intellectually engaging and downright fun; the food was awardworthy; the weather was early-May spectacular; and the fireworks bested any 4th of July celebration anywhere, ever. Who doesn’t “glow” after being a part of such perfection?

But, the weekend’s energy was deeper than fireworks and good food. It could be felt in one’s core.

It was a radiant and pulsing energy; an energy that, even in reflection, placed a smile on your face; an energy that seamlessly flowed across generations. In fact, the intentional engagement of many decades of women was clearly central to the experience for all. This was what a powerful network of strong, smart women in action looked and felt like. The weekend offered a retreatlike feel of female empowerment and gumption—we roared, we stomped, we sang, we cried, we hugged, we reflected, we committed to action.

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As time has distanced us from the event, the real explanation for that glow comes to mind: those present were privileged to create authentic gratitude together, as a collective, for a worthy cause—the good health of this amazing school.

Thornton Wilder reminds us: “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”

We were all so very alive on that weekend, as we were truly thankful, each of us in our own way, for our Emma experience. Some were thankful for the loyalty of lifelong friends, others for the mentorship of life-changing teachers. Some were grateful for the majestic sense of place that Emma had gifted us, others for the deep-seated happiness of coming home. It was the spirit of gratitude that fueled our glow that weekend. I know it for sure.

Our gratitude lofted us in magnificent ways as we began to imagine what could be, should be, must be next for this powerful network of smart girls and women.

There may be no perfect words for that weekend, however, there is a renewed sense of purpose in this Emma community. It is a sense of purpose fueled by our desire to pass on the gratitude we feel for what this place and its people have given each of us.

Pay attention to our “glow” in the coming months; we are on fire.

285 PAWLING AVENUE, TROY, NY 12180