Greenwich Academy Upper School Viewbook 2017

US

GREENWICH ACADEMY > UPPER SCHOOL

GREENWICH ACADEMY > UPPER SCHOOL 1

“The most important story you tell in high school is the one you tell yourself—about who you are and how you changed.” > TOM SULLIVAN, HEAD OF UPPER SCHOOL

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At Greenwich Academy, you will discover that there is almost nothing you cannot do. Your teachers believe in you, and your peers cheer you on. At GA young women know no bounds to their learning and ambitions.

Our academics, arts, athletics, and extracurriculars offer unparalleled opportunities—and GA students know that there is always more story to unfold.

GREENWICH ACADEMY > UPPER SCHOOL

Discover Your Story

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School Motto TOWARD THE BUILDING OF CHARACTER GA is best summed up as opportunities seized, lessons learned, and hard-fought victories that develop and define character. The young women at GA strive in the best sense of the word. They recognize that they can always do better. They believe in themselves and consistently choose the path of improvement as they seek to lead lives of purpose.

“At GA, we develop confident young women for a life of purpose. Whether your passions lie in STEM, business, politics, arts, the humanities, public service or education, GA’s rigorous liberal arts curriculum helps you achieve at the highest levels. From nationally recognized STEM initiatives to partnerships with graduate students engaged in qualitative research to mentoring programs with CEO’s, GA provides opportunities that build character, expertise and a meaningful personal and professional path forward.” > MOLLY KING, HEAD OF SCHOOL

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GREENWICH ACADEMY > UPPER SCHOOL

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All Paths Are Open to YOU

We want students to understand engineering and design—and the processes and problem solving that go along with them—as part of their everyday life.

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“In our study of the humanities, we want students to contemplate the past, dream about the future, and discover the connections between fields of study that pique their interest.” > KRISTEN ERICKSON, HISTORY AND ART HISTORY TEACHER

Sample Clubs

GA clubs are student-initiated and managed under the purview of a faculty advisor. These clubs support research, environmental causes, affinity groups, academic interests, and other relevant issues.

c Literary Laurels

Sample Courses

Our Upper School course catalog offers more than 200 classes.

c Honors Research Seminar Isolate soil microbes in a lab newly outfitted for microbiology and submit samples to the Small World Initiative, a crowd-sourced research network founded at Yale University to identify new antibiotics.

Build a foundation in the most important economic concepts. Explore connections with current events and create your own video to help other students understand this powerful force in society.

c Power to the People — Hip Hop, Art, and Literature for Social Justice Examine how artists use their genres to reveal injustice and advocate for social change.

c Honors Film Production Develop script arcs and storyboards. Then determine the direction, production calendar, and goals for your individual creative pursuit.

c Rewarding Robotics Combining engineering and computer programming, our robotics team travels throughout the region to compete in tournaments, regularly winning awards for ingenuity and teamwork.

c Doing Good Deeds GA students have also founded many clubs to support breast cancer research, environmental action, and other causes of importance to them.

GREENWICH ACADEMY > UPPER SCHOOL

c Everyday Economics

Publish your prose, poems, and art in Daedalus. Our literary magazine has earned more than 40 national awards in its 28-year history, Including 21 gold medals from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

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A Community of LIFELONG CONNECTIONS At GA you join a powerful sisterhood. Many alumnae become roommates during the years just after college.

Later they keep in touch through life’s milestones.

GA students also value the support of dedicated teachers.

Most students have one advisor throughout the four years of Upper School. Trusting that faculty want them to achieve their goals helps GA students challenge themselves and grow.

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> KELSEY, GROUP XI

GREENWICH ACADEMY > UPPER SCHOOL

“I think it is a gift to be at a girls’ school and have space to develop our identities. Even with the coordination with Brunswick in the Upper School, each school is its own entity. Since coming to GA, I’m most proud of growing more confident. This year I was elected vice president of the student body. The sixth-grade me would never have imagined running for a school-wide office—or even getting up and giving a speech.”

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Explore a World of OPPORTUNITIES

c Shared Classes with Brunswick School GA enjoys a unique relationship with neighboring Brunswick School. Years ago, when many single-sex schools became coeducational, these two institutions decided to preserve their unique identities, while also sharing Upper School resources. Thus GA students join Upper School classes on the adjoining Brunswick campus, and vice versa.

