Signature Spring 2015 by Emma Willard

THE ADMISSIONS MAGAZINE OF EMMA WILLARD SCHOOL SPRING 2015

CONTRIBUTORS

Casey Johnston ’05

(page 30) Describe Emma in two words: Stimulatory Oasis. I have not been in a place before or since where I felt so comfortable pushing every one of my limits. Where was your favorite place to study at Emma? If I had to pick a favorite it would be the giant mod plastic armchairs on the ground floor of the library scattered between some book stacks. What’s on your travel list, and why? Patagonia, because you can go any time of year and there will be something epic going on there: ocean, mountains, snow, rivers, lakes, beaches, glaciers, weird animals, desert, tiny towns. If you were a heroine in a book, whom would you be? The character Atalanta from Greek mythology as described in a book I’m obsessed with: The Amazons: Lives & Legends of Warrior Women Across the World.

Jessica Kingsley Anderson ’90

(page 14) Describe Emma in two words: Strength Training Where was your favorite place to study at Emma? I studied in what used to be the ‘senior lounge’ in the day-student locker area. Actually, it was kind of creepy, as it was mostly underground with a tiny window. What’s on your travel list, and why? Athens, Greece. I love the classics. If you were a heroine in a book, whom would you be? Tasmin Berrybender from Larry McMurtry’s Berrybender Narratives.

T H E AD MI SS I O N S MAGAZ I N E O F E MMA W I L L A R D SC H O O L

SP R IN G 2 015 Gabrielle DeMarco

Director of Communications gdemarco@emmawillard.org Jamie Hicks-Furgang

Director of Enrollment Jhicks@emmawillard.org Megan Tady

Managing Editor www.word-lift.com Lilly Pereira

Designer www.lillypereira.com Trudy E. Hall

GOI NG GRA P H IC The artists of Intermediate Studio Art teamed up with the writers of English elective Girls Write Here to create their very first beautiful, touching, and quirky graphic novels. To help the girls with this new experience, Emma enlisted parent and graphic artist and novelist Barbara Slate. Slate, who has worked for DC Comics and Marvel among other top comic companies, was floored by the girls’ work, which encouraged them to collaborate across disciplines to create powerful works of art. For a better look, go to www.girlswritehere.com.

F E AT U R E S

14 Pack Leader

One alumna’s life-long passion for the sport of beagling

22 The Price of Chocolate

Head of School

Becoming the first certified fair trade school in the nation

30 Girls Code

Emma Willard School Admissions Office 285 Pawling Avenue Troy, NY 12180 518.833.1320 admissions@emmawillard.org www.emmawillard.org

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.

ON TH E COV ER The “signature” on the cover was created by Associate Head of School Judy Bridges. In the photograph, champion beagler Jessica Kingsley Anderson ’90 cuddles her pups before a day in the field. Photo by Kyle Adams.

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

Emma women excel in the male-dominated technology industry

02 From the Triangle

12 The Classroom

100th Revels, the senator returns to Ida, girls share their engineering chops, the girls’ school advantage, diversity dialogue, feminist energy abounds, and other Emma news

Linda Maier brings deep experience to A.P. Biology

10 Faculty Voices Q&A with student life legend Judy Bridges on the eve of her retirement

38 Admissions 40 Signing Off Head of School Trudy Hall talks about what’s “next” for Emma

From the Triangle

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FROM THE TR IA NGLE

100 th

For 100 years the Lords, Ladies, Jesters, and “Great Folk” have held their annual festivities on Mount Ida. The tradition of Revels is a bond that connects Emma Girls across generations. This year, the Class of 2015 put its twist on our most beloved tradition for its centennial performance. Among the magical, whimsical, and devilish visitors to the Great Hall were 100-year-old Grandfather Jester and his granddaughter, who brought extra merriment and misrule along with them.

P H OTOS BY MA RK VA N WORMER

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FROM THE TR IA NGLE

NCGS Finds the Girls’ School Advantage What does an all-girls’ high school experience mean for girls? The National Coalition of Girls’ Schools found that girls in such environments gain a greater sense of safety in their surroundings, a willingness to challenge themselves in the classroom, and greater self-confidence in themselves and their abilities.

According to NCGS’ report Steeped in Learning: The Student Experience at All-Girls Schools* survey, girls STRONGLY AGREE with the following statements:

75.9% Girls’ School

70.5%

Co-ed Independent Schools

58.2%

Co-ed Public Schools

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Girls in Emma’s Engineering Projects class learn hands-on—in and outside of the classroom. And they love sharing their techie knowledge. The girls demonstrated their skills at this year’s GE Family Day on the GE campus in Schenectady, New York, where they worked with young kids to construct marshmallow shooters for a chance to win yummy prizes.

FA ST FACTS

Girls give their MAXIMUM EFFORT in most of their classes

NCGS’ report Steeped in Learning: The Student Experience at All-Girls Schools used data compiled in the 2013 High School Survey of Student Engagement to compare student attitudes between girls’ schools and coeducational schools. The creation of the report was led by Head of School Trudy Hall who also serves as president of the board of trustees of NCGS. The results found girls in all-girl environments were more likely than girls in coeducational schools to desire challenge and aspire to go on to pursue graduate degrees. “We knew the results would show the benefits of the all-girls’ experience, but they were particularly striking,” says Trudy. “Our girls deserve the head start in grit and drive the all-girls’ experience provides to them. Our world deserves it, too.”

EMMA ENGINEERS VOLUNTEER AT GE FAMILY DAY

Girls feel COMFORTABLE being themselves at their school

43.7% Girls’ School

35.4%

THE HA R KNESS TA B LE FOR A N EW G EN ERATION Decades of Emma Girls have sat around the solid, sturdy oval Harkness Tables. The tables encourage classroom dialogue, ensuring each girl has an equal seat at the table. Today, if you peak through our classroom windows, the Harkness is still a foundation of the Emma experience. But, as with so much at Emma, it too has continued to evolve. Thanks to light design and swiveling wheels, the Harkness table of today’s Emma can quickly shift from discussion-based oval to group pairings for collaborative work or separate desks for testing or personalized study. The once hefty tables are easily moved about the room, as dynamic as the girls and faculty using them.

Co-ed Independent Schools

18.3%

Co-ed Public Schools

*To see the full report please visit ncgs.org

An easy shift between a personalized and collaborative classroom, thanks to the new Harkness Tables.

FROM THE TR IA NGLE

A Senator Returns Home to Mount Ida Emma is blessed to have many of our girls go on to lead and influence great change in the world. In October, Emma Girls got to hear from one such alumna, US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand â&#x20AC;&#x2122;84, who stopped by campus to discuss her book, Off the Sidelines, and to have an intimate Q&A with the Emma Community. The students, in true Emma Girl form, asked tough questions about the Senatorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience running for office, dealing with staunch dissenters, overcoming bias in the workplace, the male influences in her life, and prioritizing her hectic schedule.

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FROM THE TR IA NGLE

FA L L C R E W

A Big Splash in Boston Seniors Fiona Casey and Sasha Weilbaker became the first rowers from Emma to compete in the massive Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, Massachusetts, this fall. The girls rowed hard and earned the title of first place school team, and 15th place overall after competing against a number of well-known club teams.

