7 minute read
To Boldly Grow
Celebrating Vision to BOLDLY GROW
The updated mission statement of Kent Place was announced on October 24, 2020, in the most timely of settings — on Zoom. “In a year of unforeseen challenges and a demand for our focus on urgent matters,” said Alex Crispo P ’14, Chair of the Board of Trustees, looking out from his position in the now-colloquial “Speaker View” screen, “I’m proud that the board also worked hard to provide a long-range plan for our future.” Mr. Crispo lauded the 30-plus members of the Board of Trustees who attended online for developing, approving, and adopting a new Strategic Plan for Kent Place, a “road map for our school,” “a bright and strong vision,” “a springboard from the deep strengths that Kent Place demonstrates for our students and instills in each of them.”
The guiding principle behind this ambitious strategy seemed, itself, rather unassuming. The new mission statement that would steer this plan was a mere 16 words. Its length was a small fraction of its predecessor’s. Yet the statement was so precise, so concise, that Head of School Jennifer Galambos introduced it to the Board by reciting it from memory:
She felt honored and proud to be the first person to share the words. So she shared them again. “Kent Place School empowers girls to be confident, intellectual, and ethical leaders who advance the world.” Make no mistake — there’s no change to the 126-year-old mission of Kent Place School. The change is merely in the statement of that mission. Now, it centers on the school’s strengths in a more deliberate way. It unmistakably differentiates KPS from its competitors. It drills down on exactly who we are and what we do. “We remain at our core the intellectually charged, forward-thinking Kent Place that opened its doors in the 19th century,” Dr. Galambos told the Board. “This mission statement cements our core values, highlights what makes KPS unique in our marketplace, and purposefully articulates the power of being a school that raises brave and brilliant girls.” Brave girls. Brilliant girls. These are familiar descriptions of a KPS student. But there’s another, unspoken attribute of the quintessential KPS girl. Bold. KPS also raises bold girls. And that’s what the new mission embodies. “To me, that’s what’s different about the new mission. It’s bolder,” the Head of School says three weeks later, on a cold November day after watching the varsity soccer team play Pingry in the state quarterfinal round. “We’re in a period where we’re unapologetically bold. We have amazing results. We have high expectations and high support. And we . . . know . . . girls. We empower girls. We shouldn’t be afraid to celebrate who they are.”
What could be more “confident,” more “ethical” and “intellectual,” more bold than to decide to open a rigorous academic school for girls? In 1894.
In 1894, women couldn’t own property. They couldn’t vote. They were rarely educated beyond high school. If they were employed, they worked mainly in factories or as domestic servants. The ideal of the “American Woman” was one who stayed home and devoted all of her time and focus to her husband and children. But in the fall of 1894, something unprecedented happened. On a Summit, New Jersey, estate once owned by New York State Chancellor James Kent, 60 girls enrolled in the just-opened Kent Place School and, as accounts of KPS history describe it, “ultimately altered the course of education for generations of young women.” It’s telling that the school’s new mission statement written 126 years later would describe today’s KPS students as “leaders who advance the world.” Or should it be “advance our world”?
“We argued about every single one of those 16 words,” says Julia Wall, Assistant Head of School for Enrollment and Strategy, who served as the manager of the internal strategic planning process, which included reviewing the mission. The Strategic Planning Committee was formed and began their work by asking for thoughts from every possible stakeholder: the school’s Leadership Team, faculty, students, Board members, alumnae groups, parent groups. Only after hearing what they had to say did the committee begin to put words on a page. Those words mattered. Even the number mattered. The goal of the committee was to craft a statement that not only considered the feedback from all of those constituents, but was also brief — not 16 words long, but eight words long. “Simplicity is hard,” says Trustee Kate (Hammond) DeOssie ’04, cochair of the Strategic Planning Committee. Their task was to get clear — very, very clear — about why we’re all here, why we’ve chosen this place. “It’s much more challenging to state something simply than it is to throw all the words up against the wall in a big word salad,” she says. As it turns out, Julia Wall wasn’t overstating the level of debate. Jennifer Galambos called it “wrestling”; and Kate DeOssie didn’t mince words: “It took a lot of thoughtful hammering.” “We debated ‘our world’ and ‘the world’ forever,” says Jennifer Galambos. They eventually decided that “our world” seemed to limit the advancing to Kent Place’s world. “Our graduates are advancing the world on every continent and in every arena,” says Dr. Galambos. “There was fierce commentary on everything. We went back and forth over why we put a word in. We went back and forth over why we took one out,” says Julia Wall. “It was great.” What wasn’t great was the timing of the project. As the team tweaked the last revision of the mission statement, the pandemic hit. Then came the racial reckoning. Then, the election. Oddly, though, the disruptive landscape somehow made the process . . . easier. “This year has normalized change. It’s made people more open to it, to changing practices and changing opinions. Everything is open for discussion. Everyone has seen that things can be taken apart and put back together and be okay,” says Julia Wall. Though it came in a tad over the desired word count, the update of the mission of Kent Place had already stood quite a test of time — a year that felt like a decade — when it was formally approved on October 24 by the Board of Trustees. It expresses two crucial ideas: where Kent Place is rooted and where Kent Place is going.
Which was why, on that Zoom call, Jennifer Galambos felt moved to recite it to the Board a third time:
“It’s clearer than ever that today’s world can use more confident, intellectual, ethical women leaders,” says Head of School Jennifer Galambos.
“There’s never been a time with greater opportunity.” She sees the world right now as uniquely poised for women to take the lead in ways that feel greater and grander than ever before, that feel newly galvanizing. In the United States, we’ve just elected the first female vice president, which breaks a glass ceiling that back in 1894, Kent Place’s founders could only have dreamed. Their mission endures. The empowerment of women matters, maybe today more than ever. “At Kent Place, we teach girls to put themselves first. We teach them to lead with confidence,” says Dr. Galambos.
Brave.
Brilliant.
Bold.
That boldness is now foundational. This year evolved into the ideal time to refine the statement of Kent Place’s mission. The new statement is, by design, bold. It sets the goal for the whole Kent Place community, but especially for the girls who walk through the doors of Kent Place, girls who aspire to advance the world. They emerge as confident, intellectual, ethical leaders. This is who we are.