Math and computer science courses remain separate. GA students describe this situation as “the best of both worlds” because they enjoy the classic benefits of a girls’ school, along with expanded course offerings and a new peer group for collaboration.

c Global Studies Explore topics relating to international economics, politics, or culture. Global Scholars complete at least two weeks of project work outside the United States and a senior capstone project. Or spend a term living in Spain, France, New Zealand, or Argentina through our exchange programs.

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c Engineering and Design Lab Imagine, design, and build with state-of-the-art tools. Use CAD software to direct a router or program output from a 3D printer; wire up an Arduino project; or solder together wearable art.

c Penn Partnership

Learn through immersion experiences that dissolve the boundaries between classroom and “real world.” A biology class travels to Croatia to participate in authentic research alongside scientists. A history course takes students south to meet leaders from the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. An English course explores New York City to understand today’s modern metropolis in the context of 200 years of literature.

GREENWICH ACADEMY > UPPER SCHOOL

c Expedition Courses

Are you interested in the experience of introverts at GA? Or the impact of social media on the brain? Or how body language and posture affect learning? Collaborate to design qualitative research projects in the social sciences. Conduct research, construct surveys, and present your findings at the Penn Roundtable Discussion.

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See Yourself as an ARTIST “GA gives us a lot of options to shape who we are now and want to be in the future.

I’m interested in civil rights and statistics. I also love being in the Dance Corps.

My friends and I have a lot of fun and we work together to become the best versions of ourselves. I like the reassuring guidance of older girls, and I know that younger girls see me as a role model. If my positive attitude can help other girls, then I feel good about that. No experience is as wonderful as being a GA girl.” > TIA,GROUP X

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Opportunities abound to perform and create original work in music, dance, theater, and visual arts.

Our choral groups include Bel Canto, which is open to everyone; the coed Gospel Choir; and the celebrated Madrigal Singers, who have toured throughout Europe.

GA students also take a biannual trip to perform at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. Visual art studios provide outstanding facilities for ceramics, digital art, studio art, film production, and courses in the Engineering and Design Lab.

Greenwich Academy boasts several creative spaces on campus where student and faculty/staff work is exhibited. The Luchsinger Gallery is one such space that alternates exhibitions of GA student work with that of professional artists.

A recent installation, Shared Studios’ Portal Project, brought a gold shipping container equipped with immersive audiovisual technology to campus.

Through the Portal, students talked to distant strangers who were using other Portals around the world, as if they were in the same room.

Starting each conversation with, “What would make today a good day for you?”

GREENWICH ACADEMY > UPPER SCHOOL

c Creative Spaces

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Define Yourself as an ATHLETE At GA, girls’ athletics don’t compete for attention, space, or visibility. Your teams are the focus of our dedicated coaches, the beneficiaries of our recently renovated facilities, and the heroes to our cheering fans. Many of our graduates go on to compete at the college level. Every season is a success when GA girls demonstrate resilience, courage, integrity and compassion on the field.

c In the last decade, GA athletes have earned

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Fairchester Athletic Association Championships

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New England Championships

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National Championships 12

“To be confident in one’s own strength is empowering. There is no better place than the athletic field to understand the potential that comes from connecting with teammates and rising to meet a challenge. We are building young women who believe they can take on the world.” > MARTHA BROUSSEAU, ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

17 varsity sports

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CONNECT Your Story to Others GA students have the opportunity to meet luminaries from every field, including Olympic athletes, journalists, scientists, entrepreneurs, civic leaders, artists, doctors, activists. They particularly appreciate hearing women share the journeys of their success.

“Life is about opportunities, and GA is a special place that opens doors for us. We have honest and empowered discussions.

It’s important to hear from women who have pursued and achieved their goals.” > MORGAN, GROUP XII

c Annual Symposium This event brings speakers to campus for an in-depth exploration of timely topics. We recently partnered with the Nantucket Project, an organization known for bringing together spirited thinkers and creators, to explore ideas through storytelling. Other themes have included: Women and Leadership in the 21st Century, Global Health, Mindfulness, and Climate Change.

c GAINS Conference GA created the Girls Advancing In STEM (GAINS) Conference to help girls meet and learn the stories of successful women in STEM fields. The conference is hosted on the campuses of partnering universities such as MIT, Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Stanford University.

Through the conference and the network, students have the opportunity to meet STEM professionals and hundreds of girls from around the country with a shared interest in STEM.

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This annual event brings novelists, poets, and playwrights to campus to share their work and process. GA co-hosts this event, which also draws students from nearby schools.