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S P EA KER S ER IES

To fully honor the vision of Martin Luther King Jr., the Emma Willard community traveled together to see the movie Selma, which highlighted the battle the civil rights leader and his constituents fought to bring voting rights to the south. The moving film led into an afternoon of discussion on race, identity, stereotypes, and unity. Emma Girls reported the day allowed them to feel deeply connected to the reality of King’s legacy and to consider the impact of the civil rights movement in new ways. “The combination of such a thoughtprovoking film and small discussion groups forced students and faculty to dig deeper, particularly into the change, or lack thereof, in American race relations, and made us all confront our role in these things and how we can do better,” said Courtney Breiner ’15.

Emma believes in leading by example as demonstrated by this year’s Serving and Shaping Her World speakers. Our first speaker was Jamia Wilson, the dynamic executive director of Women Action Media (http://womenactionmedia. org) and a TED-prize winning storyteller. In an Inside the Actor’s Studio-inspired session with Trudy Hall, Jamia led the community in thinking about our personal identities and honing our self-awareness in a way that allows us to best engage with and support others.

Serving and Shaping Her World

FROM THE TR IA NGLE

Deep Diving into Diversity to Honor MLK Day

RO UN D SQUARE H OU S E

Brings the World to Campus Emma’s commitment to fostering a distinctive worldview in our girls led us to take our global programming to the next level with the introduction of our Round Square House. Emma Girls in the house strive to uphold Round Square’s six IDEALS of Internationalism, Democracy, Environmentalism, Adventure, Leadership, and Service. The girls exemplify these IDEALS by working together to establish their own house rules, performing meaningful acts of service, engaging in discussions surrounding global issues, and celebrating their micro-community with house dinners inspired by their diverse experiences—whether that be their backgrounds or time spent away on exchange at one of our partner schools.

What kind of great projects are the Round Square House girls up to? Check our their twitter feed: twitter.com/EWSRoundSquare

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F RO M T H E STAG E

Dance Company It’s said that to dance is to live. For girls in the Emma Willard Dance Company, dancing is most certainly a way of life. The Dance Company first came to Mount Ida in 1994 thanks to Emma’s Elsa Mott Ives Chair in Dance Sue Lauther. Experiences in her own high school swing choir and recruiting dancers on behalf of the Northwestern State University of Louisiana taught her how valuable strong dance programs and early experiences performing for audiences can be for teaching girls confidence and responsibility. Sue, who is celebrating her retirement from Emma this year, built the company at Emma around learning and performing on tour. “I discovered [performing on tour] really matured the dancers quickly to go out in the community and get that kind of feedback,” explains Sue. “They got a lot more clear and confident, and able to make more artistic choices.” While learning and touring remain the cornerstones of the Dance Company, the program has evolved from its early beginnings. One notable change is that girls do not audition for a spot; they’re invited to take part. Barbara Magee, dance instructor and Dance Company co-advisor explains the invitation involves girls after having them in classes and learning how they work both as individuals and alongside others. In addition, girls’ potential may not initially shine through. “For some [dancers], their technique maybe isn’t fantastic at the moment, but you know them

so you know their potential and that they’re going to come forward given the opportunity,” says Barbara. For Emma Muschett ’15, joining Dance Company was a chance to explore her potential and push herself in new ways. After weighing her commitments and feelings about her dance abilities, she felt it was her responsibility to find a place where she could invest herself in something that made her happy. “The final deciding factor was that I always leave the dance studio rejuvenated,” says Emma. “After a long day of classes, computer screens, and responsibilities, dancing recharges my mind and reminds me of the valuable connection between my mind and body.” Emma Girls not only bring their technical prowess to Dance Company, but also eagerness and cooperation, essential traits to master the group’s complex choreography. There are a few pivotal moments throughout the year that bring the girls together in this way, and they don’t all happen on the dance floor. They also take place when they are fundraising for spring tour—picking apples and turning them into pies and tarts or dipping and candying them to sell to the community.

The girls also come together when visiting guest artists work with the company at Emma. Each artist brings their own style when creating dances for the company. Learning from these working professionals shows the girls how important it is to be sensitive to each other—physically and emotionally—to bring forth the artist’s intended spirit in their performances. Once they head out on tour, their tight-knit connection is especially evident. In addition to being responsible for their dancing, each girl has a job—from company manager, business manager, and costume manager to historian and archivist—and each is vital to ensuring the show goes on. This year, tour travels to Jamaica, where the girls will get the chance to learn reggae and incorporate the rich, unique culture of the Caribbean into their dancing. Tour tends to be a transformative experience for the girls, according to Barbara. “Almost every year when we’re on tour something happens—and it’s not always dance—but that you see this person has had a life change,” she describes. “They’re seeing the world differently. They’re seeing themselves differently, and seeing that shift happen, is the most rewarding experience.” BY KATIE COAKLEY

FROM THE TR IA NGLE

SO C IA L ME D IA

Girls: Use Your Voice: Change the World emmawillard.org/blog/ girls-use-your-voicechange-the-world/

@emmawillard via @FactTank: despite gains, America lags behind in number of women leaders. #GirlsSchools can help change this! http:// pewrsr.ch/1ENs2S

Redefining Herstory through Imagery emmawillard.org/blog/ redefining-herstorythrough-imagery/ likes

#Herstory

facebook.com/ emmawillardschool Members of FASO had a lot of fun taking over the kitchen and preparing their favorite home delicacies. Thanks for a great meal!

#ForeignandAmericanStudentOrganization(FASO)

Our JV basketball team took home their first win of the season against Stillwater. Can you feel their excitement?

#FirstWin

“If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat.” —Sheryl Sandberg #WiseWords #QOTD #WomenLead What’s the secret to creating “smart,” productive groups? Having women involved! http://theatln. tc/1Bfhs30 #WomenLead #EmpoweringWomen

#EmmaGirls in our Technical Theater Support class had a great time exploring behind the scenes @EMPACnews!

vimeo.com/108081879 Patricia Ho ’15 encouraged the community to remember to make time for the fun, happy moments in this Happy video.

tinyurl.com/ aboutrevels #Happy

What do you think Revels is about?

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Faculty Voices

INTERVIEW BY GABRIELLE DEMARCO

Judy Bridges

The Dean of What Girls Need In her office, Judy Bridges, assistant head of school for community life, is tucked between photos of her daughter (an Emma Girl from the class of 2005) and mementos from over the years, including boxes upon boxes of old business cards—each with a different title she’s held at Emma. In 37 years, Judy’s been a coach, student life and athletics leader, and administrator. In that time, she’s seen thousands of Emma Girls through some of the most difficult and joyful times in their lives. Many Emma Girls will also remember her as a “disciplinarian.” It is a role that has allowed Judy to learn about and teach much to generations of young women. On the eve of her retirement from Emma, we sat down to talk with Judy about her time at the school, where she has spent half of her life. The conversation tone ranged from her usual direct delivery to tears, as we together began to imagine Emma without her steady, compassionate presence. What inspired you to do this work? I think—like most of us—where we thought we would end up, is not where we go. All through high school I was a pretty serious athlete or at least as serious as a women could be in the ’60s in the south. And I wanted to keep playing. So I majored in physical education and science [in college]. And I found out there was a whole lot more than playing games. I knew from that very first year that I was going to teach, I was going to coach. I wanted to teach elementary school. In that first year [as an elementary teacher], I had every childhood disease, and knew I

