In Pursuit of Authentic Success

While educational techniques and technology may change, the core tenet of Emma Willard School’s offering has remained the same for over 200 years: access to and excellence in academic pursuits once reserved exclusively for men. It’s fun to imagine that if our founder had traveled in time to the 21st century, Madame Willard might be surprisingly familiar with what she observed here on Mount Ida today: scientific experiments, inquiry into the human condition, discourse on politics and society, and the exploration of the intersection of art, history, and literature, to name a few. While she might have initially struggled with our swipe-card security system or marveled at the motorized carriages whizzing through the heart of Troy, she would undoubtedly have recognized the same brilliance and boldness in these young pupils as the ones she knew in her time.

However, there is another element of the “Emma experience” that I believe is as deeply ingrained in the school’s storied history as our commitment to academic rigor: each student should define success on their own terms. In other words, our students should discover and pursue authentic success. At the very core of a girls’ school mission is to create an environment where students find and use their voice. But an important precursor to speaking up is discovering what each one of our students wants to say. In this “noisy world,” technology often fills our downtime, making it more challenging to listen to our inner intuition. At Emma Willard School we are building time to reflect often. This time for reflection is meant to bring forth each student’s inner voice: time to understand their values and discover pursuits that bring purpose to their lives. We want our students to cultivate an authentic voice that will lead to authentic success.

I often say, “We have 360 definitions of success at Emma Willard, one for every student.” We value and encourage our students’ paving their own path and shaping their own unique journey. We don’t have a hierarchy of talents or pursuits that we celebrate above others. What our community values is exactly what Madame Willard modeled, the pursuit of an authentic purpose. And the reward for pursuing endeavors that bring pur- pose into our lives is the conviction to dare greatly, to fail and try again, because the meaning is in the authentic journey and not merely in the destination. Before comprehension, retention, or mastery of a subject, success in learning must begin with a willingness to try—something we can all relate to as a life-long pursuit.

Authentic success takes many shapes and forms, of course. One version is the student who takes advantage of learning support services or extra tutoring to complete a course they might have struggled with at the beginning of the year. Yet another is someone who has excelled at soccer but decides to try lacrosse, gaining a new skill and making new teammates simultaneously. It could even be the student who chooses to spend their evening with a friend needing support and a listening ear rather than joining a weekend activity they had planned to attend.

Within this issue of Signature, I see authentic success clearly highlighted alongside the many examples of academic excellence and intellectual curiosity we treasure here at Emma Willard. We recognize the vital role our College Counseling department plays in providing perspective to students in what feels like a daunting decision for most, reminding them along the way that acceptance to a particular college or university does not determine their worth to the world. We celebrate the many girls at Emma who are exploring, innovating, and succeeding in STEAM—Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math—while debunking the stereotypes of society that these are fields for boys and men. And, lastly, we take this opportunity to thank our outgoing board chair, Lisa Allen LeFort ’72, for her work helping Emma Willard succeed in unconventional and unprecedented ways while we also welcome our incoming chair, Megan Toohey Scremin ’00, to her new role.

In this season when we observe the momentous occasion of our seniors graduating and our faithful alumnae returning, I hope they—and we—all recognize and reflect on the less obvious but personally meaningful and authentic ways they have achieved success along the way.