GREENWICH ACADEMY > UPPER SCHOOL

c WritersFest

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Discover Yourself as A LEADER

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Young women at GA are knowledgeable about their communities and purposeful in their actions. They organize 30 service and awareness clubs and perform thousands of hours of community service every year.

Student Government is also meaningful at GA. Young women are elected as class officers and to lead branches of student government that have substantive impact on student life. These are just a few ways in which GA builds students’ foundation for civic engagement.

> LUCY, GROUP XII

GREENWICH ACADEMY > UPPER SCHOOL

“I remember being in PC and being in awe of the older girls. Anything they did, I wanted to do.

Now I’ve played field hockey and been in plays.

In my engineering class I built a clock, doing all the wiring and coding myself. At GA, I’ve realized how much I can do. The girls and faculty here are always behind you 100 percent.”

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Glimpse YOUR FUTURE With four college counselors to serve each graduating class of approximately 90 students, the GA college search process is highly individualized. Confident and well-rounded, GA alumnae go to college well-prepared to recognize and create opportunities for themselves.

Recent matriculation information available at: greenwichacademy.org/matriculation

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c Career Resource Center

“GA shows us that there are no limits on what we can achieve.

We’ve had so many resources and opportunities. Wanting to do well is a manifestation of that investment.”

Since its launch in 2015, hundreds of GA juniors, seniors, and young alumnae have tapped into GA’s extensive community network for career information, guidance, and internships. This provides an invaluable resource for young women as they focus their college studies and early career plans.

> SADIE, GROUP XI

In June, rising seniors and recent graduates visit corporations and other organizations to explore career paths.

Participants choose a field—such as finance, medicine/science, journalism/ publishing, and marketing/ social media—and then Senior Career Day explore that field through Each March, GA seniors set different lenses. off to destinations throughout

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New York City to spend a day meeting leaders and experts in a wide range of career fields.

GREENWICH ACADEMY > UPPER SCHOOL

c Career Exploration Weeks

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GA Graduates ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS

“I graduated from GA feeling empowered and ready for college. From the faculty to the guest speakers to being surrounded by talented classmates, GA sent a strong message that we could be who we want to be. Now I’m at Northwestern University, studying communications, film, and media.

The GA career center also connected me to an internship at Hearst magazines, where I sat in on editorial meetings at Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and other magazines. I’m so grateful for my GA experiences.”

“At GA, I constantly saw girls not shying away from difficult goals and I learned how to stretch myself.

Now I’m majoring in neuroscience and exploring the field of medicine.

Volunteering weekly at a facility for the elderly helped me see all the aspects that are important for complete care. Last summer, > OLIVIA WINN, ’16 through GA’s career center, I worked in a venture capital firm that focused on biotechnology and “At Nike, I’m part of a group that is reinventing how medical devices. shoes are made. I bring an athlete’s perspective This summer I’ll shadow because I was a three-season athlete at GA, which led a neurosurgeon.” to playing field hockey at MIT. Another trademark of Nike is telling a great story to communicate ideas. > HIROMI TERAI, ’14 I learned a lot about doing that through public speaking and English classes at GA. Outside of work, I coach lacrosse for middle schoolers. Having had so many opportunities myself, I want to share with young girls and help them grow.” > KIRA SCHOTT, ’12

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Design > Good Design, LLC / Photography > Don Hamerman

Transportation

/ Copywriting > Cheryl Bardoe

GA is located in central Greenwich, approximately 25 miles from New York City and 47 miles from New Haven, CT. GA offers bus transportation for students who commute from the lower Darien and Stamford area or who use the Stamford and Greenwich train stations. In addition, the Town of Greenwich also provides bus service to all students who live in Greenwich, as do other towns from which our students travel. Our transportation coordinator is available to help families explore the options from their area.

Financial Aid

/ Printing > Allied Printing

GA is an inclusive community, dedicated to providing a wellfunded financial aid program.

Students receive support based on need as defined by a clearly articulated set of reporting requirements, subscribed to by all leading independent schools.

www.greenwichacademy.org

“The warmth of our Greenwich Academy community allows girls and young women to explore their infinite capacity to question, discover, dream, create, and grow. Come see Greenwich Academy for yourself!

The entire Admission team looks forward to getting to know you.” > NINA HANLON, DIRECTOR OF ENROLLMENT AND FINANCIAL AID

200 North Maple Avenue > Greenwich, CT 06830 > 203.625.8990