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couldn’t do it. I knew a friend at an independent high school. I visited her and thought: this feels like a lifestyle, not just a job. So I sent out a gazillion letters. I heard from very few, but one was National Cathedral School. I taught and coached and ran their small boarding program. It was in those five years [at National Cathedral] that I really committed to this high school age group. You have helped in many ways to raise thousands of girls. What have you learned about teenage girls? It all goes back to relationships. They want to live their lives through relationships. If you can

be real to them, they will allow you in and incorporate you into their lives. It is a roller-coaster time of life that is wonderful and terrifying. This age group is capable of everything good and everything bad, and I learned quickly not to be surprised by either. But, the need for relationships runs through the good things and bad things that they do. I often joke that no one should make it through Emma Willard without breaking a rule, but just hopefully not a big one. It is through testing rules that a girl will learn about herself. What advice would you give to the parent of a teenage girl? Put on your seatbelt. Adolescence is a time where as much as we want to dictate their lives, we can’t and we know in our hearts that we can’t. And that tension has to be acknowledged. Parents should always be in communication with other adults. I can’t tell you the

FACU LTY VOICE S

“ The girl has always been at the center.” number of parents who say, “I thought I was the only one.” What are you most proud of in your work? She pauses and immediately tears come to her eyes. I think of some of the really heartbreaking discipline situations, and I think of when a student gets up after we have had a conversation and she says, “Thank you.” And then she asks, “Why did I say that?” And we both laugh. The pride in that moment for me is that I helped her save her face and she knows that life will go on and she is still a good person. And it is not as though building the athletic program, leading the residential program, and seeing through some pretty major dorm renovations weren’t also rewarding, but what I am really most proud of is the girl who can say, “Thank you.” What does discipline mean to you? Most schools have a role where someone has to be the “bad guy.” I think kids want consistency. They want honesty. They want to be able

to expect something of you. The disciplinarian side has been at times lonely. But, it has been incredibly rewarding, too. You are always thinking, “How can it be okay to have this tough moment for a kid?” What do you think makes the Emma community so special? I am amazed at the commitment of our faculty. I am just in awe of them. The girl has always been at the center. I think that is what sets us apart. You step on this campus and you feel it. And it is genuine. It is real. I think you cannot be here— whether adult or student—and not feel the connections and the responsibility for connecting. Do you have a favorite memory? I think of one Reunion walking through the Emma campus. I was coming through the Archway

and two alumnae started walking toward me and we all started laughing. One was an advisee of mine and an exceptional student. The other had been a student leader, and she had been expelled before graduation. And I said, “Well here we are, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.” There we were, and life had gone on. It was amazing to see that, and we had a good laugh together. I also think of graduations. I get to see life history with these kids. And sometimes neither of you thought they would get there, and you both say it and laugh. What will you miss most? The energy of the kids. And the energy of the faculty. I have loved watching relationships develop, and that starts when a girl first steps on campus.

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The Classroom

BY KATIE COAKLEY

AP Biology

Bringing Deep Experience to Scientific Inquiry “Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life.” This wisdom, imparted by American biologist Rachel Carson, describes the true essence of the field of biology. Emma Girls who have had the opportunity to learn from our Homer L. Dodge Chair in Science Linda Maier often leave her classes with this important understanding of the world. In her A.P. Biology class, girls explore the full range of biological topics—from cellular biology and molecular genetics to plant and animal systems, and everything in between. While her Introduction to Biology courses allow for flexibility in the length of study per section, the A.P. curriculum challenges her girls to quickly move through the seven distinct disciplines of biology, which can be a powerful experience. “When the girls are done they can see how it all fits together,” explains Linda. “They’re not just seeing one little slice, but the grander picture which allows them to think critically about how— even if they’re a scientist working in one field—their applications can be applied to a number of others.” To enable this in-depth understanding and appreciation of each field, Linda leads the girls in her A.P. courses in a series of labs in which they are responsible for carefully experimenting, analyzing, and reporting on their experiments. But, before they pick up a pipette or prepare a petri dish, girls are given pre-lab materials that get their brains in motion before they walk up to the dark, stone lab bench. “It makes them think about each step—why would they do it? What are they hoping to accomplish?—and forces them to think, ‘I wonder what will happen.’” On this day of class, a lab is in session. Adorned in gloves and goggles and equipped with detailed notes, girls gather around a wide table preparing pipettes for the task at hand—transferring the glowing properties from a jellyfish to E.coli samples using an engineered plasmid called pGLO. For many, it’s their first time handling such

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an instrument, and its adjustment is crucial for such a precise experiment. Girls in each group assist each other in ensuring their pipette is where it needs to be—fine-tuning it ever so slightly before approaching Linda who stands nearby with the E.coli. Keeping their pipette straight, girls carefully dip and measure the bacteria and transfer it to a plate, mindfully avoiding smearing or poking the sample. Once their tools and samples are ready, they move around the room visiting lab stations that take them through the experiment—from applying the transformation solution and incubating their samples on ice, to using the heat shock. The next day, they will see which of their experiments has successfully taken on the glowing property. Squeals of accomplishment are bound to ensue. As they work together, Linda carefully notes everyone’s progress while gracefully moving around the room—seemingly arriving just as a question arises in one group, or in time to commend another on a successful step completion. “I think as a seasoned teacher you learn to always be surveying the room,” she notes. “You look to see who’s hovering in a way that says they’re stuck, or

P H OTO BY KRIST IN REH D ER

THE CLA SS ROOM

feel your ears perk up because you overhear someone saying ‘Oh, we’re going down a wrong road.’” With her calm and careful guidance, the girls are able to call upon their pre-lab knowledge and continue on. This speaks to the biggest shift Linda has noticed in her more than 20 years teaching A.P. Biology—the reliance on critical thinking skills. Linda discusses how A.P. courses across the country used to be criticized for being based on memorization. Today, the course at Emma fosters critical thinking skills and deep understanding of learned concepts, and as such, asks girls to do a lot of data collection and manipulation and apply their knowledge. The shift has resulted in a more rigorous, but ultimately more beneficial learning experience for Emma Girls, according to Linda.

“ You see the girls struggle at first and then become really independent learners—learning to be proactive in their learning and trying different things until they finally find what they need to be successful and have a real sense of pride in their work.” “I find the difficulty doesn’t dissuade them. It actually gets them more psyched for the class,” she says. “That’s what I like about the class. You see the girls struggle at first and then become really independent learners—learning to be proactive in their learning and trying different things until they finally find what they need to be successful and have a real sense of pride in their work.” Emma Girls carry these lessons on with them to college

and beyond, and are sure to let Linda know how impactful her class has been—Linda already has a drawer full of deep notes full of gratitude from alumnae, each recalling their Emma A.P. Biology experience. “They’ve learned to be precise. They’ve learned to be concise, and how to think and express themselves in important ways that extend well beyond the classroom.”

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“We’ve taken a sport and an interest that has primarily been a maledominated sport and now it’s all absolutely equal. That whole club and community is realizing it’s an equal playing field.”

