The creativity

By Anushri Ray ’27

Anappreciation for the little miracles of everyday life can spark our imagination, refine our skills, and lead to creative phenomenal outcomes. Innovative thinking infused in a learning environment produces magic and brings joy to the people who are learning. Including creative thinking in classrooms is immensely helpful in empowering young women to think critically and lead confidently. In the four years I have been a student at Harpeth Hall, I have gotten to participate in various projects in classes that have called for some unique ideas, calculated risk-taking, and open-mindedness. These are skills that I believe are required to help students excel in their classes and in the real world. Every day, I see up close the transitions that girls go through from individual expressions through poems and short stories to collective management of journals and periodicals. I observe the increasing complexity of the experiments conducted in STEM classrooms where girls are encouraged to think originally without the fear of making mistakes. I consider myself fortunate to be a student at Harpeth Hall, a school that offers me a chance to think creatively, express imaginatively, and prepare for the future.

In my 7th grade SEEK project, I had the amazing opportunity to show the transformative journey of a young girl in 5th grade to a young adult in 12th grade at Harpeth Hall by creating a short film. The narrator’s voice in the short film weaves through the hallways of Harpeth Hall showing the daily lives of students in every grade. While making the film, I saw the multitude of ways Harpeth Hall encourages creativity. It was a humbling experience that also taught me that no journey in a creative landscape is complete without numerous mistakes, trials, and tribulations. Every eraser mark, messed up code, and experiment gone wrong are all signs of personal effort.

Every day, I look around the Harpeth Hall campus, and I see signs that say “Perfect” with a line through it in many of the classrooms, which encourages the idea that mistakes and setbacks are not signs of failure. Every brush stroke, leap in the air, and song sung shows creativity in an artistic form. Every word written, every design built, every code executed, and every storyboard presents the beauty of a person's imagination to the world. I am grateful that Harpeth Hall is intentional about being the curator of these activities, and I hope that every girl who has the privilege to wear the plaid skirt has the opportunity to enrich herself through these exciting challenges and opportunities.