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Jessica kingsley Anderson ’90 reigns as the first female president of the National Beagle Club

FROM THE TR IA NGLE

Pack Leader

B Y M E G A N TA D Y P H OTO S B Y K Y L E A D A M S

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he week before the last beagle hunt of the season, a foot of snow fell on Columbia County, New York. On the day of the hunt, a sunny December afternoon, the rolling hills are covered in what looks like a white wool blanket, and the rutted dirt and gravel roads are crusted with ice. This doesn’t stop Jessica Kingsley Anderson ’90 from taking out her hounds. As a huntsman for the Old Chatham Hunt Club, she’s hoping her pack can put on a good show for the hearty spectators—about thirty people—who have pulled on their warmest winter gear to tromp after her. The hounds, fourteen beagles with names like Finder, Apollo, and Bastille, orbit around her, jumping and whining for a pat on the head or the soft kibble she sprinkles from the pocket of her dark green huntsman jacket. Jessica’s not just good at this sport; she’s a pro. In 2012, she was given the venerable title of president of the National Beagle Club of America, the first woman to hold the post.

Jessica, flanked by husband Cody and staff members, leads the pack after a successful hunt. Right: Two hounds are rewarded for a job well done.

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She carries a long wooden walking stick, a horn, and a black whip. She points up a hill, instructing her staff—a half dozen other people trained in the sport—where she’s planning to hunt. They take off in different directions, punching their boots through the crispy top layer of snow. If they need to, they’ll help Jessica redirect a hound that breaks loose from the pack. She’s trained the hounds to track the scent of a rabbit—and only the scent of a rabbit. The snow doesn’t help. Scents disappear quickly on cold days. Still, the pack is ready,

and when Jessica blows her horn, the hounds dash around a bend to a thick bramble of trees and bushes, sniffing all the while. The objective isn’t to capture and kill. The hounds rarely, if ever, actually catch a rabbit. Rather, beagling is a sport of scent and chase. Within moments of the blast of the horn, one hound, and then the others, begin barking. The bark sounds like the word, “harp” over and over

again, signaling that they’ve found a cottontail. The spectators, called “the field,” yell out their own signal: “TallyHo!” And the hunt is on. The hounds pursue the rabbit by scent, their noses glued to the ground as they run, all the while under Jessica’s diligent direction. The field watches, and Jessica notices that the hounds are starting to run toward the road. She cues

the staff, and Lauren Berry ’18, a staff member, bursts out running to cut off any wayward hounds. People in the field crane their necks to get a glimpse of the rabbit, but the hunt is quickly over. The rabbit “goes to ground,” meaning it scurries into a hole. On a good day, the hounds can track the line of a rabbit for upwards of 90 minutes. Today, with this snow, we’re lucky to have

seen any hunt at all. The field applauds. It’s a victory for the hounds and the huntsman. Jessica blows the horn and yells, “Pack up.” The hounds come bounding toward her, happy and triumphant, eager for the next round of orders from their leader. “When they do a good job and they know they’ve done a good job, they’re so excited,” Jessica says. “And then I’m so excited.”

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“[Jessica] is very thorough, and she has a good ability to communicate. She has to be able to make all these people happy,” Jack says, alluding to both the spectators at the hunt and the NBC’s 300-plus members.

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POOR MAN’S FOXHUNTING

Jessica is excited. She’s animated and loud, talking with her hands in a small room in the back of the kennel an hour before the hunt begins. The hounds can sense it’s a hunt day, and they bark and jump as if to say, “Choose me.” She shouts to her husband, Cody, a New Jersey transplant, to check that the hound truck starts up in the cold. “Hi Smokey, hi Smokey,” she says, greeting a feisty new addition to the pack who jumps high enough to escape his kennel. And then, “Where was I? Oh yes! Basically, I’ve been doing this my whole life.” Jessica was five when she met her first beagle. “I was in the middle of this kennel, and I got scratched up, knocked down, and beaten up, and it was the greatest day of my life,” she recalls. From that day on, she tagged along with her father, Jack Kingsley, who had also learned the sport of beagling as a child. Jack became a huntsman for the Old Chatham Hunt Club, a subscription club where members pay dues to board the hounds. Jessica was in his stride, learning everything she could about how to command a pack of animals. “I was fascinated by the trailing of scent,” she says. “I watch their work ethic. I watch their noses down. They care about nothing else. They are doing nothing else. When you are in a situation where a group of animals is working together to accomplish something, it’s pretty amazing.”

L–R: Jessica prepares for the hunt at the kennel; a hound sits for treats; Jessica’s father Jack Kingsley in his huntsman jacket; starting the hunt; hounds eager to get to work; the award-winning pack’s “silver”; Emma alumnae join the hunt, from left, Jessica, Leslie Quinn Stanton ’65, Samantha Moran Vining ’90, P’18, Lauren Berry ’18, and Cristin Albert Palacios ’90; a sniffing break.

I really appreciate that Emma was willing to trust me that this wasn’t just something that was a five-minute passion. This became a part of my life.” Hunting with scenting hounds has been around for thousands of years—first as a necessity and then as a sport with English heritage. Fox hunting is the more aristocratic of the sports, which involves following foxhounds on horseback. Beagling is known as the “poor man’s fox hunting” according to Jessica, because participants don’t have to pay to keep horses or feed a larger breed of dog. Jessica was hooked. At Emma, she did her independent study, or Practicum, on beagling—a project that combined her love of writing with her work with the hounds. She kept a journal of each hunt. Her father and the other huntsman, Tom Kelly, gave her more responsibility, and soon she was taking the hounds out on her own to train them and hunt with them. She also led the hounds in competitions in Aldie, Virginia. Jessica says the Practicum “turned me from a shadow to a leader.” Years later, she’s still grateful that Emma said yes to a girl who wanted to spend her afternoons training hounds. “I really appreciate that Emma was willing to trust me that this wasn’t just something that was a five-minute passion,” she says. “This became a part of my life. They allowed me to keep pursuing something that I may have lost.” After she left the area for college and a job, she returned to the sport in her mid-twenties. When she was 30, the Club named her a huntsman, and she now shares the duties with her father.

Twelve years later, Jessica can tell the hounds apart and distinguish their “voices.” On this day, she and Cody are trying to determine which dogs to pick for the hunt. “We have to be alert to the fact that these hounds are going to be pushing through snow,” she says. She calls out names, like a teacher reading a roster, and Cody lifts each delighted hound from his or her kennel. “If I feel a tug on my pant leg, I know that it’s Graceful,” she says, bending down to put a collar on a hound. THE PIED PIPER

Back on the hunt, Jessica and father Jack deliberate. Should she cut to the right to move toward an open field or guide the pack further down a forested path? “Jessica has the great instincts of a good hunter,” Jack says. They push forward, Jessica yelling commands for the hounds to stay behind her. A six-year-old boy named Cameron is on Jessica’s heels much like she was to her father. Another young girl follows on cross-country skis. “Bend your knees,” Jack instructs. The entire sport is built around community—something that both Jack and Jessica have worked hard to cultivate. “My dad does so much for the kids who come into this area and fall in love with beagling,” Jessica says. “He promotes and has taught me to promote their involvement and enthusiasm.”

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Samantha Moran Vining ’90, P’18 tromps up the hill in a Carhart jacket. She insists she’s just along for the party—a tea that happens after the hunt. But the sport is in her blood, too. Samantha and Jessica have been friends since they were five years old. She was introduced to beagling around the same time, and passed down the tradition to her son, Cameron, and daughter, Lauren Berry ’18, the other Emma Girl who helped contain the hounds at the start of the hunt. “This is a rural area,” Samantha says. “You can’t play with the neighborhood kids because there are none. So we bring the kids to the neighborhood.” She says Jessica, who also has a full-time job, devotes herself to the pack. In turn, the pack wins numerous awards (called “silver”) in competitions. Last year, Jessica’s pack won two out of three hunting classes. “Our small little hunt club has more silver than you could possibly imagine because she works day in and day out,” Samantha says. “She takes them out every day. They really get good at it.” Cristin Albert Palacios ’90 lives on the same street as Jessica. She says she was drawn to the sport because it was family oriented. “She’s like the pied piper,” Cristin says. “She just has to call the kids and they’ll meet her at the bottom of the road and off they’ll go.” Lauren sprints up the hill after the pack. She’s one of those kids entirely inspired by Jessica. “[Jessica’s] the perfect combination of beauty, skill and being on-point with everything,” Lauren says. “She’s like a second mom with all of us.” Another Emma alumna, Leslie Quinn Stanton ’65, joined the hunt as well. Samantha says it’s remarkable that five Emma Girls enjoy the sport together, and that it can all be traced back to Jessica’s Practicum at the school.

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“People ask me what’s so special about Emma,” Samantha says. “They allow you to follow your passion, and that’s what this is. It’s been a love of Jessica’s since Emma. Whatever you want to do, they support. It’s very freeing.” A PACK LEADER

Until the ’60s and ’70s, beagling was primarily a male sport. The National Beagle Club (NBC), which was founded in the late 1800s, banned women from staying overnight on the grounds where field trial competitions were held. Today, Jessica estimates that women run at least 40 percent of NBCaffiliated packs. “These are strong women,” Jessica says. “It takes individuals with real drive. You have to be in good physical and mental shape to be able to do this. You’re running a small organization.” When the NBC board elected Jessica as their next president— making her the first woman to run the show—she says it sent a message that times are changing. “I think that [being the first female president] means that we’ve taken a sport and an interest that has primarily been a male-dominated sport and now it’s all absolutely equal,” she says. “That whole club and community is realizing it’s an equal playing field.” Her father thinks she’s perfect for the role. “She’s very thorough, and she has a good ability to communicate. She has to be able to make all these people happy,” Jack says, alluding to both the spectators at the hunt and the NBC’s 300-plus members. In Columbia County, the wind is picking up and the hunt is winding down. The season is coming to a close. Jessica gathers the hounds and the field, and together they crunch up a dirt road, past horses whinnying in a corral. People debrief on the hunt and congratulate Jessica on the season.

Soon, they’ll be eating venison stew by a roaring fire at Jackson’s Old Chatham House, joined by other members who didn’t want to brave the snow. While club members gather around Jessica to thank her, it’s she who is grateful. “The people brought me up through the club with so much encouragement and accolades, even when I fell on my face, and even when they knew they could do the job better,” she says. “I’m going to get teary-eyed. To grow up in a very supportive environment being told by members of my community, ‘Yes you can,’—there’s not many things out there like that.” Much later, as she does after almost every hunt, Jessica will sit down to write about the day’s adventure. It will sound much like this entry from October 19, 2014: We made one last stop at the dam and hounds rummaged around the old foundations and the along the pond. Much to the huntsman’s delight, it was the young draft Smokey whose chop voice brought the pack to water’s edge. Half a minute later a cottontail sprang forth, past the dock and back to the muddy shore scrub. Our quarry squatted a moment while Xerxes and Smokey worked the line along the edge until he popped into full view of the Field and headed to the road. Cody hallooed at the road and pointed out where he had crossed into to the field south of DeBeyeSaxinger’s. Hounds remained incredibly unified in the tight hedgerow with Apollo picking the line across the road and Texas assuming the front position of the pack. They were thought to have overrun [the rabbit], but instead Velvet, once again, was digging with unstoppable fervor. Jessica blew to ground, took a breath and blew home. And so she blows the horn toward home. They’ll return again in the spring.

I was (five years old) in the middle of this kennel, and I got scratched up, knocked down, and beaten up, and it was the greatest day of my life.â&#x20AC;?

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e t a l o c o Ch THE PRICE OF

A M E R I C Aâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; S F I R S T FA I R T R A D E H I G H S C H O O L

It started with chocolate and a simple question: If the chocolate industry has been linked to child slavery, how could girls at Emma enjoy eating something so sweet when the people making it were suffering? The answer: they couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t.

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B Y H O L LY M C K E N N A P H O T O S B Y M A R K VA N W O R M E R

A high school student in Guatemala who receives scholarship support from Emma Willardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fair Trade Club. Her mother is a weaver in the Fair Trade cooperative Mayan Hands.

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Across the globe, more than 20 million people are estimated to work in slavery, according to the latest US Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report. The types of slavery include child labor, sexual slavery, bonded labor, and forced immigrant labor. Women, children, and people living in poverty are particularly vulnerable to slavery. Children make up most of the world’s slaves today in the chocolate, coffee, cotton, and fishing industries.

When Emma Girls learned these statistics from inspirational guest speakers at the school, they couldn’t turn a blind eye. But they didn’t stop eating chocolate entirely. Rather, they changed the source of the chocolate they ate at Emma, and with it began a shift in consciousness about consumerism at the school and beyond its walls. The girls began to understand that in a globalized society, what they buy has a direct impact on people’s lives elsewhere. Emma Girls wanted a more compassionate footprint. Now, people at Emma buy chocolate from two fair trade, slave-free companies, Equal Exchange and Divine. But the girls didn’t stop with chocolate. In 2010, Emma became the first recognized Fair Trade High School in the nation—a designation that students, with the help of faculty and staff, had worked toward since 2009. However, the school started serving fair trade coffee in 2006 at the recommendation of longstanding photography and media arts teacher Mark Van Wormer, who saw fair trade as a just way for Emma to support small producers. Mark would become a mentor for the fair trade girls. Fair trade means producers, farmers, and workers get a fair price for their products in a safe and respectful environment. Emma’s move to support them has sparked other schools across the country to follow suit. Through ongoing educational programs, events, purchases, and sales, Emma Girls have inspired the school to buy and use other certified fair trade items as well, such as tea, bananas, sugar, rice, and quinoa. Students also have the opportunity to visit fair trade farms and companies in Nicaragua, which drives home the impact of buying fair trade. The school also connects with women farmers and weavers in Guatemala. “When I buy something that’s fair trade, I think of a girl in Guatemala named Karen-Lilly who will have

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a healthy meal tonight and go to school tomorrow because we are willing to pay a fair price, not just the cheapest price, for things like chocolate, coffee, and tea,” says Crystal Chan ’14, the former co-head of Emma’s fair trade club. And such compassionate, just roots go deep at Emma. Being a fair trade school is an extension of Emma Hart Willard’s conviction that girls should use their educations to transform society for the public good. But, becoming a fair trade school didn’t happen overnight. Like any social change, it’s taken time, patience, and incredible passion.

WAKING UP / When Benjamin Skinner, a modern day slavery expert, spoke at Emma in 2009 about child labor in the chocolate trade, his words had a profound impact on Natalia Choi ’11. “His speech woke me up to the issue of slavery and I was very emotional,” says Natalia, now a senior at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. “I had no concept of fair trade until I got to Emma.” The school already had established the fair trade club, and Natalia was inspired to start another club, Slavery No More, to continue to broaden the school’s impact. At first, the girls had wanted to boycott chocolate at Emma, but Mark and other teachers suggested alternative ways to affect change through the fair trade movement. “The school brings in important role models that help contextualize the need for fair trade,” says Mark, who is the fair trade club’s advisor. “These girls are getting the message from the school that they can change the world.” Mark’s personal passion for fair trade began ten years ago. “For me as a coffee drinker, I began looking

FIRST

HIGH SCHOOL

(1) A worker demonstrates to Emma students how coffee is roasted at a fair trade establishment in León, Nicaragua. (2) Carole Dore ’11 and Makeda Morrison ’11 taste coffee at a fair trade coffee processing plant, Solcafé. (3) Weavers spin cotton thread at the cooperative Flor de Algodon in Guatemala. (4) Denise Meza ’12, Natalia Choi ’11, and Makeda Morrison ’11 learn about organic methods of raising coffee seedlings.

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Natalia Choi â&#x20AC;&#x2122;11 takes a weaving lesson at a cooperative in the indigenous community of El Chile, Nicaragua.

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FA I R T R A D E means producers, farmers, and workers get a fair price for their products in a safe and respectful environment.

“ The school’s commitment to fair trade is showing the students that WE BELIEVE in making the world a better place, and their EDUCATION can help them do that, too, in small ways or in big ways.”—MA RK VA N WO RME R for fair trade coffee back around 2004,” he says. “I saw it as a means to support small farmers who, because of the system of commodity pricing, were at times paid less than the cost of production for their coffee.” As a result of unjust practices, big coffee bean producers can absorb a dip in price, while small farmers can lose their farms, he explains. “I saw fair trade as a way to support a more just and earth friendly means of production. And it didn’t hurt that I knew my purchases were contributing to a greater good.” Some of the key fair trade principles include supporting safe and empowering working conditions in developing countries, respecting cultural identity, cultivating environmental stewardship, developing deep relationships between buyers and sellers, and paying promptly and fairly, according to the Fair Trade Federation, which is a trade association that supports fair trade in North America. “There are few things more exciting than seeing today’s youth come to understand the role they can play in making a more just world through fair trade,” says Courtney Lang, a national organizer for Fair Trade Campaigns, a non-profit organization which promotes and monitors fair trade programs across the country.

PASSING A RESOLUTION / Just as a brand of coffee must go through many rigorous steps to become a certified fair trade product, so must a school appeal to become a fair trade institution. The first step: getting buy-in from the board. The girls sought out the help of Anne Kelly, a founding member of the National Steering Committee for Fair Trade Colleges and Universities as well as Fair Trade Campaigns. Anne, who happens to be Mark’s wife, is also the co-director of Mayan Hands, a non-profit and member of the national Fair Trade Federation. Anne helped the girls draft a resolution to present to Emma students, faculty, and the board of trustees asking them to commit to becoming a fair trade school. Before the resolution was presented to the board, Emma Girls had to encourage fair trade around campus. They created a fair trade committee, which brought

fair trade goods to the campus dining hall and school store with the strong support of dining services (often a hurdle at other schools). To qualify as a fair trade school, Emma also had to serve fair trade products at school events and in school offices. The girls had numerous educational speakers visit to teach their classmates the fair trade basics, and held film screenings and chocolate tastings. Fair trade cocoa and coffee co-op farmers from the Dominican Republic and weavers from Guatemala also visited the school. “The board had legitimate concerns about hidden costs and sustaining this after the girls graduated,” says Head of School Trudy Hall, adding that the girls and faculty worked hard to answer the board’s questions and address their concerns. The resolution provided continuity for when the girls graduate, she explains. After two presentations, the board passed the resolution and then Fair Trade Campaigns, which reviews applications, agreed that Emma met the criteria for a fair trade school. “I believe the school decided this was the right thing to do because ‘to serve and shape her world’ is part of our mission,” says Mark, who was recently given a seat on the Fair Trade Towns National Steering Committee to represent the school-side of the Fair Trade Campaign. “The school’s commitment to fair trade is showing the students that we believe in making the world a better place, and their education can help them do that, too, in small ways or in big ways.” Five years later, the school’s commitment continues to be strong as the fair trade committee seeks out new ways to incorporate fair trade into school life—consistently adding fair trade items to the vending machines and the school store, and providing fair trade health and beauty products to boarding students. And the introduction to fair trade begins early at Emma. The Admissions team regularly puts out bowls of fair trade chocolates at admissions fairs with a large poster encouraging future Emma Girls not only to partake, but asking them why chocolate is so important to Emma. The team adores the resulting conversations, reports Director of Enrollment Jamie Hicks-Furgang. “Emma Girls are agents of change,” Jamie says.

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Above: Mayan Hands field worker Theresa Gomez visited Emma Willard to discuss the impact of fair trade in developing countries like Guatemala. Right: Students Seojin Park ’13 and Kotohah Takashima ’12 enjoy hot chocolate at an event to pressure chocolate giant Hershey to end their connection to forced child labor in west Africa. The girls appealed to the company by writing valentines to the board of directors. The nationwide campaign sparked Hershey to promise to change its practices.

“When we talk to a prospective girl about fair trade, we are letting her know that this is a place where she can make a real impact. It might just be chocolate, but for us it goes quite a bit deeper, and helps us draw in compassionate and globally-minded girls.”

MAKING IT PERSONAL / In 2011, Natalia and four classmates, accompanied by Mark and Anne, rode the bumpy roads into the small rural town of El Roblar, Nicaragua, which is home to a women’s fair trade cooperative. Surrounded by lush green hills, they were guided by members of the cooperative to see the coffee plants from they which they enjoyed their morning coffee at Emma. The girls also met with representatives of organizations that helped women workers in sweatshops, poor pregnant women, and women suffering from domestic abuse. At one stop, they talked with people who assist children employed in the Managua municipal garbage dump. “It was a deepening experience about how fair trade was at play in real life instead of what I read from brochures and watch in documentaries,” Natalia says. “The trip showed me that fair trade is not the magic bullet to cure all social ills, but one part that can lead to social change.” On the trip, the girls also had the opportunity to live and eat meals with the women and their families. Mark believes the trip was an opportunity for students to deepen their connection to the fair trade movement. “The girls learned what life was like before fair trade brought a higher and more stable income,” he says. Mark and Anne maintain ties with women who work in fair trade cooperatives in Guatemala and share the importance of the club’s work with the girls through the women’s testimonials. One testimonial, from cooperative member Maria Eugenia Ajú Bixcul, drives the point home: “I want you to know what is behind the products that I make. They represent a better life for my family. We have food on the table every day and my children are in school.”

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KEEPING IT GOING / “Modern day slavery is an enormous issue to tackle alone,” Natalia says. “The caring environment at Emma Willard helped us to grow solidarity together.” And that movement is continuing to grow. Since Emma’s fair trade status, 22 elementary, middle, and high schools have followed suit—14 declared and 8 in progress. “Emma has inspired a nationwide movement to bring fair trade products and education into the classroom,” says Courtney of Fair Trade Campaigns. Several of these schools have reached out to Emma to learn how to start the lengthy fair trade process at their schools. “Emma’s [resolution] is the gold standard,” Anne says. And Emma alumnae are continuing to carry the fair trade vision forward. Natalia has coordinated with several alumnae on strategizing ways to increase awareness about fair trade at their new college campuses. “It is cool how it keeps going,” she says. “Social change is slow and requires patience.” Dana Fein-Schaffer ’15, who is co-head of the fair trade club this year, says she’s looking for colleges with similar philosophies. “If they have [a fair trade club], I will join it and if they don’t have one, I will think about starting one,” she says. Through sales and fundraising efforts, the fair trade club has contributed thousands of dollars to various scholarship programs for girls, many of them daughters of fair trade workers. They have also loaned more than $5,000 in microfinance loans through the Kiva organization. Because of its efforts to become a fair trade school, Emma was also named a 2010 Human Trafficking Hero by Change.org, an online petitioning site used by millions of activists around the world. “I think that part of [the girls’] motivation for seeking fair trade status was to ensure an institutional commitment to fair trade, so that even after they graduated, their passion for justice would be a part of the social fabric of the school—in a way, their legacy,” Anne says. Other alumnae were also part of the successful Raise the Bar Hershey Campaign to encourage the chocolate giant to certify all of their chocolate to be fair trade by 2020. “Fair trade provides direct concrete action I can take on an everyday basis to fight against the exploitative system that traps people in poverty, leaving them vulnerable to slavery,” Natalia says. “If a school can unite together to support fair trade and take an active stance against modern day slavery, perhaps there is hope that more schools, towns, maybe even nations, can also join hands to abolish slavery.” Holly McKenna is a freelance writer and writing teacher in Albany, New York.

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[STORY BY CASEY JOHNSTON ’05 PHOTOS BY DON HAMERMAN]

<Girls Code> Emma Women Breaking Boundaries in Tech:

Sharon Khanuja-Dhall ’89, the technology CFO and business manager at J.P. Morgan’s Corporate and Investment Bank, says she “lives for analytical thinking.”

J.P. MORGAN’S OFFICE TOWER imposes on midtown Manhattan from the corner of Madison and Vanderbilt Avenues. On the 22nd floor, wood paneling unfolds origami-like into offices that face out onto the cityscape. From one of these offices, her back to the floor-length window, Sharon Khanuja-Dhall ’89 helps manage billions of dollars in technology resources and assets.

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haron is a managing director at J.P. Morgan’s Corporate & Investment Bank. She is the technology CFO and business manager, helping to provide oversight for software and hardware solutions designed to help corporate clients.

“Our tech teams actually deliver the applications and the software that multinational companies use,” Sharon says. “I am literally the guardrail that makes them stay on course.” Her sparse desk and orderly onscreen spreadsheets belie the enormity of her work.

24% Only

of computer science professionals in technology are female; just

are African American women.

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“I live for analytical thinking,” she says. “I love the stability and rhythm. I have always liked tech. I think learning to write code— structural thinking 101—should be something everyone does.” Sharon is one of many Emma alumnae who have risen to hold posts of power and prominence in male-dominated technology sectors, placing her among a rarified group of women. In 2009, just 24 percent of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) workers were women. The STEM industry is booming. In 2011, the US Department

of Commerce predicted that the STEM job growth rate would rocket to 17 percent between the years 2008 and 2018, compared to the non-STEM rate of 9.8 percent. Despite its reputation as an economic and professional growth powerhouse, the STEM fields are notorious for their inability to attract and retain women like

tech industry—including Emma alumnae—have found work, lifestyles, and environments they love. So, what gives? Several Emma alumnae who have risen in the technology ranks provide their insight into the technology sectors’ “women problem,” and they offer advice on how other women—Emma or otherwise—can hold their own.

Admitted to the club

Sharon to their ranks. Insiders and outsiders alike have raised questions over the diversity of employees, leaders, inventors, and funders. “Why aren’t there more women in STEM?” has become a common refrain, a question that leaders from Etsy to Google have posed. The low numbers aren’t due to lack of ability. Multiple studies

have proven women equally capable in math, science, engineering, and technology. Women are also outpacing their male counterparts in education; women are now 33 percent more likely to attend college than men according to a 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics study. And those women who have broken past the pressure and into the

n our high-tech age, women aren’t flocking to STEM-related careers. But why? The issue is multi-faceted, as the alumnae can confirm. While the tech industry claims to want more women to join its workforce—Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg is begging women to “lean in”—its leadership is advertently and inadvertently discouraging women. Last year, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella advised women not to ask for raises, but to rely instead on “good karma” to reward them. And if women are able to get their feet in the door, they often quickly find the exit. A 2008 study published in the Harvard Business Review found that more than half the women working in tech left the field. Then there are the social constructs that teach women how to view themselves—not analytically, technically, or computationally minded. Take, for example, a book released by Random House in June 2014, called Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer. Just six

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callout:/ [Kelly] loves her work because at the core of it, she is solving puzzles. With programming, there’s always a “black-and-white, fulfilling answer.” /end

STEM is an acronym for the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.

sentences into the book, young girls read that Barbie is designing a computer game, but needs two men to code it for her. It’s no wonder women—and men—are questioning the female place in the field. While her professional path was unwavering, Kelly Moran ’05 says she experienced her fair share of self-doubt. In her first computer science class as a freshman at Tufts University, Kelly was intimidated by the atmosphere; there were only two other women in the class. “Girls get to class, and it feels like boys already know what they’re doing,” Kelly shares. Kelly and the other women kept mostly silent during the course. “None of us spoke up in class,” she confides. She was confident enough to stay. One day, as Kelly was leaving the classroom, the teaching assistant wondered aloud to her why the women in class weren’t speaking

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What does “STEM” stand for exactly?

up more. Kelly explained that they felt uncomfortable. “He said that was weird,” Kelly recalls, “since the women were getting the best grades in the class.” At the beginning of 2014, after majoring in computer science and working as a software engineer at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, Google offered Kelly a job engineering

accessible user interfaces or UIs in New York City. This means Kelly focuses on making sure Google Docs are easy to use for people with different abilities. “I’m primarily focusing on making sure that vision-impaired users have a great experience with the Docs suite, which often means improving the experience with

At Google, Kelly Moran ’05 improves the readability of the company’s Google Docs program for users with different abilities— including the vision-impaired.

screen readers, a tool for verbalizing content,” Kelly says. She loves her work, she says, because at the core of it, she is solving puzzles. With programming, there’s always a “black-and-white, fulfilling answer.” Kelly says she’s grateful she didn’t give into feelings of selfdoubt in college. She may have

been experiencing impostor syndrome, the belief that one is actually not smart and is fooling people. A 1978 study noted that impostor syndrome disproportionately affects women, preventing them from internalizing their accomplishments and making them feel like frauds who have yet to be found out.

33% Women are

more likely to attend college than men.

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Lisa Radcliffe ’82 Jen Skevington ’07 Kelly Moran ’05 Sharon Khanuja-Dhall ’98

Lisa Radcliffe ’82 is the vice president of operations for CTG, Inc., a software engineering and management consulting firm specializing in large technology implementations for government, banking, and healthcare. She says it “matters on a daily basis that I’m a woman in technology.” “I don’t naturally have a lot of self-confidence,” Lisa says. “It’s been really hard to learn to just stand up for myself at all. It’s probably the hardest thing on a regular basis.” Lisa describes a class she took in college covering the FORTRAN computer programming language. For their final project, Lisa says the professor asked the students to write a “beauty contest” computer program that would evaluate a woman based on a given set of statistics and measurable attributes. “I was the only woman in the class,” Lisa remembers. “No one saw a problem with it; I had to sit there and do it just to get my grade.” After she earned her position at CTG, she was invited to join a small and exclusive club of chief technical officers in New York. But even this professional accomplishment came with challenges. “For the first three years, no one spoke to me,” she says. “Breaking in was such a long, hard process.” Lisa says the hard work was worth it. “It paid off, it definitely pays off in the long run. I’ve had a really nice career. I’m really happy with my career.” She was the third woman admitted to the club; now there are a dozen.

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Lisa Radcliffe ’82 quote:/ As long as you only get input from half the population, you’re missing half the creative ability and advancement you can make in any field, and get half the opportunity for invention and discovery./end

Good for business

esearch shows that women are, quite literally, necessary for business because they offer attributes and points-of-views that men don’t often have. For example, a 2004 report from the non-profit, Catalyst, found that Fortune 500 companies with the most women on leadership teams enjoyed better financial performance. In addition, a recent joint study by Springboard, a promoter of women-led companies, and recruiting firm Korn Ferry, found that women entrepreneurs have the “agile learning” abilities that companies need to succeed. “The reality is that diverse input and ideas ultimately make for a better product,” Sharon shares. “In the consumer market, women hold a majority of the buying power, which makes it extremely important to have women’s input when developing technologies for that audience.” Lisa echoes Sharon’s perspective: “Women problem-solve in a very different way,” she says. “As long as you only get input from half the population, you’re missing half the creative ability and advancement you can make in any field, and get

half the opportunity for invention and discovery.” Even some of STEM’s most attractive places of employment have difficulty maintaining a diverse workforce. Only 17 percent of those who hold technical jobs are female. Women of color fare much worse. Data from the National Science Foundation in 2012 found that while 25 percent of computer science professionals in technology are women, just 3 percent are African American and 1 percent are Latina. “Diversity of ethnicity, experience, disability—all of that contributes powerful things to teams and leads to better outcomes for companies,” Sharon says.

Girls can do anything n Luxembourg, Jen Skevington ’07 tinkers with cars, but not in the traditional sense. She works with Delphi Industries, a leading global automotive and commercial vehicle supplier. As an engineer, she tests thermal parts and air conditioning systems for cars. “My favorite part is that I’m down in the labs, working with

people, very hands on,” says Jen, who also interned at NASA. “Even after three years [at Delphi], I’m still learning every day.” Her freshman year of college, she grappled with the question of whether to pursue engineering at all. “I went to my professor and said, ‘Look, I’m really struggling, what can I do to do better?’” She said the male professor responded by telling her perhaps engineering was not “for her.” But when a male friend went to the same professor with the same apprehension, the professor offered his support. To withstand the doubt, Jen recalled her Emma Willard School experience. “Emma’s biggest role for me wasn’t the technical courses, but helping me be comfortable in them, especially because it’s a completely male-dominated field,” she recalls. For Lisa, who came from a family centered on boys, Emma also gave her confidence. “Emma was the first time in my life that I was taught girls are the center of the universe and girls can do anything,” she says. Sharon, who still wears her class ring every day, credits Emma with “forming [her] as a person.” “I didn’t realize it until much later, but Emma gave me the confidence to speak up, in a place where race, gender and religion were all respected.” Kelly discovered her passion for computers in an A.P. computer science class at Emma. “That was the single-most important thing,” she says. “I genuinely don’t think I’d be in the field if I hadn’t taken computer science at Emma.” All four alumnae agree that having mentors was essential to their success. Sharon, who recruits women

candidates for J.P. Morgan, said partnerships with alumnae can help Emma women who want to pursue STEM as a career. Meredith Legg, Emma’s Sara Lee Schupf Family Chair in Instructional Technology and Classroom Innovation and leader of the STEAM learning team at Emma, couldn’t agree more, noting that mentorship is at the forefront of Emma’s current STEM educational initiatives, which also blend in the arts for multi-disciplinary “STEAM” programming for girls. The school’s new Signature program aims to pair students with labs or workplaces, as well as mentors who can introduce them to the professional STEM experience. “[Students] get exposure to the people they may one day be working alongside,” Meredith says, as well as an early opportunity to connect with grad students, professors, and researchers who can guide them. Emma’s STEM@Emma program also gives younger girls the opportunity to function as small research teams overseen by a university-level professor while still at Emma. For girls who are still ramping up their interest and involvement in science and tech, there are elective

classes like Astrobiology and an introduction to the programming language, Arduino. In the core curriculum, Meredith hopes to thread technology, especially computer science, through even more classes. A new media and literature English class will take lessons from Codeacademy, an online programming learning site, in order to learn to build websites using HTML and CSS. With these offerings at Emma, alumnae in tech are eagerly awaiting and hoping they’re inspiring younger generations of women to join them in the industry they love. “It’s been challenging at points,” Kelly says. “But it’s all been worth it. I can’t wait to work with more women.” Casey Johnston ’05 is a journalist and editor at The Wirecutter and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Fortune 500 companies with the most WOMEN on LEADERSHIP teams enjoy BETTER financial performance.

Sharon Khanuja-Dhall ’98 quote:/ I didn’t realize it until much later, but Emma gave me the confidence to speak up, in a place where race, gender and religion were all respected./end

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Admissions

E M M A WI L L AR D SC HO O L

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 www.emmawillard.org

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FacultyOff Signing Voices HEAD OF SCHOOL TRUDY HALL

“Next”

has become my new word for those moments when the future must be different from current reality. The word “change” is no longer in my vocabulary. Visualize it: CHANGE. Images of upset, fear, anxiety, concern, stress, and more swirl as the sound of it hits airspace. And let’s be honest, those moments of upheaval are all too frequent in our lives on both the work front and the home front. A new boss, marriage, a baby, a new job, retirement, divorce, a merger, a new home—each of these is a “next” chapter in our lives. “Next” is hopeful; it contains a question mark wrapped in potential. “Next” is the upbeat version of the unknown; it is vibrant positivity. In our post-Bicentennial world at Emma, we have a laser-like focus on “next” as we are guided by Isaac Asimov’s wisdom that “no sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.” And the world as it will be for our girls is a dynamic one indeed. Fortunately, Madame Willard’s “ ‘Next’ is the vision and her school are also dynamic, and innovation toward excellence is an expectation on Mount Ida. For Emma faculty, upbeat version of innovation means a commitment to exploration of best availthe unknown; it is able pedagogy; it means understanding what might be possible; it means continual exploration, prudent experimentation, vibrant positivity.” on-going discovery, and persistent curiosity. “Next” is in the air as we imagine best practice in girls’ education. Our work is guided by the nimble 2020 Vision that carries forth our “next” attitude. We are intent on doing work that will be celebrated for its vision another 200 years from now! So how do we ensure that our Emma Willard will always be our founder’s school, known for intellectual rigor, joyful camaraderie, and deep and purposeful relationships? We view “next” through the lens of her vision, that’s how. We hold ourselves accountable to her high standards for girls’ education. Jump fearlessly into the process and play with us as we look to provide the same quality of experience and education to today’s wired, wireless, and global girls. Grab the possibility of “next” in your own life; move with the rhythm and confidence of an explorer with the single-minded purpose of wholeheartedly embracing opportunity. It’s been the recipe for success on Ida for 200 years. Why would we change it now?

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